Construction woes

When I first sat down to write this, I had every intention of sharing another angering encounter involving the ever-ogling construction workers at our wonderful school.

But as I began developing my usual feminist thoughts, I looked around at some of the other girls on campus and realized that the construction workers are not entirely to blame for their wandering eyes.

Rather than taking a stern feminist perspective, I'm choosing to look to the alternatives, and examine myself and the other young women who have created this situation for all of us, whether intentionally or not.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has noticed that with each passing year, the shorts seem to be getting shorter, the skirts higher and the tights tighter. And the once innocent "sun dress" has taken a slutty turn for the worse.

I don't believe that I subscribe to the usual dress code of the exceptionally not-classy women at Buff State, but the way I dress does occasionally draw the attention of the opposite sex. I'm as guilty as the next girl when it comes to owning a pair of pants with writing on the backside, but you sure won't see me wearing them on campus around my professors.

Although I don't like the stares that inevitably follow women as we pass a construction area, I will admit that the workers have probably been given quite a bit to look at.

I don't see a viable solution to this annoyance. It's unlikely that the women on campus will suddenly agree that they are against this form of attention and join together in a "Cover Your Body" campaign.

Here's an even better option: Women could constantly walk around with a large group of hunky guys surrounding them so that all the workers have to look at is more burly men. Again, not a likely solution, and this may lead to an indirect sense of competition between the men. Nobody wants to see that.

Another option would be to confront the men who are doing the ogling, but from my experience in attempting to ward off unwanted attention, calling attention to the attention only draws more negative attention, thus creating a vicious attention-drawing circle!

The best option I can come up with, sad to say, is to make yourself a hideous creature that draws fear into children's heartsby rolling out of bed in the morning and looking as repulsive as possible in an attempt to horrify all men.

Jennifer Waters can be reached by email at waters.record@live.com.