I finally had to admit it to myself; we women have lost our feminine mystique. My personal life standard has always been: would Audrey Hepburn wear this or behave like that. Who do the young wish to emulate these days: Eileen Collins, Jackie Cochran, Marie Curie, Grace Kelly, Sandra Day O’Connor, Margaret Thatcher, Angela Merkel, Kate Middleton, Sherry Lansing? No flowery doormats, these ladies, and yet. . . .
Words such as captivating, mysterious, feminine, graceful are no longer in the American lexicon regarding American women. Instead lewd, salacious, vulgar, coarse, have become the norm. Nothing slammed those last four adjectives home more than sporadically watching the Grammys a few nights ago. Those women gyrating and prancing about had become nothing more than “three holes”, as the old Chinese saying goes; how humiliating, how disgusting.
Where did it all go wrong? When did the likes of Kim Kardashian’s butt become the standard by which we wish to live by. Or Milly Cyrus, whose grossly revolving tongue’s spots have been seen so often we can count them. And don’t get me started on bare breasts. We have been favored with every pore on Jennifer Lopez’ body. Is there an iota of captivating glamour about any of these women. Would the word ‘alluring’ ever be associated with them. The second-century Greek sage and philosopher Epictetus, wrote, “Know, first, who you are, then adorn yourself accordingly.”
The most infuriating aspect of all this abasing behavior is that it is so completely unnecessary. At the end of the day, we women are the only game in town. Do we need to turn ourselves into pole dancers to gain males’ attention? Men are heat seeking missiles to begin with; today they are undoubtedly more frightened of us than beguiled by us. Bewitched, bothered and bewildered, no more.
Remember song lyrics such as: “in dreams I walk with you” (Roy Orbison), “I long to know the thrill of your sweet embrace” (Johnny Mathis), “for your love, I would do anything” (Ed Townsend), “don’t you know, I was born on the very day, that you happened to come my way” (Della Reese). Oh, how our hearts fluttered at the magic of romance. Alas, listen to music these days and the one note rap songs express a much less starry eyed notion of getting together. What is the message to our younger female generation.
