From a young age, Generation Z has been taught that the embracement of sexuality as women inherently equals feminine empowerment.
On a large scale, this can be true. For centuries, women in the Western world were told to be ashamed of their bodies, sexual desires/escapades, and any forms of expression that could be interpreted as erotic suggestion. And for years, this mindset did break down many stigmas around sexual expression that progressed what we now know as the modern feminist movement or choice feminism.
Choice feminism itself already has many issues that can only be brought to light when thoroughly analyzing what “choice” really means. It all comes back to the idea that just because you can, doesn’t necessarily mean that you should — and this is a slippery slope in these types of discussions, as that idea inevitably reverts back to perpetuating the exact misogynistic control that we were trying to escape in the first place.
This idea of sexual expression equaling empowerment began its stark uprise during the Me Too. movement in 2017. This social movement has brought awareness to sexual violence and abuse, and more specifically the factors in which people blame this abuse on — and I’ll give you one hint as to who is often being blamed: it’s not the perpetrators.
Victim-blaming is a prominent reason for victims deciding not to speak up. This, in combination with the previously mentioned social movement, it slowly became more normal for victims to embrace these factors proudly, as a big “f*ck you” to those who blamed anyone but the perpetrators.
This message is important — it will always be important. With that being said, having this mindset thrown at you at a young, impressionable age, led to many young girls “over” embracing some of these big “f*ck yous.”
For me, my clothing had always been an extension of who I was and who I wanted to be growing up. I would hear from my mom and other authority figures that my choice in clothing, specifically in high school, was inappropriate for my age.
A small part of me understood where they were coming from, but I mainly felt like these overprotective comments were a form of control over my body — which I had been taught to resist. I thought that those situations were precisely what these feminist movements were trying to defy; but as with everything, context matters. And in this situation, the most important piece of context was that I was a minor, with little autonomy over my body in the eyes of the law. I think that’s why it felt so good to resist what people told me I should use as an age-appropriate form of expression.
And from who I surrounded myself with, along with the media I would consume, this felt like a completely rational choice as someone who had always aligned with progressive ideologies. But again, I was a minor.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve begun to understand where my mom was coming from — there are more appropriate ways for young girls to claim their sexuality. Sexuality is already such a taboo topic at that age, which is something that should arguably be destigmatized regardless.
But this conversation does not just apply to clothing; we can also see this in the epidemic of young girls alluding to sex work as a potential career option before they even graduate high school. Yes, it’s often a joke, but sometimes it’s not.
How is it fair that young girls are believing that they will undoubtedly feel more empowerment from participating in sex work than they would from receiving a college education — obviously this scenario does specifically refer to those who have access to higher education. They are taught to believe that that industry is a money-making machine through its glamorization, but we all know that that’s not the case.
We can see this concern bleed into the intimate encounters of young girls as well. Teen years are full of hormones, and it’d be ignorant to assume that abstinence is a sustainable option for many people. But going back to the embracement of sexuality being shoved down our throats, young women are forgetting to be safe in those encounters as they are solely focused on the “empowerment” of it all.
This is dangerous. The potential risk for sexually transmitted diseases, the lack of trust and safety in the people these encounters are with, even the risk of teen pregnancy, it’s all so dangerous. And somewhere along the way of this introduction to empowerment, the lines became blurred: when, if ever, can the concept of “choice” start to disrupt the safety of young girls?
Now, this is not a critique on choice feminism as a whole, but it is a critique on how these feminist theories are being communicated to younger generations that may struggle with appropriate interpretation.
In the end, it comes down to your own discernment on whether or not what you’re doing is safe. Never before have women had this much access to choice in their daily lives — with the exception of reproductive rights, but I digress — so it’s important to embrace that. But it is just as, if not more important, to think about whether or not that embracement is feasible for the moment of time that you are in.