Prior to the ninth Young Women’s Parliament conference in Ashdod (November 2013), Lily Ben-Ami, who delivered the opening speech at the conference, published an article dealing with the question of “How we can strengthen young women towards turning them into future leaders, in a society that evaluates young women based on their bodies, their clothes and their sexual activity?”
A segment of this article is translated below. The full text in the link >>
A production line of young women – we are the responsible adults
Lily Ben-Ami invites you to an important conference, especially now.
Published on 19/11/2013.
If the media doesn’t do it, we must seize the role of “the responsible adult” and do it ourselves. We must talk about this issue with young women and men, and encourage leadership, social responsibility and critical thinking.
The challenge was met by Eti Attias, chairwoman of the Women’s Council in Ashdod, and Prof. Esther Hertzog, chairwoman of Young Women’s Parliament. On the coming Wednesday, “a young women’s leadership conference 2013” will be held in Ashdod, in which these exact issues will be discussed, with a focus on the world of young women essentially.
I will deliver the opening speech at the conference, in which I will present photos and videos that will help young women and all of us to wear gender virtual glasses to expose the reality around us, and the stereotypical messages in popular culture. During the conference, the story of young women who changed the world will be told, a movie will be shown, and there will be a panel discussion on the topic of, “Beauty, gender and feminine roles in society,” which will be moderated by Linoy Bar Geffen.
Eti Attias, who also serves as advisor to the mayor of Ashdod on the status of women, explains that, “the purpose of the conference is to raise awareness among young women to their body, their self, and their dignity; to examine together how to cope with the reality in which they live, and how not to lose their personality, and not to become a victim of a false image, fashions and social illusions based on messages that are fundamentally false”.
The importance of the conference increases in light of recent media coverage regarding orgies and sexual relations that famous singers had with underage teenagers. Minors who claim that they consented and agreed to do it out of adolescent idolization of the singer, an aged singer who thinks that “I was wronged”, the media that attacks the parents, and we as a society that finds itself again pointing a finger at the victim. We have to stop, quit gazing at the screen and realize that when it comes to minors, we are equally responsible. When we deal with a sexual act between a minor and an older man, the relationship is unequal. The accusing finger, of us as a society, must be a pointed at him, and in no way at her. Otherwise we are not only doing injustice to the girl as a victim, but also to ourselves and to our children by allowing the responsible adult – wherever they may be – to eliminate the responsibility, and moreover – to get social legitimacy for such behavior; behavior that is a part of the hypocritical reality-show culture on which the young women and men are raised; behavior in which a young woman is compared to a car door.
We must ask ourselves – with what kind of role models are we presenting the youth? With what kind of role models are the society and media presenting the youth? Let’s talk about the beauty myth, critical thinking and gender awareness in adolescence. Come and bring your daughters and sons with you – let them be exposed to worthy role models, such as leading young women whose motives are values and social responsibility, not a “Like” on a photo on Facebook.
>> The 9th Young Women’s Parliament conference, young women’s leadership 2013, will be held on Wednesday, November 20th, in the auditorium of the Makif Het High School, 20 Barak Ben Avinoam Street, Ashdod.