NotaPrincess

A SYTYCB entry

Everyone has probably seen the “What guys want” lists that show up month after month, year after year, in women’s magazines- from those aimed at preteens to more adult issues of Cosmo, magazines love to remind us that our bodies are a constant performance and we should always want to know what men think about ourselves and our decisions.   If it’s not what they think about how we dress, it’s our makeup choices, how we eat food on dates, our posture- et cetera.  (Some examples: Guys Reveal: What they want to see you wear on dates, What Greek Guys Want Girls to Wear, What Guys Think About How You Look)

The problem is not that guys have opinions: it’s the way the magazines posit these opinions as important and necessary for us to know.  It feeds into a larger social pattern where we are taught to always see ourselves through the male gaze, and are taught to interpret our own decisions and choices as being less valuable if they don’t make us more attractive to men.

Here is what one of those Q and A’s might go like if feminism took over the magazine interviews for a day, and published the results.

Louis R., Age 22, Austin:
“I am not into girls who have tattoos, and rather than discouraging girls to do what they want with their bodies since it doesn’t fit with my manview of what is “attractive” ...