Girls becoming women

Soraya Chemaly is my new hero.  Love this Huffington Post column on the requirement of female actresses to debase themselves as an essential part of their transition to womanhood.  Below are a few choice paragraphs:

. . . As Frank Bruni detailed in a NYT article making this "good girls gone bad" transition is practically a female celebrity rite of passage. I would add specifically, self-debasement, is an essential component. For girls to get their tickets stamped and become famous women, they have to very publically enact one or more of the following: rape, stripping, pole dancing, prostitution, sexual abuse. Want a list? Here's a very short one of recent actresses or performers who made their transitions in that way.

Kristen Stewart
Britney Spears
Christina Aquilera
Rihanna
Lindsey Lohan
Miley Cyrus
Dakota Fanning
Hilary Duff
Diana Agron
Lea Michele
Jessica Simpson
Vanessa Hudgens
Jessica Beil
Elizabeth Berkley
Abigail Breslin (who may have to go through a Round II)

Even Anne Hathaway, who's made a valiant go of it, played a phone sex worker in Valentine's Day (which meant she was available anywhere, anytime by the men who wanted her). And, this is nothing new, Jodie Foster, Natalie Portman, Brooke Sheilds. The list is endless. Every single one of them: rape, stripping, pole dancing, prostitution. Success! 

. . . So, having to "prove" you are no longer a girl means proving you are no longer "good" whatever THAT means.  . . How screwed up is that?

. . . So the question isn't WHY DID SHE DO THAT? It's WHY DO GIRLS HAVE TO BE SEXUALLY DEBASED TO BECOME WOMEN IN OUR MOVIES, ON THE RADIO, IN GAMES, ON SCREENS BIG AND SMALL, ON THE SIDES OF BUSES, IN MAGAZINES, NEWSPAPERS. I'm out of room here.

The damage done by these images and the unbalanced portrayals of female sexuality (which almost always pivots, btw, around vulnerability to male violence (such a great image of boys' and men's sexuality) is like the damage done by second hand smoke. Girls and women subjected to these images (that would be... everyone) all experience, to varying degrees, self-objectification. The American Psychological Association report on it's effects on girls is detailed and clear.