The Today show featured back-to-back segments this morning that seemed to be telling young girls -- forget about empowerment, it's time for you to go back into the "little girl closet."It started with Natalie Morales interviewing Seventeen magazine Editor-in-Chief Atoosa Rubenstein for a piece entitled "Power Girls: Empowerment Gone Too Far?" That caught my attention. It seems young girls are smoking more, drinking and using drugs more, and calling each other "bad names."
Rubenstein's solution? For girls to get back in touch with their feminine side. Commenting on all the strife in the world today, Rubenstein thinks girls (read women) need to remember that it is their nature to be mediators, to bring people together ... that girls (read women) need to get back in touch with the caretaker inside them.
As if this weren't enough, Today followed this segment with a woman showing us how to cook, the Radio City Rockettes demonstrating that if a woman must work outside the home the only acceptable job is showing off your legs to entertain us (read men) and finally, a special segment Today Plans a Wedding.
God forbid we empower girls -- the clear message from Today is that women need to stay in the kitchen, be decorative, and find "Mr. Right" and settle down.
I think a better idea would be to air a segment talking about how women outnumber men in higher education. That increasing numbers of women are entering professional fields of medicine and law. And, if the we REALLY want to put an end to all the strife in the world we should be electing women to positions of power!
Young girls today do have a lot more options because of the struggles of the modern day women's movement. But all the gains made over the past 40 years are in jeopardy. If we are to secure opportunity for women and girls we need to celebrate women's empowerment -- not try and shove women back into a "Father Knows Best" closet.
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