Long before Juno, (was it really 22 yrs ago?) Madonna preached to her papa about teen pregnancy and told me to respect myself and make my man express himself. Since those glory-days of punky feministas, the wave changed to angst-ridden and now angry young chicks, culminating in Christina and Pink teaching our youngsters to be ‘dirrty’ and ‘stupid girls’.
It started out admirably enough; edgy self-expression and a touch of punk; rejecting the empty-headed Brady-like stereotyping of girls in beauty pageants wanting to be a walking talking living (Barbie) dolls. Feminist thought was no longer just an academic theory. For our generation, being female no longer amounted to catching a good husband and breeding – we were encouraged to carve out of own independent path and – shock horror! – enjoy a fulfilling sexual relationship. Young men and women – equal in every way.
These days, it’s evolved into an ugly scene reminiscent of a Batman movie: A degenerated generation of loutish ladettes swaggering down the main street on Friday nights like a gang of drunken Bratz dolls. ‘Anything men can do, we can do better’ seems to be the motto of these bright young things, clearly out to prove that they can drink, swear and throw a punch just as ably as any brutish young man.
These girls think being a loud-mouth makes them assertive. Being crass and disrespectful is no replacement for decisive, independent thought. Enjoying sexual expression doesn’t have to mean waking up in gutter not knowing where you left your underwear (or your self-respect).
Being a woman doesn’t have to mean becoming an apron-touting, all-cooking, all-cleaning iron(ing)-woman – but it shouldn’t centre around embracing the lowest form of guttural filth either.
When Oscar Wilde said: ‘We’re all in the gutter, but some of us are looking up to the stars’; he didn’t mean passing out at the curb, and paying homage to Paris Hilton.
“When Oscar Wilde said: ‘We’re all in the gutter, but some of us are looking up to the stars’; he didn’t mean passing out at the curb, and paying homage to Paris Hilton.”
That is classic stuff.
The “ladette” thing is by no means confined to Australia. I think it’s another of those exports from the people you refer to as the “Poms”. We have the phenomenon in Ireland too: http://bostonirish.blogspot.com/2008/08/irish-ladette-girls-who-want-instant.html . What’s good for the goose….