For Guys...

This is actually a post for girls, so I figured the best way to get girls to read it would be to put up that title. Regardless, the following is an excerpt which comes from an article which I believe brings up certain good points (I do not vouch for the author, I only endorse what is posted here):
So when I am told constantly, that the religious world protects women from being objectified, by omitting their images — that this reflects some “essential community value” of appreciating women’s inner beauty over externals, I can’t help but laugh at how out of touch this is from reality. It’s a joke. Simply look at our eating disorder numbers. Or ask any young Orthodox woman who has gone through or continues to go through the system of shidduchim, that all-powerful machine which ensures communal obedience
This is the entire purpose of the shidduch system, to ensure communal obedience; the threat of not being able to marry unless you agree to be part of the system.
— here, where she is promised to be protected from the evils of secular dating, where women are so clearly objectified, girls, just look at them, how disgusting it is, people with no morals — and she will tell you just how lofty-spirited her community experience is.
Is this shocking? That this is where we have come to? When we nod away and accept that women ought to be hidden, like “jewels” — is it shocking that we have created a generation of young women forced to become dolls? That they are, in effect, only further objectified and thus sexualized? When their modest pictures remain forbidden, when religious women’s magazines only portray empty beach chairs and empty kitchens, where women are mere ghosts — what exactly is the message being sent to my generation of bright, religiously passionate women, who are anyways stowing the September issue of Vogue under their beds? That they are dangerous creatures? That there is no middle ground? That they are at once expected to be hidden yet also on display?

Stay tuned for my the next post which will continue to discuss this topic and branch out to a long-awaited post which required immense thought and effort to put together.