The issue here is not whether or not similar things can be seen on the street, on the beach, or in one's own home. Nor is it about the choices that individual women make in terms of their own level of comfort with their own bodies, or the choices that individual families make in what they consider age-appropriate for their children to be exposed to.
The issue here is that this one instance is symbolic of an entire culture that perpetuates the objectification of women, treating women's bodies like a commodity to be bought, sold, and marketed, and then -- to add insult to injury -- messages such objectification in such a way that young women are supposed to be grateful for the chance to objectify themselves, and anyone who objects is a prude or a killjoy.
Objectification, depersonalization, and misogyny is not hip or edgy, Southwest. It is a sleazy thing to do. And you've just lost not only my business, but the business of a bunch of very, very angry women with very loud internet voices.
Women's bodies are not commodities or marketing tools. Please stop buying into the perception that they are.
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