Growing up, I was the female child of three. So my mother did her best to raise me to carry myself as a young lady by leading by example. The thing is, my mom was born during the 50s, was in her 20s during the 70s and wasn’t quite ready to give up on the bell-bottoms, nor her ‘Soul Glow.’ So I would turn to my peers and watch television to keep up with the latest fashion. Upon my entering this prestigious Grambling State University, I was exposed to many different styles. You had the neo-soul girls with dreads and different colorful patterns. Then, there were the prissy girls that would rather die before being caught without their hair done, nails done, and they refused to wear the same outfit twice!!! Then came your hoochies! Yes, at a prestigious university of higher learning such as our ‘Dear Ol’ Grambling,’ we have hoochies!
I am not one to judge. That’s the job of our Most High, but I’ve never really been one to show too much flesh or be seductive in dress. I was raised to be respectful in everything that I do, including dress. After all, who’s going to pay for the cow when they can get the milk for free (especially with our economy in the state it’s in)???
Now that I’ve matured, when I flip through the television and the music videos, I not only look and the fashion trends, but I also get disgusted with them. I see images of women who are one sneeze or cough away from loosing that small piece of fabric they pass as an “outfit!”
What happened to women respecting and carrying themselves as such? It’s sad to say, but some people really do judge you based merely on what they see first. So if you are treating their eyes with a feast of flesh, you leave some no choice but to run on assumption. You may very well have the intellect of Michelle Obama or the strength of Coretta Scott King, but how would one know?
Some may argue the fact and say, “Well, they’ll find out if they just take the time to talk to me.” Unfortunately, some of the outfits I run across are merely unapproachable!
Now I’m not claiming to be the best dressed on GSU’s campus, nor have I ever walked down any runways. I just want young, black women to be careful of the messages we send in the way we dress.
If we don’t know our past, we are destined to repeat it. As slaves, we were put on a bidding blocks.NAKED!!! Bidders would look us up & down and place their highest bid on the firmest of breast, sternest of backs and the best backside.
Guess what, that is still happening today. In these “popular” music videos, which girl is it that gets the leading role you ask??? Yes, you’ve guessed it.the girl with the firmest breast and the best backside! Know your history. Is repetition bliss???
With March being Women’s History Month, I want not only the women of GSU; but also any woman that reads this to question themselves and ask: Is my value appreciating or depreciating?