Subject vs Object - Women as Represented in a Postfeminist Age

In our literature and the media today we are balancing between two worlds. We are the conventional mother and wife while simultaneously being the career-oriented breadwinner. We are the athlete and the star student. We strive to be both... we strive to be everything. We are still trying to prove to the world that we are just as capable as men, while at the same time wanting to preserve what makes us women.

In literature and the media, women are represented as concerned with their looks, obsessed with finding a loving relationship, wanting to be sexy, but at the same time... we want to be recognized for our intellect, for our education, our degrees, our careers, our abilities. We want to be this contradictory ideal of this woman with the perfect chest, perfect teeth, perfect hair, perfect physique... so much so that we do terrible things to our bodies... undergo plastic surgery and various treatments, inject poison into our faces. Are we not oppressing ourselves? Who is really fooled by the fake nails and absurd amount of makeup? We aren't supposed to look like Barbie. But we still want men to desire us. And there's nothing wrong with that. I suppose the expectations put upon us have gotten a little ridiculous.

We work all day, come home to our kids and our husband, cook them dinner, clean up after them, put them to bed, do it all again the next day. Why are we still expected to have all of the same roles we did before we were the breadwinners? What the heck are the men doing other than playing videogames? Why aren't they washing the dishes, doing the laundry, driving the kids to and from soccer practice?

Don't get me wrong, I know I want to be everything. I don't really want to give anything up. But how can I be both subject and object; I want men to desire me physically while simultaneously appreciating my intellectual capacity. How will we ever find the balance?

-K

Put on some clothes!

Seriously, you are NOT more attractive with less clothing on. Do men want to jump you more? probably, but they certainly don't respect you more as a person. Want men to think you're intelligent, to get to know you for who you really are? Put ON some clothes. Wear colors you like, don't dress like a slob, be yourself, cover your melons, and stop trying to squeeze as much fat as possible between your tops and pants! For goodness sake, you look like packed sausages!

-K