***before reading, please check out Lisa Khoury's "Why Put a Bumper Sticker on a Ferrari?"
Dear Lisa Khoury,
First of all, I have to congratulate you on breaking down the female role so simply- we are here to make men drool! To turn heads! We hold some serious power in our hands! So thankful you let me in on this, because frankly, while typing this I was looking down at my tattooed arms feeling lost...and now I understand why I'm happily married, raising an intelligent child, hold two degrees, and live a wonderful life. Oh, wait...
I think the biggest, most glaring problem in your article is that you are saying that women should not get tattoos. Not men. And with that comes a laundry list of things that are wrong with your argument. You say that tattooed women are lacking class, yet I find it interesting that the person who is making such a broad and judgmental statement is the same woman who is calling "wearing high heels" and "getting your nails done" a productive and good use of time. Your ignorance is almost shocking to me, and I kept holding out for the "just kidding, guys! I'm really not this crazy!" all the way to the end. To put it simply, I just can't find the logic in any of your argument.
Ms. Khoury, I get it. You don't like tattoos. And that's okay- we're all entitled to our own opinion. But objectifying and cutting down your own gender is absolutely the wrong way to go about it. You've painted a portrait of the ideal woman in your article- she's someone who enjoys the finer things in life and flaunts her body. If she's unhappy with herself she wears trendy clothes and goes to the mall with her girlfriends. Maybe she'll try out a new hairstyle, or perhaps get a new gym membership. But this elegant woman would never, ever get a tattoo because she finds deep meaning and purpose in the aforementioned "genuine, satisfying" things; no need to do something as unmeaningful and classless as get a tattoo. Makes perfect sense.
So congratulations, you've managed to perpetuate the stereotype that all women are put on this Earth to look pretty. Not once in your list of "productive activities" did you mention anything really worthwhile. You've degraded all women down to a common purpose; to "work hard" at looking good. This archaic way of thinking is not just stupid, it's downright harmful. I hope that if you ever have a daughter, you somehow gain enough knowledge between now and then to be able to teach her that women are worth so much more than their appearance, tattooed or not.
Lucky for you this article will live on just as long as the tattoos all over my body. And one day, when we're each "in the middle of giving our grandkids a life lesson on the importance of values and morals," at least I won't ever have to explain that one time I single-handedly set my own gender back a hundred steps and humiliated myself on the internet via my own small-minded, judgmental mindset. And to answer your question, "what's more attractive than a girl with a nice body?" A girl with a brain, Lisa Khoury. A girl with a brain who uses it and who knows that all women don't belong in a box, especially a box drawn by someone using sexism and ignorance to make their point. That's attractive.
My hope for you is that you continue to educate yourself, and stop trying to hand out "life's secrets" until you gain a little more life experience yourself.
Sincerely,
Danielle Hampton
Ferrari image via