Self-Esteem

Yesterday at Walmart I saw a girl falling out of her shirt so far that more than just cleavage was showing. It was very disturbing...mostly because I thought about why the girl was dressed like that. I wanted to run to the clothing department, grab a shirt off the rack, buy it for her, and say, "you're worth more than this."

On the whole, when girls dress in ways that expose themselves that much, it's a self-esteem issue. There's a line between dressing tastefully but hot, and dressing to attract attention from guys. And when it's to attract attention, it's usually because the girl in question doesn't believe she has enough worth as a person to attract guys with anything other than her chest.

And is it any wonder? The world screams at women, via TV, magazine covers, you name it, that to be worth something is to be hot. And to show that hot body off. And then it becomes a vicious cycle: girl dresses to flaunt herself, it gets guys' attention, girl's suspicion is confirmed that to attract a guys attention she must dress to flaunt herself. And so guys learn more and more to see women as sex objects; after all, they dress to show off their bodies. "Isn't that what they want?" guys wonder, unaware of the inner struggle us girls face between wanting so badly to be valued and wondering if we'll ever get the attention we crave without some unhealthy flaunting.

I don't know how to break the cycle. But somehow us women have to learn that we have more worth than our physical bodies.