ain't no other boots: a meditation on women and competition
last night, i hollered "those are hawt boots" at a girl who just nonchalantly replied, "thanks" as she hurried furtively past. one of my companions commented that she knew they were hot so that's why she didn't thank me for the compliment.
i think it's because as women, we are socialized to believe that we are all competing for limited resources, which is why we hate on eachother as much as we do, and are suspicious of eachother when we say nice things to eachtother. how ass-backwards is this? (and yes, i do realize that not too long ago in my last blog, i was cutting up the fashion non-sense of my peers).
it's especially dangerous when it's made into a means to sell anything and everything under the sun. just think of all the celebrity "fueds" that we are bombarded with, not so subtly forced into choosing sides to champion a cause, as if the women involved are representative of anything but industry pawns. we are given the same scenarios and the same cycles over and over.
brandy vs. monica, prince vs. michael (you know i had to throw that one in, and besides, michael's pretty much a girl), hilary vs. lindsay, paris vs. the world, beyonce vs. "her backup singers" or everyone who's ever been in the group that's not family, mariah vs. jlo and christina vs. britney.
the last pair inspired this post, because i just saw the video for "ain't no other man" (gotta love youtube) and she killed it. we all knew she could sing, but she's officially on the upswing of this battle, her last album was successful, she took a hiatus from the biz to get married (and therefore gets her ticket to be as slutty as she wants, see my girl Tara's xxl blog about "freak in the streets but a lady in the bed") and releases a double album all glam like. This is her Emancipation of Mimi.
but lest we think that anyone is immune from "comeback", just remember that Mariah was officially kookoo not too long ago and bounced back. not that i'm saying that britney doesn't have a hard line to ho, er. toe, or even that i'm rooting for her. what with the white trash pregnancy, k-fed fiascos, and bobby brown remakes (though kevin and britney are really the millenium bobby and whitney), i think that dark haired pregnant diamond cluster photoshoot with harper's or not (hello demi moore GQ jack sans body paint), that is nearing the territory of impossible.
and lest my final note on "competition" be a big britney slam, i just want to say that it's too bad that we subscribe to this "divide and conquer" mentality, which, along with the "purist" ideas of needing to believe that consensus=survival of a movement, has led to the idea that feminism is dead, which is absolutely false, we've just branched out. the boomers are dying, it's time to be our own heroes, not grasp at straws at past idols.
don't hate for no reason, but don't bigup for no reason either. use your discretion, folks.
