It?s feeling like spring, folks! The daffodils have popped up, the forsythia is a-blooming, and out comes the blushing bellies of hundreds of midriffs. As I walk around campus, pants drop down, shirts come up and freshly painted toes giggle from strappy sandals. While all this sun lovin? skin basks in our midwinter break, women?s bodies are subject yet again to restrictions. The new corset is the low-slung pant and four-inch heels. I see women trot around campus unable to bend over because their thong might show, and waver precariously hovering over a new center of balance.

Sometimes I look around and wonder, “What are you going to wear when you go out, honey?” This is a complex issue for women. I love to get dressed up myself; I have heels and tight pants and lots of barely-theres. However, getting dolled up everyday for school is unnecessary. It?s sad sometimes. I see bright women, leaders of the future, feeling forced to manipulate their bodies to maintain an idealized standard of beauty formulated by ad executives.

This discussion started with Mike, a man in my French class, daring two of us girls to dress down. We had been complaining about hours of shaving, make-up and finding clothes that fit. “It?s not men that make you do this,” Mike claimed. “It?s your competition with other women.”

Next Tuesday arrived, and I had lipstick on and was cloaked in excuses. “I had to do a speech today and I wasn?t comfortable doing it in sweats,” I squeaked. My classmate was similarly attired. We had bought it; women must do things to themselves to be beautiful and successful. Joan Brumberg, a professor of human development and history, puts it this way: “The media and popular culture exploit girls? normal sensitivity to their changing bodies, and many girls grow up believing that ?good looks? rather than ?good works? represent the highest form of female perfection.” Cosmetics alone is a $20 billion industry. But this obsession with looks is wrong if it is required for success, or even just perceived to be required.

Young women have reached a new era of oversexualization. Moderation is needed here. I see more stomach around campus than at belly dancing show. This cheapens the body; there is no mystery and no subtlety. When we are exposed to constant visual stimulation, through advertising and media attention, we respond in kind, shedding maturity as we consistently expose skin.

Mike?s right: men don?t cause this type of subjugation, but we all support it. Perhaps we could have a dress-down day, exploring how much we could de-dress, instead of out-dress.

Put it back on! Then e-mail Samantha Hinrichs at [email protected].