Generation Life Fashion Farce
a organization known as Generation Life visited my high school for an assembly. This organization had a pro-life agenda, which I was tolerant of. While that is certainly not a group of thought I agree with, I've attended Catholic school for many years, and therefore understand why the ideal is thrust upon us. But this went too far. Along with a group of students who modeled "appropriate, chaste" outfits, the two visiting women (who were only in their early twenties, at most) led a demonstration that I found to be the following: 1) slut shaming 2) homophobic 3) transphobic 4) sexist I cannot, unfortunately, transcribe everything word for word. I also cannot be sure that my interpretation of the situation was far too melodramatic. But despite the fairly conservative background of my high school, many people are accepting and open, including the faculty. Thus, seeing such hatred was disturbing to me. 1) Slut shaming: The women used the "fashion show" to demonstrate how we should dress during non-school-related activities. Examples including sweaters, jeans and skirts. Sounds innocent enough, right? But then, things took a turn for the worse with each outfit description. We were told to cover and veil certain body parts as a way to "be modest and feminine." Apparently, cleavage, legs, arms and calves are all incredibly immodest. I understand feeling comfortable, but what if I'm comfortable with showing skin? I suppose I'm just influenced by "society's ideals of beauty," as they put it. (Despite the fact that they were enforcing standards of beauty themselves.) Most importantly, it was explicitly explained that we should "veil certain parts of our bodies for our future husbands." Which leads into, 2) Homophobia: More implicit, but still there in a small undercurrent of hatred. It was said that we were made "to love men". That was it. Not women. I'm a cisgender, heterosexual, feminine teenage girl. I was still incredibly offended by that statement. Catholic school or not, these women had no right to impose their ideals upon us. In fact, most teachers either encourage tolerance or, better yet, don't even share their political views. 3) Transphobia: Along with whom we were made to love, we were also informed on how we should look. Specifically, feminine. As in, clothes that aren't too form-fitting, but display our genders for all to see. We were also told that we were all made by God to be women, and we shouldn't choose to go against that plan in any way. I could have assumed that they meant plastic surgery (as insulting as that would be), and let it go, but they probably included gender reassignment as a way of "changing God's plan." Lovely. And finally, 4) Sexism: "Women were made to receive..." "We should accept men's chivalry and compliments at all times...otherwise we won't be respected..." So, great. If a guy opens the door for me, I must thank him and accept it, along with the pulling out of chairs, cutting of food, compliments, etc. Even when the compliments are: "Damn, you cute as shit!" "Yo, bitch, over here!" "You play basketball? Cause you're tall." "The best time to wear a striped sweater...is all the time" *stares blatantly at my striped sweater and matching set of puppies* Yes. Thank you. Thank you for calling me a female dog, as attractive as feces, using my stature for racial stereotyping (yes, I am African-American and 5'10), and equating my worth to my slightly-above-average breasts. Thank you for making me feel self-conscious about my body. But I'm sure that was my fault for wearing something immodest, and that I should learn that "boys will be boys." Yes this really happened. Yes it was incredibly upsetting. Yes, this is the reason I'm not interested in Notre Dame, Georgetown, Villanova, Fordham, etc. because irregardless of academic excellence, they are religious schools on conservative campuses. This is the reason I became agnostic. Because I refuse to believe that if God exists, he believes in any of this bullshit. Thank you, Tumblr, for providing me with a platform for these issues.
