Response to Kirsten's "Pigs in Training" Post:

I agree with both Kirsten and Caren in regards to the fact that some of the issues that Ariel Levy addresses in “Pigs in Training” are relevant in today’s society. Young female teens are “dressing provocatively and fellating promiscuously” in hopes of increasing their popularity (Levy 144). However, the people that these teenage girls are hoping to impress are the boys. Their outer appearance and actions are all done in hopes of gaining their attention. Levy makes it clear that boys do not have a long attention span and that girls need to do more than wear a low cut shirt and short skirt to keep the boys entertained. Thus, girls partake in sexual activities in hopes of gaining further attention from these boys. But Levy also notes that these girls are not having sex for their own sexual pleasure, but rather “it is primarily for bragging rights” (Levy 145). In other words, in order for a teenage girl to be popular, she must wear little to no clothing, constantly allude to sex, and most importantly have sex.

Kirsten makes a brief reference to Levy and Anne’s discussion about girls in high school during Levy’s generation. Levy explains that “it was the same in the sense that you always wished you could be the prettiest and the most popular, the one who guys wanted to be with and girls wanted to be. But the obligation to present yourself as the skankiest…is something new.” This is the part of Levy’s argument that I am not fully convinced on. While I do believe that dressing slutty has a greater effect on a girl’s popularity in today’s society than say in the 1970s, I still do believe that it effected her overall popularity.

For example, lets look at the movie Grease. The final scene in the movie shows the transformation of Sandy. In the beginning of the movie she is this goody good who has no friends at school and is the girl who the Pink Ladies mock. Mind you the Pink Ladies are the girls that are depicted as too cool for school. They tend to dress in I guess in their time would be considered “sluttier” outfits however, I have a very hard time describing their outfits as slutty, especially compared to today’s culture, because their clothing is not slutty or revealing, just slightly tighter perhaps. However, Sandy comes to the conclusion that in order to truly gain the full attention of the boy she likes, Danny, she must change. Thus, she gets rid of her long pastel poodle skirt and simple sweater, and trades it for absolutely skintight black pants and a black leather jacket and shirt. Voila, Sandy now has the man of her dreams and she has finally gained a large group of friends, including the Pink Ladies. All this was accomplished by increasing her sex appeal.

Ultimately, the girls from the 1950s are unbelievably tame and well clothed compared to the teenagers of today. I curious to see what the next generation of female teenagers will be like. I honestly do not know how much more clothing they can afford to remove from their outfits, because at this rate the next generation will give an entirely new meaning to Levy’s definition of exhibitionism.