[Tati]

Much like the author, I haven't yet arrived at any clear conclusion as to the actual state of the "women's movement" today. There are pop-culture role models - for good or bad - on both sides of the equation out there, and pop culture itself has grown so vast, interconnected and far-reaching that both sides of the message are bound to get diluted. As much as there are barely literate Lolitas inundating MySpace and the like (to touch on only one microcosm for society) with faux-artistic grainy shots of their barely-concealed adolescent breasts, there are genuinely thoughtful girls posting poetry, photo essays, thoughts on politics, goals and ideals. The same divergence exists in all forms of popular culture, in my opinion. Do the two balance? Are they equal? Which receives more attention? What is the trend? I guess those are the real questions we should be asking now.

What never fails to confound me personally (and Pacific Breeze alluded to this already) is the reticence people - male and female alike - seem to have towards believing that girls can be both intelligent and attractive. This can be seen clearly in even the simplest and most accessible of forms - the internet message board. I am a bit of a gamer - I play one MMORPG and belong to a forum to that end. The forum, much like this one, delves into subjects outside the realm of the game, such as politics and current events. One of the most prolific posters in those forums happens to be a young woman - who also plays the male-dominated "nerdy" game of course - who is very well versed in world affairs, well educated, with a Master's degree and an opinion. She was always highly regarded as a key contributor to the forum discussions.

One day she decided to post a pic, as many others had already done. Turns out, she was gorgeous. Immediately, she was accused of "borrowing" the pic from somewhere on the web - no way could someone that bright also be attractive and sexy. Never mind that she ultimately posted about a dozen more pics, not in a deliberate way but as a matter of course over many months, never backed away or lessened her contributions to the forum, never seemed intimidated by the accusations - and never mind that a lot of the intelligent, thoughtful male posters also posted some rather attractive pics that were never questioned. No, clearly, her brain did not go with her body.

I have witnessed this reluctance to permit brains and beauty to co-exist in the same (female) being too many times. I encounter it daily in my job, and I consider myself lucky to have spent my adolescent educational experience with, largely, the same core group of people, such that we saw each other as complete human beings and came to understand that there is no fundamental contradiction between smarts and looks. Even in that welcoming environment, I saw too many of my female classmates refuse to speak up in class for fear of intimidating the boys (and likely the other girls as well). I even found myself doing it for a time, until a good friend - a male - pointed out how silly I was being, and how cool he thought it was that I was smart.

Some girls will always be smarter than others. Some will be prettier. Most of us have some measure of both. The problem arises when we try to deny some fundamental aspect of ourselves. I believe we need to celebrate our entire being, and demand no less from our role models. Pretending to be dumb while flaunting our looks may be at the root of the problem, but doing the reverse exacerbates it.