Last night when I was home by myself, I turned on CMT (country music television) for some background noise. The show I picked up near the beginning was the 20 Sexiest Videos of 2005. I watched for about half an hour and I found myself somewhat disgusted and somewhat perplexed at the videos that made the cut. Some of these words and images were so un-subtle that to me they appeared trashy rather than sexy. But apparently my definition of sexy does not fit music television's model. To me, it's sexier to be subtle than glaringly obvious. I'd rather see a hint of something than all of it. Singing about having sex in the hay is not titillating, it's raunchy. Maybe this is why I prefer the love in classic movies and classic stories to that described in more modern tales. I like stuff to be left to my imagination rather than spelled out for me. Sexy, to me, is in the undertones rather than the obvious. Somehow that is lost on the new generation. I see it in the way that some of the female students at my high school dress; I saw it in the bars and clubs I hit when I was in college; I see it every time I see an advertisement for Girls Gone Wild. The new sexy is the old trashy. I don't know if we can blame Brittney and Christina or if this trashy trend began even before their time. Maybe I'm too old fashioned at the young age of 27, but I don't see dressing like a whore being a statement of feminism like Lil' Kim and Christina would like us to believe. I see it as a statement of the short attention span and low imagination level of a digital cable, internet, and graphic video game world where the art of seduction has become the act of not putting enough on to make someone wonder what it would be like if it was off. Trashiness, Christina, cannot be retermed into "exploring your sexuality," it's just trashy. Sexy is about romance and mystery; trashy is about one night stands where there is no mystery, only a quick physical fix. Many of the videos they were pushing as sexy on CMT were of the trashy kind rather than the sexy kind. And I guess that show was a statement of the redefinition of sexy in our society. A statement that speaks to me of modern loss rather than modern advancement.
Posted by Kim at December 29, 2005 12:31 PMLike Pastor Wentz used to say: Don't advertise it if it isn't for sale. But I think alot of the "sexy" wardrobe choices made today are intended to scream; "I am for sale".
Oh, and while we're talking about smutty, trashy and innappropriate, I was shopping the other day (in entirely non-trashy victoria's secret) when I saw a girl that couldn't have been more than 6 wearing a pair of jeans on with words spread across the rear area. Excuse me, but shouldn't parents have a problem with buying their small children clothing that attracts attention to their butts????
And of course it said "Bratz" Don't even get me started on that "teach me to dress and act like a slut while i'm still in my formative years" doll craze.