“Bra burners” have a special place in history as aggressive women who protested the Miss America pageant in 1968. To this day, “bra burners” and their modern-day predecessors are looked down upon.
Women have nipples just like men do, and there’s absolutely no reason for women to have to cover up if men do not.
Women and their bodies are either seen as sexual or gross, and often there is no in between. It’s a sexist notion that a woman should cover herself if she doesn’t want to, and the sexualization of women goes back to childhood schooling and dress codes.
Most schools have a dress code requiring knee-length shorts and three finger-width shoulder straps, with nothing showing in between. When a girl breaks this dress code, she is escorted out of her class and asked to go home and change. She is told she is “distracting” the boys when her shorts are too short. These actions by schools make girls aware that their educations are less important than a boy’s.
When we grow up, we don’t have an enforced dress code, but there is a societal standard different than men’s. When we go swimming, we have to cover our breasts. We have to start wearing a bra the second breasts start growing. If our skirts are too short or if our breasts are showing too much, we’re called sluts. According to society, what we wear has a direct correlation to our sexuality.
In the workplace, women are judged on their looks first and their abilities second.
Women began heavily entering the workforce in the 1940s, but this was only because men were fighting in the war. Women did not play a big role in businesses until the 1980s. This wasn’t even 40 years ago, and only 26 women hold CEO positions in S&P 500 companies today.
Women are also looked down upon for breastfeeding in public, despite the fact that breastfeeding is a natural act. Women are asked to cover up the part of their body that keeps a human being alive. Forty years ago, breastfeeding was looked at as lower class, even though milk is something that is naturally produced in a new mother.
Even though women are looked down upon for showing too much cleavage, there are sports bars themed around scantily clad women. Female workers at Hooters and Twin Peaks are asked to wear tiny shirts and shorts to show off their boobs and butt. Men come in to these establishments not only to get wings and watch sports, but also to see boobs in their face.
Women are often viewed by men as objects, especially when women are wearing smaller amounts of clothing. Women should be able to wear what they want without being judged accordingly.
Ashlon Lusk is a 19-year-old mass communication freshman from Houston, Texas.
