Christianity,  Culture

Miss USA, Feminism, and the Pornification of Women

Mary Kassian has an exhortation to young women who are being influenced by feminism and its pornification of women in our culture. She uses the recent Miss USA contest as a case in point. She writes:

‘It’s the ultimate irony that the foundational beliefs of feminism have contributed to the increased sexual objectification and pornographication of women. Society’s thorough acceptance of feminist precepts is one of the reasons why behavior that was seen as destructive in 1968 is celebrated as desirable in 2010. When Miss America 1968 appeared in an evening gown and swimwear at the bequest of men, feminism identified her as “exploited.” But when Miss USA 2010 appears in fishnet stockings in sexy bedroom porn, and boldly rejects social convention by entering a pole dancing competition—and does so of her own choice, self-determination and exerting her right to freedom—she embraces and lives out feminism’s core tenets. Given a feminist belief system, culture has no choice but to identify her brash, immoral behavior as”empowered.”

‘Feminism didn’t provide the answer for woman’s happiness, wholeness, and self-identity. It’s just led us further away from the truth. Girls, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…. I think the time is ripe for a new movement—a seismic holy quake of counter-cultural men and women who dare to take God at his word, those who have the courage to stand against the popular tide, and believe and delight in God’s plan for male and female. A revolution of women embracing God’s design is the needed antidote to counter the self-deterministic feminist mindset that unwittingly justifies the Miss USA type of madness.’

If you like Mary Kassian’s commentary here, then you will really like her new book Girls Gone Wise in a World Gone Wild. Her critiques of third-wave feminism are trenchant and insightful, and I commend it to you.

7 Comments

  • Donald Johnson

    If she would be more accurate and qualify her use of “feminists” as “most secular feminists” I would agree with the thrust of her comments. By choosing words with such a lack of accuracy, she can be seen as denigrating the many Christians who were/are feminists in opposing various forms of masculinism.

  • mike

    These are good points, but my suspicion is that many feminists would also view these things as exploitation of women. I think it’s noble to tackle these issues, but straw-man arguments usually come back to haunt the one’s making them.

  • Faimon

    It is ironic that in her critique (judging by what you have here) of third-wave feminism, she is embracing first-wave feminism. Or is it second wave? New wave? Dang, I can’t keep my feminism waves straight….

  • Kelly

    you assume that there are a great number of young women who would agree with her about Gods word, or even that there is a God, and not one of the other understandings of it. Anyone looking for a revolution back to what is now a counter-cultural view of things is self deluded I suspect. Most young women I know find beauty pagents kind of silly…at best.

    But, they are not at all interested in the return to patiarchy desquised as…well…whatever wave she wants to call it.

    Long and short of it, she is preaching to the choir. An ever shrinking choir. Most of the kids are more interested in Lady Gaga, truth be known, and find it deeply immoral to call anyone elses behavior immoral…unless, of course, they commit the offense of declaring anyone else immoral.

    (yeah, yeah, I know…something of a catch 22…and one of the few straws conservatives have left to chew on…but you all know what I mean). Long and short, nothing is forbidden except telling someone else that their choices are forbidden, and the world view Ms. Kassian is promoting, the dominant one among most here in this space, is now seen as one option among many in a very ‘cafeteria’ way. Are a few girls gone ‘mild’? sure. Are they more than a minor counter cultural oddity? No.

    I am not defending the new status quo. Or condemning it. Just commenting on what I have seen, and how the authors world view is SOOO different from most of that of the rising generation, that it has little resonance beyond the evangelical ‘choir’ (and less influence with evagelical kids than most of their parents would like to think)

  • Sue

    I am not really sure who Mary Kassian is writing for because most of the women I know are struggling to care for their children and parents. They really don’t have time to find matcbing leather boots and jacket, which really stuns me about Kassian. I don’t know how she does it!

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