First off, everytime I read this thread the soundtrack in my head is playing this, Valley Girl accent and all.
Oh, my, god. Becky, look at her butt.
It is so big. *scoff* She looks like,
one of those rap guys' girlfriends.
But, y'know, who understands those rap guys? *scoff*
They only talk to her, because,
she looks like a total prostitute, 'kay?
I mean, her butt, is just so big. *scoff*
I can't believe it's just so round, it's like,
out there, I mean - gross. Look!
She's just so ... black!
All of this is in the eye of the beholder. Cultural differences, socio-economic differences, climate all tend to factor in. You can look like a slut in NYC in the winter wearing a huge amount of clothing, while someone strolling San Diego in next to nothing is being modest. I'm absolutely certain the bar for what it takes to be a slut is a lot higher in LA than Omaha. There is an entire Latina range of dressing like this that makes almost all other girls look absolutely frumpy in comparison. Those women can make the Queen of the Angels sigh. They don't think they are sluts -and will pretty much kick your ass if you call them that - they think they are young, hot and sexy. Does it drive the boys crazy? Hell yeah, that a huge part of the fun. But culturally speaking in Santa Rosa or East LA they are not dressing out of the mainstream for women of that age at all. It's just that your fashion sense is not nearly that exciting.
Plus - and at first I wasn't going to go here, but WTF - just because you BUY some stuff does not make you the person. Wearing the shirt does not make you the band or the team. I could go out and buy a real authentic Hope Solo Team USA Soccer Jersey. It does not make me Hope Solo. It does not even make me a better goalie. Hell, it doesn't even change the fact that I don't know the first thing about even playing soccer. It doesn't put me on the USA Women's Team to buy it. It doesn't make me a woman to buy it or wear it, and its not even proof of being an American since we'd sell the jerseys to anyone.
Likewise you can go to Hot Topic or whatever consumer-approved rebellion store you like and buy all the band shirts for the latest set of poseurs with bad hair instruments that are way too good for them and some 'edgy' name thought up by a marketing department somewhere. It does not make you hip. It only make Hot Topic $20 richer.
I wouldn't confuse some girl walking down the street in a Pablo Sandoval Giant's baseball jersey with a World Series winning 237 pound Venezuelan infielder. Neither would you.
I'd go so far as to say that a whole lot of the slutty dress is done by 'nice' girls who are trying to spice up their otherwise dull, drab and boring life. It manufactured excitement sold to people who can't manufacture any excitement on their own. You can say all you want about what kind of image they project when they are out strutting Broadway on Saturday night, but when the weekend is done, they are back in business drag and at their desk come Monday morning.
Because what exactly is the difference between a hot slut ready to hit the bright lights and big city like she owns the very pavement she's struttin' down and Marian the Librarian on her way home, because home is the only places she ever goes? 20 minutes on the bus. I see girls all the time get on the bus in San Rafael, and change their clothes, do their makeup (and Hot Slut colors are made by the same cosmetic companies that make Good Girl colors) do the hair, take the glasses off, put the contacts in and volia! Hot to trot. And it works the same in reverse. The hair goes up into some tight wrap on the back of the head, the make up comes off, the uniforms go on and the contacts come out and the glasses go back on and it's Good Morning Little Schoolgirl.
The entire thing is most likely a reverse deal anyway so that those that dress for sex the most are having the least, while the people who don't look like anything at all are having porno sex every day. I'm pretty sure - because I'm listening to their conversation intently - that those girls on the bus are good girls. They just like looking bad once in a while.
(Here's where I'm going to get in trouble) While not so good looking women often view this as exploitation, pretty girls know it as power. Pretty girls rule the world in their own way. At least they usually get their own way, which is pretty much what ruling the world comes down to in the end anyway. Yeah, sure it's true that: Oh, she's just showing off her boobs in that fancy Victoria's Secret bra to get out of paying the $50 bar tab she's going to drink her way through tonight.
And...?
Some trans women seem to go through the same too short skirts and too much makeup phase a lot of 14 year old girls go through.
Some, perhaps, but not all. That sounds like a cop-out to me. I don't think that most girls go through that. Only the ones that want to.
The first time you do it when you like 13 or so might be an 'experiment' but every single time after that you know damn well what you are doing or you're a total idiot. And, like Dolly Parton (who should know) has said: It takes a lot of money to dress this cheap. The hot slut clothing is way more expensive than the dull, boring, everyday frump look straight out of the Ross store. You're not casually, almost by accident, buying a skin tight leather mini skirt for a few hundred bucks. I'm also pretty sure that the first time every girl tried to walk out of the house dressed like that their mom or dad - or both - let them have a big pile of their fashion advice concluding with: 'no daughter of mine is going out in public dressed like that!' Hence changing clothes on the bus.
The Big Thing
That someone else is doing something only reflects on you if you let it, or if the other person is incredibly stupid. And since you can't do anything about the second, all you have to do is hold up your end of the first part. Do not let it reflect on you.
It sounds a whole lot like (because it is exactly like) blaming other people for your problems. That other people are, or are not, doing something does not reflect on you until you join them in it.