Anti-Climacus

I've never been tempted to use "and a pony!" before, but man, is this Slate article on the royal wedding as the beginning of the end for 'porno-chic' ever asking for it:

An entire generation has grown up in a world of hair extensions, pneumatic hooters, and stripper poles. In the absence of a Jackie Kennedy or a Grace Kelly, these kids—and their mothers!—have been subjected to an unadulterated diet of Girls Gone Wild, busty Real Housewives, Jenna Jameson, and The Girls Next Door. The message? "Hotness" is the single viable currency. The only effective way to get attention is to flaunt your lady bits. Now along comes Kate, the anti-hooker, garnering the attention and admiration of the entire world with barely a glimpse of flesh.

It's just within the realm of possibility that Kate Middleton's fashion sense is the cause of all the attention and not, say, the fact that she's marrying into the British royal family, but the reverse is more likely. It's also within the realm of possibility that American women have lost their way because they lacked an iconic, modest role model.* What I find objectionable, though, is the idea of a single, monolithic narrative being so overwhelming that everyone has to succumb whether they want to or not. An unadulterated diet of Girls Gone Wild et al? "Hotness" as the single viable currency? The only effective way to get attention is to flaunt one's lady bits?
*****

I wrote the above a few days ago, and in the intervening time I see that Phoebe Maltz had a rather different, and more favorable, reaction to the article than I did. Time for anecdata: I ask you, dear readers, several of whom are female and in approximately the right age for this generational claim to apply, does this describe your own experience of fashion and/or social expectations relating thereto?


*For purposes of this blog post we will pretend not to have read that article in the New Yorker about Grace Kelly (last year? two years ago?), and assume her to be a paragon of virtue and modesty.