(ThySistas.com) You would think that in a year like 2016, a woman could get a little break. I mean it’s bad enough we are a minority group that continually has to prove how capable and worthy we are. Why add insult to injury by criticizing every single decision we make? If you’re wondering what in particular I’m referring to, it’s the reaction many people had to Malia Obama’s “twerking video.”
Footage hit the Internet recently of her getting it, do you hear me. She and her friends look like they were having the time of their lives at this year’s Lollapalooza in Chicago. They are 18- year-olds doing
what newly graduated 18-year-olds do- party. So why are people giving her such a hard time about shaking her booty?
I get it. She is the president’s daughter. But this is not a scandal people. She was enjoying a music festival like everyone else has at some point in life. The fact that she is the first daughter should not take away from her ability to have fun.
What are we saying when we point out how she was dancing? Are we bringing attention to her movement or to who she is in the eyes of the public? Either way, negatively commenting on her experience at the music festival sends a damaging message to young women everywhere.
The double standard here is unfair. If she were an 18-year-old boy, there would be no outcry. Folks would come to the rescue by regurgitating age old adages like, “Boys will be boys,” and “He’s just sewing his wild oats.”
That’s the real issue I have with those who feel that Malia acted outside of “proper” protocol. Her father has only a few more months left in his presidency. Barack Obama’s children have been virtually problem free. They have conducted themselves with poise and class (just like their mother) and adhered to the expectations that the entire world placed on them. But because they are young women, they must act a certain way at all times and cannot be caught, gasp, living their lives?
Women get the short end of the stick too often. We are judged if we are thin or fat. By how we act, dignified or ghetto. We are even criticized for what we choose to do with our lives- having a career, be a single mother or stay at home to raise our children. We cannot win for losing.
Women have made some great strides in the past few decades. We have gone from accepting the societal role of homemaker, mother, and wife to transforming ourselves into powerhouse humans that can take on anything. I want it to stay that way. My generation and the ones behind me must know that yes, you can be an influential person, have respect for yourself and drop it like it’s hot every now and then. One does not negate the other, especially when you are 18-years-old.
Malia Obama is a carefree black girl and has every right as an American young woman to do her. Rock on!
Staff Writer; Rasheda Abdullah