I was recently watching a movie titled Somethings Gotta Give staring Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson. Jack Nicholson plays a rich man in his sixties, Harry Sanborn, who only dates women under thirty. He starts dating Diane Keaton's character Erica Barry's daughter, Marian. When Marian brings Harry on a vacation to the Hampton's they have a family dinner with Marian's mom, and her Aunt Zoe. They start talking with Harry and talking about how they knew him from an article. He was famous for dating women only under thirty. Aunt Zoe teaches women studies in Columbia and realizes something interesting. She uses Erica and Harry as an example. Harry is sixty-three never married but "if he were a woman it would be considered a curse." He would be considered an "old maid, a spinster." But "instead of pitying him they write articles celebrating that he's never been married. He's elusive, un-gettable, a real catch. Then Erica on the other hand, an accomplished, successful woman, over fifty, divorced, and sits in night after night because the available guys her age want somebody who looks like Marian. The whole over fifty dating scene is geared towards men leaving older women out. As a result women become more productive and more interesting which makes them even less desirable. Because as we all know, men, especially older men, are threatened and deathly afraid of productive and interesting women." A two minute scene in a two hour movie really opened my eyes to how the world works around women and it is no wonder they are so insecure. If only our eyes saw souls instead of bodies, how different our ideals of beauty would be.
Gail Dines writes in the chapter "Visible or Invisible: Growing Up Female in Porn Culture" used in the book Composing Gender by Rachael Groner and John F. O'Hara that women have went from the Stepford Wife to the Stepford Slut. Dines states, "a hypersexualized, young, thin toned, hairless, and, in many cases, surgically enhanced woman with a come-hither look on her face" (Dines).
