Véronick Talbot's Column/Student contributor

Expressing Femininity in the 21st Century Means Being Beautiful and Sexy All the Time!

By Véronick Talbot, contributor, hired in the various student projects of Tolerance.ca

Today, most young girls think they have to be beautiful and sexy, even at school. While it’s becoming more common for secondary schools to require uniforms, that doesn’t hold for the college level, where the phenomenon of teenage girls wearing overtly sexualized clothing still exists. Some people say they have the right to wear what they want, but this freedom is not always without consequence.

Feeling sexy, feeling good about yourself

Most teenage girls who dress provocatively say they are doing it to feel good about themselves and because they like feeling appreciated by boys. Even if the clothes are uncomfortable, they allow girls to feel self-confident and that’s what counts for them. “I think the way you dress is a personal choice, and if someone, no matter what their age or sex, decides to dress in a certain way, it’s because they believe they look good that way. That’s what matters, in my opinion,” says Véronique Vachon, a student in radiodiagnostics at Collège Ahuntsic.

Simon Larose, a specialist in social psychology and adolescence at Université Laval, also believes that teenage girls dress provocatively to feel confident. However, he is convinced that they develop their self-esteem in this way not because they find themselves beautiful, but because they don’t want to be different from the others. “I believe the sexualized clothing they wear is influenced by fashion and by the need to belong to a peer group. Like boys, girls need to feel they are accepted by others during the teenage years. They are very sensitive to what others think of them and to what they think others think of them. Having an imaginary audience, i.e. seeing yourself as an actor on centre stage, is a typical social perception during the teenage years and it leads to a lot of conformism. This partly explains the desire to resemble the rest of the group.” In his view, girls dress more modestly when they reach adulthood because their values change. “As the peer group becomes less central to their lives and they gain a more critical attitude towards the information they receive, young people develop their own value systems that end up being more similar to what they experienced in the family than influenced by fashion and friends.”

The students and professors have a wide range of opinions, but all agree that girls’ provocative outfits can attract too much attention, from both boys and girls. “I like being sexy, but attracting attention can have a negative side. If guys make signs to me or I feel like I’m being watched, I won’t be able to concentrate on my work, that’s for sure,” insists Iris Rubio, a student in medical records at Collège Ahuntsic. Philippe Tardif, who is studying civil engineering at CEGEP Montmorency, agrees that he is sometimes distracted by girls who dress provocatively. “Of course the guys are going to pay more attention to a pretty girl who shows off her body in class than to what the teacher is saying. They end up being distracted from the subject they are being taught.”

Do sexy girls really distract the guys?

Given the situation, should a dress code be established at CEGEPs? André Turmel, a specialist in adolescence and a professor at Université Laval, believes that certain limits should be set, without making them too repressive. The students would realize that there are places where you have to be more careful about the way you dress. “You have to be upfront about the problem; parents and the institutions have to act to show young people that, in certain circumstances, you can’t just wear anything. On the other hand, that doesn’t mean we should adopt a totally repressive attitude, because that inevitably leads to the opposite of what we want. The thing is to make small gestures to make people realize what the issues are.” However, most people are against the idea because it would run counter to young people’s freedom. “As long as it’s not outright vulgar or in bad taste, I don’t really see a problem. In that respect, I’m in favour of freedom. The way you dress is normally your own business, whether you’re a student or not,” insists Jean-Marc Côté, a professor of literature at Collège Ahunstic. In response, Mr. Turmel says that “freedom does not mean dressing any old way, especially not at school.”

In France, dress codes have started to be enforced in the lycées, the public secondary schools aimed at students aged 15 to 20. Élody Grattepanche, a law student living in Paris, says in an interview, “The girls still find a way to look sexy. They roll up their skirts and put on high-heeled shoes. So even if the move to dress codes got rid of the problem of too tight clothing, it didn’t change the girls’ provocative way of dressing.” For specialist Simon Larose, it’s not surprising that the phenomenon of sexualized dressing among teenage girls has spread around the world. “With economic and cultural globalization and the technological revolution, young girls in industrialized countries—and boys too—end up adopting similar consumer habits. Unfortunately, the most widespread consumer model is the American model.”

“It’s not the way we dress that stops us from refusing unwanted advances”

Although some people fear that boys will take this provocative way of dressing as an invitation, the teenage girls are aware of the consequences their outfits might have. “We know how to respect ourselves. It’s not the way we dress that’s going to stop us from refusing a guy’s advances if we’re not interested,” explains Iris Rubio. So people shouldn’t worry too much that the phenomenon will lead to precocious sexual activity among young girls and teenagers in general. “More young people became sexually active during their teenage years twenty years ago than they do today,” noted Mr. Larose. “The numbers have gone down, which shows that, contrary to what many people think, the way teenagers dress doesn’t have a lot of impact on the issue.”

In any case, Mr. Larose and Mr. Turmel agree that the phenomenon is only temporary. Dressing provocatively is just a way for teenage girls in the 21st century to express their femininity. “It was just the opposite during the 60s,” according to Mr. Turmel. “Women covered themselves from ankles to neck. Back then, that was what girls liked to wear.”

In sum, although the outfits of today’s teenage girls may spark numerous discussions, their provocative appearance allows them to build self-esteem. It’s their way of expressing their femininity and being appreciated by men.

Editor’s Note: CEGEP is the acronym for general and vocational colleges in Quebec.

English translation: Christine York

This article is part of a series on the diversity of values and religious beliefs in colleges and universities and is presented with the financial support of:

Comment on this article!





Your kidding right

By K. M. H. on November 6,2008
your kidding me right. Girls who dress like that obviously are looking for something but it's not what you think. Though neither is it necessarily sex. They are looking for the attention that parents don't give anymore. They do it in school because all school is for a lot of parents these days is a big babysitter. Parents don't know how to handle their children give them what they need. So they put them in groups,allow them to dress however they want,send them to school and let the teacher discipline them because they can't or won't do it for themselves. Lets face it a lot of kids are the adults in the family. Grandparents are raising their grandkids because their own kids are to lazy to do it themselves. The generation that was all about not being repressed (60's -70's) the "Fight the Power" kids are now the ones getting angry at us. Interesting how the tables turn isn't it. I see too many adults not paying enough attention to their kids...pick them up and drop them off be as little involved as possible and just keep moving. Now obviously not ALL parents are like this there are AMAZING parents out there and I thankyou...my own are among them. Girls..young women..dress this way not just to "feel good", the question is why don't they feel "good enough" without those clothes? Why do they feel they need them...come on you guys THINK! I am only 19yrs old and I have this figured out...PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR KIDS AND YES YOUR DAUGHTERS! They are wonderful and beautiful and dad's if your reading this they look for validation of womanhood through you because you are the first man in their lives who shows them what they are truly worth. You show it not only in how you treat them but in how you treat their mother. They get an idea of what a real man is through you...so please be aware and be careful and love them. Pay attention to them know that when they show off they do it for you...they want to be a princess and they want you to save them..so go get them. Get your daughters and tell them you love them that they are BEAUTIFUL and Mom's be careful of how you talk about yourself in front of your daughters because want you think of yourself...when a daughter hears that she is influenced. One day she will look in the mirror and all the things you didn't like or complained about she'll see them in herself and believe the things you do whether it's true or not..you influence how she thinks she looks. So parents get out there and love those girls..listen to them....tell them they matter.



Meh

By cjwright79 on August 30,2008
The condescending attitude present in this article is the reason why teenagers feel so repressed, frustrated, and disaffected in the first place. When they are treated as real people by their parents, teachers, and elders, they won't have to dress provocatively to get recognition from their peers.



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