In my last article I talked about 'Cosmopolitan' magazine being nothing better than soft core pornography because of all of it's sexual content.

That article and the subsequent responses got me thinking about what it used to mean to be an 'independent' woman - and what it seems to mean today.

When I was in my teens and early twenties, being an independent or career woman was still a big deal.  Women were still facing the 'glass ceiling' in the corporate world - they would get so far up the ladder, then would be passed up for their male counterparts.  If a woman made her own way in the world, sans assistance from a man, it was either assumed that she was a lesbian or that she was somehow deficient in personality or looks.  Women were, as far as my parent's generation was concerned, destined to have a job only until they got married and had kids.  Having a house, a car, a successful career AND being a single female was something that still raised a few eyebrows.

But somewhere down the line, the definition of being an 'independent' woman changed.  It's not all about professions and houses any more....it seems to be about sex.  The freedom to have as much sex, in as many different positions, with as many men as you can seems to be the new standard.  Cosmo, the magazine that used to be the flagship publication for independent women, no longer prints articles about single women and mortgage rates....it's articles over the past 3 years or so have become more sexually oriented.  TV hasn't helped much either - the advent of shows like 'Sex In The City' have made it fashionable to be promiscuous.  Young women emulate what they see in the media....and Carrie and her pals got their fair share (and then some) of men.  And all this in an age where AIDS and Hepatitis C are running rampant.  The message seems to be that as long as you use protection, it's okay.

It saddens and disappoints me...and if it has ME feeling that way, I can only imagine how it makes the generations of women before my time feel - those who burned their bras in the streets and protested for equal rights for women.  Is this really what they had in mind?  Did they fight so that their children's children could indisctiminately sleep with multiple partners, so they could, to be blunt, whore around with whoever they felt like?

Promiscuity does NOT equal independence.  We, as a society, need to make sure our daughters (and sons) know this.