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Why I Can’t Find Anything Feminist About the Word ‘Sexy’
That word belongs to the system that is oppressing us
If you haven’t heard, I’m deep in my ugly era as I approach 50. People seem to get a bit riled up when I say this, but honestly, I’m not trying to be self-deprecating, controversial, or even amusing.
In fact, I’m not even trying to be ugly. I’m just aiming to be myself, exactly as I am. And when it comes to societal standards of feminine beauty, just being yourself is the equivalent of ugly.
Let me give you an example. I recently saw an Instagram post that featured a young woman in her twenties and I was absolutely staggered by how gorgeous she was. And then I laughed when she turned off the filters and showed her true, ordinary face, and revealed that she was just another normal, imperfect person.
I probably shouldn’t have laughed because it was more disturbing than funny. It was disturbing because I had no idea she was using a filter. I couldn’t tell. We are living in a world in which high glam filters have made us believe that that’s what the average person looks like.
And if we’re talking about women in their forties or fifties, it’s even worse. Jennifer Lopez is seven years older than I am, but if you put her next to me, you’d assume I was the elder, by…
