Indecent Proposals
by Christina Leonard

Interactions between boys and girls are changing! Boys teasing girls has always been a common occurrence and sometimes it actually means the boy has a crush on that girl. I read an article recently that reported that this teasing has become more insulting and that sometimes the insults lead up to requests for sex.

The comments being made to girls are becoming more and more violent and sexually related. Sexually derogatory names have are being thrown casually with no thought of the effects that they will have on the victim. Many boys AND girls are guilty of this. Most teens find this insults easy to hurl, but when YOU'RE the one on the receiving-end your feelings can be really hurt. Some victims even start to change how they feel about themselves.

Many of the girls interviewed talked about the difficulty in maintaining a male-to-female friendship without sex working its way in somewhere. Many girls reported that others excluded them from certain social situations because they had not had sex yet. Many of the girls spoke of being involved in sexual activity even though they DID NOT feel ready for it!! This is all very disturbing findings.

So what can we do to change the situation for girls?

First of all, these behaviors NEED to be recognized as sexual harassment. A woman or girl's body is HER body and she is in charge of it at ALL times. The issue of sexual harassment in schools is becoming widely recognized and actions are being taken to help students. A recent Supreme Court ruling stated that schools can be held liable for failing to take complaints of sexual harassment or discrimination seriously. This is a step in the right direction.

What can YOU do to help prevent and end sexual harassment in your school?

As a student you can make a difference. If you witness a student being sexually harassed, talk to them and encourage them to report it. Also, keep in mind that sexual harassment is not only physical; it is also verbal, and harassment of ANY kind is unacceptable.

Many students believe that being educated about sex at an earlier age is one way to cut down on sexual harassment. Often students have to handle sexual teasing before they know about sex. Students are saying that knowledge would help them to handle and perhaps even prevent some harassment.

I Think I'm Going To Be Sick

My stomach hurts. I almost got sick looking at a magazine the other day. I am completely and utterly appalled. Not just a little upset, but appalled. The magazine (one I subscribe to) is a really great women?s magazine. Its mission is about being who you really are. I like that. Readers range from 19 year olds way up there to been-around-awhile professional women.

I opened the magazine ready to really enjoy myself, turned a few pages and saw a full-sized ad for breast augmentation.  For those of you who don?t know, that means getting surgery to make your breasts BIG.  I was so upset. First of all I couldn?t believe that this wonderful magazine that always talked about being yourself would even run an ad for breast augmentation. BUT even worse than that was the way the ad was done.

The ad said that the twenty-five year-old who had surgery to make her breasts bigger did it because she is ?always open to new ideas.? It also said that her pet peeve is ?People who pressure you into doing things.? Give me a break. The only reason women have surgery to make their breasts bigger is so that other people will think they look good.  Sure, this girl probably felt good about how she looked after the surgery, but that?s because she is basing looking good on having BIG BREASTS!

When we look at pictures of tribal women with plates in their ears or lips that hang down to their chests we have a hard time understanding why they have to mutilate their bodies in order to be beautiful in the eyes of their tribe, but how is having your body sliced open and something shoved in to make that part look bigger any different?

Women get upset that men and the media say they have to look a certain way to be considered attractive, but it seems that women are LISTENING to this message.

Put your hands over your ears!

Better yet, hear their message and REALIZE that it is a whole lot of you-know-what! There are many different kinds of women AND many different kinds of beauty. Don?t buy into all this BIG BREAST hoopla and for sure DON?T buy yourself a set of new breasts either! Be happy with who you are. Feel good about yourself because of the whole you not just this part or that.

I feel a little better now. I?d feel a whole lot better if I knew that girls are smart enough not to mess with their boobareas!!!

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