I must admit that I wasn’t surprised to read the headline “Girl Ranking list found at OPRF”. Young men have been behaving badly for a long time even in Oak Park.
However, I was surprised to read the the reaction of the citizenry. Many of us were shocked, absolutely shocked, to find out that a young man would make a list of young women and then rank them on the basis of their beauty and sexual proclivity. The sky was falling and the barbarians were at the gate.
Really. The objectification of young women in modern culture is the norm not the exception. It starts early. Remember Jon Benet Ramsey. Tween girls are encouraged to dress like pole dancers. Whole industries and businesses wouldn’t exist without the objectification of women: fashion,Victoria’s Secret, Hooters, movies and TV. The Golden Globes and Academy Awards shows has as a sidebar contests of which woman can show the most cleavage. There are whole cable channels that try to catch a young starlet not wearing underwear. One of the reasons HBO and Showtime dramas are so popular is the appeal of getting to see young women naked. Brett Farve sextexts.
And of course there is the internet where in the privacy of your bedroom you and your teenagers can can watch sexual perversions that would make the Marquis De Sade blush. Pornography is big business and it becomes more and more mainstream.
The media loves the story of the pretty young blonde gone missing after a night of island revelry or being kidnapped by some polygamist nut job. You will note that the story about the girl ranking at OPRF was on the front page of this newspaper.
I feel bad for the young women whose names got put on this list. It’s wrong that women are treated like objects for sexual gratification. Just don’t be surprised. It’s only going to get worse.
