I have two acquaintances who when getting ready to go to work trade their jeans for skimpy orange hot pants and exchange their shirts with low-cut white tanks sporting the famous big-eyed owl on them. They make sure some cleavage is revealed, tease their hair and apply some additional make-up. Their job pays well, and they absolutely love it. They know flirting a little with the 40-something-year-old lonely man at the bar by sending a wink his way will result in a nice tip, and they get a kick out of watching the college boys drool all over them.

These girls are college students just like you and me, and they probably get paid a lot more than either you or I do. But at what cost?
These young women are willingly subjecting themselves to objectification as part of the false empowerment phenomenon. Some new-age feminists claim strippers, women in the sex industry and those college women showing off “their goods” on Girls Gone Wild are just expressing female empowerment — taking charge of their sexuality and liberating themselves.

Although I am a proponent of women doing what makes them happy and women being in charge of their sexuality, it is important to ask oneself, “Why am I doing this? Is this my passion? Would I still be doing this if it didn’t pay so well? If I didn’t get that attention?”
Say and wear whatever you want as long as you’re doing it for you and no one else.

While there’s nothing wrong with feeling comfortable in one’s own skin, we’re living in a society where women in skimpy outfits are there primarily for male pleasure. People know sex sells, thus scantily clad waitresses and acts like the Pussycat Dolls and Girls Gone Wild are only there to encourage the objectification of women and to make a lot of money for male-run enterprises. These women might tell themselves they’re in charge. But they’re still just strutting it for the male attention. Flaunting in little clothing does not equal flaunting women’s liberation. Feminism for me is still about women being smart and assertive while building inner strength.

Objectification of women is never OK; women are more than just pretty things to look at. A woman showing off her “goods” goes beyond the surface — beyond hair, boobs and ass. What is truly sexy is a woman with brains. Women with shelves lined with books in their apartments rather than stripper poles. Women with talent other than hanging upside down from a pole and entertaining men.

Women who are well spoken and educated, who do not rely on their looks to get what they want.
Unfortunately, we live in a society where a woman’s achievements are overshadowed by her appearance. Take women in politics, for example. Recently US Magazine did a face-off feature between Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain, but (not surprisingly) it wasn’t about the women’s knowledge or professional achievements. No, it was about fashion.

Is it really important to know at the opening of the Republican Convention, McCain was wearing an Oscar de la Renta dress? Besides their tastes in fashion, few people know Obama is actually well spoken and has degrees from Princeton University and Harvard Law School and McCain is a successful businessperson and philanthropist who founded and ran a non-profit organization, the American Voluntary Medical Team.

What it comes down to is that us college women should not continue this objectification and start taking pride in our best features — brains, passions and talents.
Brains are sexy, and knowledge is power. Let’s face it, powerful women like Angela Merkel, Cristina Fernandez, Condoleeza Rice, Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Indra Nooyi and Sheila C. Bair didn’t rely on their looks to get them where they are now.

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