Switch

 I've been thinking about the media and the ways characterization can condition people to associate sexiness with behaving badly. When someone is stylish, has curves, or has a body type we define as sexy, we call them bad, especially when they're a woman. Women also will use the word and internalize what is mistaken as an adjective, but truly a misogynistic one. It promotes the idea that a woman who looks "good" is bad. She behaves badly. The women who are defined as looking good or desirable, but in film and television, they tend to behave badly. But there's also this parallel of women who are not exuding or embodying concepts of femininity being morally superior. Brooke Davis is girly, and Haley James-Scott is not. Caroline Forbes is a girl, but Elan Gilbert is not. Lydia Marin is girly, but Allison Argent is not. Regina George to Cady Heron. Isobel Stevens to Meredith Gray. I can go on and on. The concept of sex appeal oscillates in The Vampire Diaries whenever female characters turn off their humanity. Their humanity, which holds sympathy, reflection, emotional IQ, and more compassionate characteristics, disintegrates. When this combustion occurs, the aesthetic we are given is also altered. Visually, the women characters wear darker clothing, show more skin, behave with hostility, and enact oppression. What causes the character exposition of women to produce media that says shallowness coincides with femininity and cruelty with sexiness? I adore many of the shows with these female characters, but I do hope they aren’t subconsciously feeding the idea that a woman's proximity to the constructs of femininity determines desirability and/or competence.