We have imprisoned our minds and worked our bodies to the point of inhumanity. We stare at photos of concentration camp prisoners with tears in our eyes but refuse to see that model Kate Moss could easily pass for any one of Hitler's victims.
Fashion magazines insist their hearts lie with self-acceptance and loving your personal differences, yet continue to provide nothing but irregularly skinny women on their covers.
Contrary to what some may believe and may expect to hear from me, I do not believe this internment of female consciousness is the fault of men. Yes, Earth remains a man's world, and society has for centuries been shaped by the male view of reality. But modern American women have earned the freedom to make for ourselves a psyche untainted by "their" influence.
Unfortunately, most women have burned their bras and put on a corset. The sexual revolutionaries of the '60s and '70s have become in their later years Tories to a feminist nation and have created a poor example for their Generation X offspring.
And I, as a 16-year-old soon-to-be senior, see the results of this bad influence every day. I see it in the eyes of friends who believe that at 5-foot-10, 130 pounds, they are too fat to ever be considered attractive.
Many of my close friends have developed some sort of eating disorder, from anorexia to bulimia to obsession with calories.
And while stand-up comedians, usually of the male persuasion, use women's preoccupation with their weight as what they see as cute anecdotes, it's not a funny subject. It's not funny to see 16-year-olds eating nothing but carrot sticks and diet pills all day until they pass out. It's not funny to find a friend vomiting in a Zippy's restroom because she was "too weak" to resist the temptation of an order of french fries.
Attempts to educate women about these matters seem almost futile. Females I know seem to be so mesmerized by physical perfection that even the most blatant attempt to break the spell fails. Even those who seem to be most assured on the surface slip back into darkness when it comes to looking "perfect" for proms, first dates or job interviews.
In the quest to be accepted in a man's world of politics and commerce, women have even tried to trade in our bodies for theirs. No longer do we applaud or even accept a big-breasted, round-stomached, full-thighed woman, chasing instead, lanky, curveless, flat-chested shadows.
It's no wonder there are few women in Congress and executive positions when not only do we have to work harder than men, but we insist on counting calories and climbing the Stairmaster along with the corporate ladder.
Women have bonded themselves into slavery both mental and physical. The only solution I see is to liberate ourselves from our masochistic views of beauty.
We need to relearn how to eat cheesecakes without once thinking of vomiting in the ladies room. We need to look in the mirror without crying or feeling the need to put on our jogging shoes and running two miles. We need to put down the Thigh Master and miracle cellulite cream and pick up a Gloria Steinem book and observe a true portrait of the female essence.
Most important, we need to stop catering to what men think they want and live the life we know we need.
Rant & Rave is a Tuesday Star-Bulletin feature allowing teens and young adults to serve up fresh perspective. Guys and girls speak up by fax at 523-8509; by answering machine at 525-8666; snail mail at P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, HI 96802; or e-mail, features@starbulletin.com.