ALRIGHT girls, I'm sorry, but this has got to stop. The usual weekend attire seen around the University is rarely anything to be praised, but last weekend crossed the line. I'm not really sure when Halloween morphed from the good- natured holiday centered around dressing up as ghosts and handing out candy to little kids into being an excuse to parade around like whores. This is a problem that needs to be corrected - and fast.
Before anything else is said on this topic, however, let it be known that it was by no means a majority of the female population of the University that engaged in this embarrassing practice last weekend. Most girls, if they elected to dress up, kept within the boundaries of normal attire. Though outfits were more extravagant this weekend, whether they went as cowgirls or as Nicole Kidman from "Moulin Rouge," most girls had the sense to, well, wear actual clothing. It is to the girls who went as "plastic wrap" or as literal prostitutes that I am referring.
Honestly, after viewing the spectacle that these girls made of themselves this weekend, one has to question their reasoning process. These outfits obviously are a pitiable and desperate ploy for attention. Still, one would think that taking into consideration the high level of intelligence supposedly required to gain admission to the University, these girls would have sense enough to realize that the gain of their action -- temporary attention -- does not even begin to balance out the loss of respect that they sustain from both the men and women around them.
Contrary to popular belief, many men actually do care that girls with whom they have relationships - be it romantic or platonic - act respectfully. Of course, some men don't care about these types of things, but it goes without saying that these are not the types of guys one normally would want to get involved with. Therefore, unless these girls are highly maladjusted and enjoy being objectified, mistreated and used for sex, they are taking the wrong path.
If these girls did harm only to themselves by engaging in this type of behavior, the problem - though it would still be a matter of great concern due to both the physical and psychological danger they are putting themselves under - would be less severe. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
Advocates of the women's movement have struggled for and given immense amounts of effort to the cause of trying to gain equal respect for women in all facets of society. When a woman walks out her front door and onto Rugby Road wearing nothing but a sheet of thin plastic which was never intended to encase anything except leftovers, the work of the devoted members of the women's movement is thrown two steps backward, and the entire female gender takes a hit.
Many scholars have questioned why, in a society as advanced as ours, women still are - despite what many would like to believe - highly objectified and regarded in many cases as sex symbols. Though we cannot assume that the type of behavior demonstrated last weekend is solely responsible for the current state of affairs, there can be no doubt that it is one of, if not the single largest, contributing factor. The sad truth is that if women don't exhibit any respect for themselves, then men cannot fairly be expected to show respect for them.
It is a fault of our society that the presence of individual women acting in an irresponsible manner can be generalized to the point where it affects all women, but this is a reality that we have to accept. Acting in the fashion that was demonstrated by a segment of the female population of U.Va. this weekend creates an aura of cheapness and disrespect surrounding women. It is this very current of thought which perpetuates the cycle of objectification of women that has been a glaring problem facing the vast majority of societies throughout their existences. From this observation we learn that much of the problem of sexism in modern society is due not to the blind egotism of men but to the way in which many women invite and enable these sentiments.
To combat these problems, women everywhere need to keep in mind the severity of the consequences of acting with such irresponsibility. Those who already conduct themselves with self-respect need to remind others that their actions effect not only themselves as individuals but their environment as a whole. Only through consciousness of the damage irresponsible women inflict by their actions and a subsequent universal realigning of morality can we truly hope to rise above the sexism of the past and begin to move toward true equality.
(Laura Parcells' column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at lparcells@cavalierdaily.com.)
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