Actually. Imagine any male actor doing this.
Back arched. Head thrown back. Seksi face.
Knickers.
The innocence of the Gerbera.
Whip that hair.
Looking at these pictures, I finally realise something that may be evident to everyone else: That famous women take part on these tacky glamour shoots because they want to.
Substitute a lesser celeb, (a Jordan for e.g, or a Kerry Kantona, or a Snookie from The Jersey Shore) and the shoot would not look out of place in Nuts or Maxim magazine.
That this one features a breakout mega star, Olvia Wilde, and is for GQ Italia, adds legitimacy, and gloss, but in the end, it’s just about the same thing: Simpering and purring for the guys.
And it’s only one of a hundred similar shoots, everywhere you look.
If “everyone” is Female Hollywood, then “everyone” is doing it. And happily.
It seems that many women, (no matter how powerful or successful,) would rather look sexy, even if a bit tacky and certainly undignified, than come across as powerful and successful.
Maybe they’re programmed that way. Maybe they don’t even know they do it.
And maybe it’s the only way to succeed.
But the rest of us certainly feel the impact.
La ronde.
Our little girls grow up to assume that to be successful and powerful is to mug and pose for an audience of men.
As long as what female role models we have keep on sticking their butts in the air and simpering for the cameras – it’s hard to imagine how our daughters will ever learn to value seriousness as a life goal.
Or learn to take on men, rather than please then. Or learn how to overcome the fact that they do not look like the kind of woman who looks “good” in knickers with their butts in the air.
My daughter wants to dress like Taylor Momsen.
She’s 10.
And you now what? When I try to think of someone else I’d rather she aspire to be…it’s hard to find anyone equally high-profile, glamorous and aspirational, she’ll know about, care about or or relate to.
Michelle Obama gets more coverage for her choice of dress designers, than anything she actually does.
Meryl Streep is too old to affect the choices and dreams of a 10 year-old..
Suzan Vosloo gets no press.
Kim Klijsters gets mocked on Twitter for daring to sweat, for resembling an athlete, not a model.
JK Rowling gives hardly any interviews.
What can success mean to a girl?
Paris Hilton? Naked meat-clad ridiculous Lady G? Or even sad, attention-seeking Taylor Momsen?
We’ve only got ourselves to blame.
Via Yeeah.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Yes, the pics are “sexy” and yes, Olivia Wilde is pouting and simpering for the camera, but why can’t a successful actress show off her assets in this way? As women we are forced to be aware of our own sexuality, we walk around with a pair of glands on our chests that men are eager to stare at and desperate to fondle, and then there’s the monthly reminder of our evolutionary importance in society. We are sexual beings. Being confident with one’s own sexuality is part of becoming a successful woman. That’s how we know what we will accept from a man in the workplace and in a relationship. Olivia Wilde plays the role of a talented and self-aware doctor in House and a resourceful and strong woman in Tron. Check out her Twitter feed too. I’d be proud to have my niece (aged 17) cite her as a role model.