6 December 2005 - 4:52pm
Yes, that's right, I'm 29! (No, silly, last year I was 28!)
I find it hard not to root for this.
We’re tired of the media telling young women how to be "hot"! The REAL hot 100 shows that young women are "hot" for reasons beyond their ability to pose provocatively in a magazine. REALLY hot women are smart. REALLY hot women work for change. REALLY hot women aren’t afraid to speak their minds. And while some REALLY hot women might look awesome in a bikini, they know that’s not all they have to offer.
But aren't we past limiting hotness to only "young women"? I mean, men over, say, 45 are labeled hot all the time. Are women beyond childbirth years really un-hot?
I don't mean to dis Jessica and her great site -- and I know it's a site dedicated to young women -- but if we're going to make a point of stepping away from the patriarchal expectations of what is hot, why limit the counter-list to young women? Are there really no role models of REAL hotness, as they define it, who happen to be in their fifth or sixth decade of life?
Maybe I'm being unfair. Young women have a hard enough time being objectified as it is, while we old hags (over, say, 35) can enjoy relative invisibility and can do things like shop for meat without being treated as a piece of meat. It's a privilege to be an older woman, in many ways, in our culture.
But it's also true that older women are devalued when it comes to any measure of hotness. Too unattractive for television -- even to read the news. Too unappealing for leading roles in movies. Too much trouble to be a desirable new hire in a corporation. Not hot.
Alas....
media girl also blogs at other places.
Similar entries
store
Buy stuff here.
Comments
gloria steinem is hot imo. and she's in her 7th decade i believe.
My wife is 54, is smart, works for change, speaks her mind and WOULD look awesome in a bikini but she refuses to get a wax job.
the project isn't trying to limit hotness to young women. (and it isn't dedicated to young women because feministing is, it's a project of a couple of orgs.)
we decided to do this as kind of a response to maxim magazine's hot 100 list--which features mostly younger women. clearly older women are hot! but we thought it was important to specifically target younger women for this.
we thought of this kind of as a two-fold thing. one, younger women are portrayed in mags like maxim or ads or what have you as being hot ONLY because of the way they look. we wanted to start a project that showed why young women are really hot--because of the work they do. the second thing is, the amazing work that younger women are doing all across the country often goes unnoticed. we felt this would be a great opportunity to show the people who are always complaining that young women aren't feminists, young women are falling for society's bullshit standards, etc, that young women ARE doing great work that doesn't involve the way they look.
too often, when it comes to recognizing women for their work, there's one or two token young women. we wanted a whole goddamn site dedicated to their work. hope that explains it a bit.
Please consider my post an "and also" kind of thing, and not a "yeah but" kind of thing.
;)