Some of my friends, fellow parents, felt I was overreacting when I got angry at my daughter receiving a “best dressed” award from her pre-school. She’s a pretty girl; she dresses in fun ways; they were celebrating that. Some girls are just girly and there’s no problem there.
I replied by talking about the overwhelming focus on female appearance and the association of value with appearance, and the way it tracks females from birth to death, often with serious consequences. I then wrote about it for CNN.
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Marion Bartoli won Wimbledon and the BBC announcer, Inverdale, said:
““Do you think Bartoli’s dad told her when she was little, ‘You’re never
going to be a looker? You’ll never be a [Maria] Sharapova, so you have
to be scrappy and fight.'”
Social media erupted.
Inverdale added, ““We poked fun, in a nice way, about how she looks … but Marion Bartoli is an incredible role model.”
The BBC abjectly apologized later.
Both Bartoli and her father handled the situation with class.
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I mean, seriously, she just won Wimbledon, and so immediately her looks are brought into the equation.
This is why I’m a feminist.