Bad Attitude by Tiffany White Page A

the tough-guy mouth she used as armor.
    â€œWell, look at you,” he said.
    Molly’s heart sank. “What about me?”
    â€œYou talk about liking yourself, yet you have this thing about your red hair and curves.” Leaning forward, he said, “You’re the one who’s obsessed with hipless blondes, Molly, not me.”
    He’d touched her trigger button and she went off. “No. It’s not me who’s obsessed with hipless blondes. It’s the society we live in. You can’t be a woman alive in this time and not feel the pressure to be thinner, not feel dissatisfied with your body, no matter what shape you were born with.”
    â€œSo you’re saying that being a hipless blonde would make you a happier person?”
    â€œNo, because I know perfection isn’t possible. But you can’t stop the effect of being bombarded every day by the media’s message that being thin opens up the way to acceptable beauty as well as to personal and professional success. If you want to feel female, sexy and desired, you have to work for it—work out for it. The whole, morally superior attitude of the fitness maniacs annoys me.”
    â€œSo don’t listen to it,” Mitch said, dismissing her qualms with a shrug.
    â€œThat’s easier said than done,” Molly countered. “And anyway, it won’t work unless men stop listening, too. They are being conditioned just as much as women are. They are being conditioned to want one stereotype of woman instead of the wide array available.”
    She picked up a magazine and began flipping through it aimlessly. “Besides, it’s almost impossible to tune out the message, when you’re confronted with the so-called ideal everywhere you turn, from television to movies to … to magazines,” she said. The cover showed a blonde, applying makeup in her underwear.
    Mitch laughed. “Boy, you really are on a tear about this, aren’t you? Why are you so upset?”
    â€œUpset? Why am I upset? I’ll tell you why. It’s because the message is getting worse. It’s no longer enough just to be thin. Now you have to be toned. Soft must be replaced by hard. It seems to me there is a very deliberate campaign to make the female body more male.”
    â€œNot by me.”
    Molly glared at him.
    â€œOkay, let’s assume for a moment you’re right. Why do you suppose the culture is demanding women become less feminine?”
    Molly was abruptly aware that he was actually interested in what she thought. Was this part of his line? Was it pretense? Did she dare believe he was really interested in her? Stop it. Don’t get involved. You promised Peter. You promised yourself. Just answer his question, she told herself.
    â€œWell, since you asked, I think the current success of women in the marketplace is scaring the hell out of men. If you make women more like men, maybe they aren’t as frightening.”
    â€œI’m not scared of a real woman,” Mitch said, all movie-star confidence.
    â€œYou have the sense of a stone, remember?”
    He let her remark pass. “Are you saying that men should be afraid of women?”
    â€œNo, I’m saying women are starting to catch on.”
    â€œCatch on to what?”
    â€œThe fact that the beauty and body requirements imposed on women are extremely time consuming, compared to those imposed on men. You add housework, which women still do most of, plus child care, and there is no way a woman can compete equally with a man.”
    Mitch folded his hands behind his head and looked at her; she saw a glint flash in his eyes. “You want to know what I think?”
    She wasn’t sure. “What?” she asked, nonetheless, letting curiosity win out.
    â€œI think men have more determination. Men decide to do something and they do it. It’s as simple as that.”
    â€œWhat a line of sexist garbage!”
    â€œYou