Women in Black in a "Fifty Shades of Grey" Culture
Like the
pink hats of last year, women are now wearing black to show their strength and
solidarity in the midst of all of the #MeToo sexual improprieties. Black is my
favorite color, so I’m in. The new hashtag: #TimesUp.
But, here’s
where I’ll show my age: if we want to have real power, let’s consider our image.
What are we accomplishing for womanhood with sexually explicit clothing? Men
are visually hardwired. So why use our bodies as bait?
Is it to
attract a mate? Pastor and author, John Piper tells women desiring to attract
men through their skimpy fashions, “The
guy you are attracting by sexiness is not the guy you want to marry. Jesus is
telling the "guy you want to marry" to pluck out his own eye rather
than looking at you when you dress to be "sexy".” Apparently, the
best guys aren’t the ones who chase skirts.
Historically, women weren’t always treated like sexual
objects. From 1607-1968 women in America were treated better than any place in
the world.
What happened? The sexual revolution brought new values. The Supreme
Court gave constitutional protection to the most incredibly vile pornography.
Hollywood was no longer bound to respectability and the motto “sex sells”
objectified women ever since.
Speaking of movies, the Fifty Shades series has glorified a whole
new level of sexual exploitation. You know who boosted ticket sales for the
first two movies in that trilogy? Women. Next month Fifty Shades Freed comes out.
If you used the hashtag #MeToo and
you consider all sexual abuse wrong, then show your support by not buying
tickets to that movie or any other that glorifies our objectification.
It’s easy to wear black. What’s harder is not being part of
the problem. How? By choosing to be LESS provocative. Part two of the solution
is not supporting industries that use our bodies to promote us as sex objects.
We have sisters working in the porn industry. And we have
sisters in sexual bondage because of porn. We have little girls imitating
Victoria Secret models—who’ll soon be the next generation dealing with porn
addicts. Enough. Stop feeding the
monster you want to slay.
The #TimesUp effort by Hollywood’s rich and powerful women
gives men a list of expectations. But these same women continue to be part of
the sexual provocation through their movies and lifestyle.
Look around, are we
better or worse off for the proliferation of porn? Is living in our sex saturated society
healthy?
Go ahead, tell me I’m so last century. That’s okay. Not all progress
has been good for women. And we must ask what will happen to today’s little
girls growing up in its dregs.