Evolution is something we are all familiar with. Not necessarily in the scientific, ape-to-early-hominid way, but socially. Flared jeans once worn with floral embroidered patches were traded in for skinny jeans and bleached blonde Justin Timberlake locks became sophisticated pompadours.
Style, music and age will always change, but what about the meaning of words? Can a word’s meaning change drastically over time?
This question started to bother me while I watched “The View” with my mom. The discussion-style talk show brings up issues from politics to celebrity gossip and when they aren’t talking over each other, sometimes the hosts can make interesting points.
Via: someecards.com
The discussion this time was about a young woman who decided to pay for her college education by becoming a porn star (bare with me here). Their opinions on the story took a heated and divided turn when co-host Whoopi Goldberg mentioned the woman said she felt “empowered” by her chosen lifestyle.
Co-host Sherri Shepherd said this would not be the definition of empowerment she’d want her nieces to learn, and guest co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy, wife of Republican U.S. Representative Sean Duffy, said putting the word alongside this girl’s actions could be “potentially dangerous” to young girls.
Goldberg, however, believed the girl had every right to feel empowered, if that’s how she feels.
I found it interesting, but didn’t think much of it until later. I saw a blog article by The Huffington Post UK titled “Stop Misusing the Term ‘Empowerment.’” The article mentions both Miley Cyrus and Beyoncé, and credits the flaunting of their sexuality as their version and misuse of the term.
So there it is again: This single word, empowerment, hits the news not only in the States but across the pond as well. It seems as if somewhere between embroidered jeans and pompadours, the e-word was evolving too. The question is, is it a good thing?
Sexuality certainly does seem to play a part in the idea of empowerment. We may see a woman who is secure with her body and flaunts it, portraying that she’s a confident and empowered woman.
The disconcerting part is that it seems less and less often that we hear the word connected with intelligence, success in the job market or financial security.
Then I wondered what our long ago women’s rights activists would think about this.
I’m sure on one end of the spectrum they are turning in their graves, wondering how they could fight for so long to have women looked upon as equal to their male counterparts in politics, intelligence and the job sector to only be “empowered” by a crop top and cutoffs. Or even worse, pornography.
On the other side, however, they are holding the ashes of their burned Playtex’ high, proud that it’s become a standard for women to be equal to men, further empowered by our sexuality rather than variables we should always hold dear.
Or maybe the word really hasn’t changed all that much. Maybe it’s us that’s changed.
We live in a world where women have so many opportunities and come from so many different places. Maybe the social holes that once needed to be filled have been. New ones have opened and we find new ways to be empowered to fill them. So a women can be intellectually empowered, socially empowered, financially empowered, romantically empowered, sexually empowered or maybe all of the above. And that’s okay.
Via: thedailyquarterly.com
It’s possible in a few years when skinny jeans become space suits and pompadours transform into futuristic ‘dos, our blank before empowerment will change, but the word will always remains the same.
Featured photo courtesy of: The Huffington Post
