False Expectations

Britney Spears dances around and performs on stage in skimpy outfits, going so far as to dress in a skin colored suit. She shows off her perfect breasts, her perfect abs, her perfect butt, her perfect everything. Christina Aguilera shoots her album cover with only her hair covering her naked breasts wearing low-ride pants. She shows off her perfect waist, her perfect skin, her perfect body. Both wear next to nothing and are comfortable with it. This is the image we are calling acceptable - for a diva. It quickly becomes apparent, though, that this image isn't simply kept to divas.

The presented image is that of sex and nudity and that it is normal and accepted in everyday life. Where this image can be seen in everyday life is on girls age eleven and up. Girls who haven't even hit puberty yet. The image of sex is easily transferred to these young, impressionable minds because they don't yet know who they are or who they will become. In this case, they adopt the image of our previously mentioned divas. Generally, it can produce positive effects - popularity, for her and any guy who dates her - or it can produce negative effects - rumors that she's a slut.

Dating probably shouldn't be allowed until about the age of fifteen. It wasn't such a big deal ten years ago before Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, or the image of the 'sexy pop diva' existed. With the adoption of a sexier image in young girls, also comes the painful realization that girls are becoming sexually active at a younger age than a few years ago. Probably due to this increase in sexuality in the way young girls dress. It also leads to a higher risk of pregnancy at a young age because they are not properly educated about sex. Sad, but true.

This image doesn't just affect young girls who are blossoming into teens. It also affects those women who are in their teen years and even further. These women don't necessarily adopt the image given by the divas, but they do realize that that is the image their men want and find sexy. Feeling their confidence in their own appeal and femininity begin to fade, they try their best to be sexy, if not sexier than the pop divas. They attempt to make their men realize that they have a 'hot body' by wearing distasteful, revealing clothing, pushing themselves to lose weight through exercise and even forming eating disorders.

'Sexy pop diva' image has an overall negative effect on women's psychological and physical well-being. Is this really the image we want in our society? This unattainable image of beauty? We should all just learn to live in the bodies we have, accept them as they are, be confident as women, and be individual in mind, values, and style. That is the ultimate image of 'sexy'.