Ladies gone wild

For a few hours on Friday, it was 1981 again. Wolf Trap's theater in Vienna, Va., was crowded with middle-aged women all eager to hear the sound of their youth - the Go-Go's.

The Go-Go's are traveling America on their "Ladies Gone Wild" tour to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their album Beauty and the Beat. Traveling the world in the 80s paved the way for future girl bands and provided a presence for the cause of gender equality that was hip, cool, and fun. Today, however, their music is a far cry from the feminism of 2011.

During the 80s, the Go-Go's tried to show the world that women could do anything. They didn't need a male manager or even a male drummer or songwriter - they could do it on their own, and be loved because of it. Being an all-girls band was difficult though, and the pressure they faced left them starving for an escape. They began exploring the dark world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. In spite of the Go-Go's addictions, girls all over America fell in love with their light-hearted and upbeat tunes.

The Go-Go's opened the concert with their hit song "Vacation," and as they began to play, half the audience jumped up and began cheering and dancing. One woman grabbed her husband and gave him a big smooch. A pot-bellied, beer-drinking man stood up and shouted "Belinda, I love you!" Some women were decked out in 80s attire, while others squeezed into faded Go-Go t-shirts. A few brave husbands attended the concert, but for most, it was a girl's night out. For one evening, they set aside their jobs, families, and day-to-day stress to be 18 again.

Clo Rodeffer drove two and a half hours to the concert when her daughter bought her a ticket as an early birthday present. Rodeffer saw the Go-Go's play in 1982 with her roommate.

"They had a lot of life and a lot of spirit," Rodeffer said, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "They were just a lot of fun. When you're 18, you like fun; and when you're 48, you like fun."

She has taught her son to be respectful of women and trained her four daughters to realize that it doesn't matter if someone is male or female - what matters is being a strong individual. She has a great marriage, but her husband doesn't tell her what she can and can't do.

"Feminism is just that mindset of 'we can do whatever we want to do,'" she said, "That's what we are. I don't take any [nonsense] from anyone."

Maureen Egon spent her birthday at the concert and brought 25 friends with her. She and her husband recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary, and they love the Go-Go's because it reminds them of when they were young.

"If the Go-Go's can keep playing, we can keep dancing," her husband said.

Barbara Tilghman attended the concert with two good friends. She feels America has come a long way since the Go-Go's heyday. When Tilghman first got a job in the engineering business, she was one of four women working in a corporation of 200 people.

"It was kinda like, 'oooh, there's a girl,'" she said, "Now it doesn't matter."

Robin Hayes saw the Go-Go's in 1983 when she was a freshman in college. She was studying for a test when a friend told her the Go-Go's were playing at their school. She immediately abandoned her studying and went to the concert in her pajamas. Now, almost 30 years later, she and a friend headed to the concert.

"The Go-Go's were a fun beach band," Hayes said. "Nothing earth-shattering, nothing serious. They all had drug addictions - that's not feminism, that's weakness."

But over the years the brand of feminism represented by the Go-Go's has quietly become anachronistic. The focus of feminism shifted from pursuing equality to pushing extreme agendas. In the 1980s the Go-Go's sang about ignoring vicious gossip in "Our Lips are Sealed" and about having fun dancing in "We Got the Beat," two of their biggest hits. Now radical feminists are hosting "SlutWalks."

They intend to reclaim the word "slut" and give it a positive meaning (nobody has quite explained why that would be a good thing). At these events women parade the streets wearing whatever they desire. For many, that means a bra and panties; for others, it's a more modest attire of sweat pants and t-shirt. The point is that women should be able to dress however they desire without fear of being raped.

In a recent Washington Times column, "SlutWalking our way to Gomorrah," Janice Crouse, Director of Concerned Women for America's Beverly LaHaye Institute, wrote, "The SlutWalks are the only indication in recent past decades that the feminist movement has any life left at all. The demonstrators are following the old feminist mantra to be 'in your face' about 'women's rights.' I think they err in thinking very many young women aspire to be viewed as sluts."

Crouse believes that even though women today have adopted feminist thinking, they are more traditional than girls 30 years ago.

"The heyday of feminism is lost past," Crouse told me. "Sadly, feminism changed drastically in the 80s when the emphasis turned from gaining equality to pushing quotas, disparagement of men and so-called women's rights, which included abortion and the lesbian/homosexual agenda. By moving so far outside the mainstream, feminists lost middle America."

That's not all.

Some modern-day feminists believe virginity isn't real, but is just a term designed to constrict people from doing what they want. No one's a virgin, because virginity doesn't exist, they say.

Feminist Jessica Valenti authored a book entitled, The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession With Virginity is Hurting Young Women.

"Women - especially young women, who are the most targeted in this virgin/whore straitjacket - are surviving the purity myth every day," Valenti wrote in her book, "And it has to stop. Our daughters deserve a model of morality that's based on ethics, not on their bodies."

The issues feminists are targeting are now so extreme that they fail to capture the attention of the mainstream American girl. While middle-aged feminists are busy spinning their wheels to redefine the word "slut," the pro-life movement is gaining ground by attracting thousands of high school and college-age women.

The Go-Go's may keep playing, but the girls of 2011 are throwing their time and energy behind a new movement. And their lips aren't sealed.

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