This is a letter written by the “Not Your Girls” columnists in response to a Letter to the Editor written by a concerned reader questioning the choice of the women to pose in lingerie.

Hello Carrie!

Thank you for the positive reinforcement on our article Not Your Girls. While reading your comments and concerns I couldn’t help but to agree.

As we went through the process of coming up with a photo idea and choosing just one, we were both struggling with what to do. We were both aware that peers, professors, family, and members of the surrounding community would view this image.

We both took into account the positive and negative comments we would receive with such a controversial topic. And this is exactly why we chose the photo with us both in our undergarments. We feel as though this society puts too much pressure on women to “cover up” but we view women and men both on the beach or at a pool with a revealing or modest bathing suit. We posed the question “What is the difference between us being in our bathing suits or us being in our bra and underwear?”

Our answer was simply nothing.

Whether we were in a bra and underwear or our two piece bathing suits, we would be showing the same amount of skin. We chose the undergarment photo to represent the fact that no matter what we wear, no matter how much we show OR how little we show, the human body, specifically the woman’s body, will be mocked, judged, devalued, sexualized, or praised.

We believe that the messages we have and are continuing to convey in our article will show our intelligence.

As women, we deserve to be taken seriously by what we bring to the table, not by what we wear. We should be treated like ladies, because we are ladies.

We should be respected because we are human beings. We, as intelligent, strong-willed young women, hope that this article is a stepping stone to realizing that barriers, such as how we dress or look, need to be taken down before they take us down.  If someone is focussed on how amazing we look in our skivvies and take what we have to say for granted, then they have missed the message in the article.

We are not defined by our outfits.

We are not defined by our weight.

We are not defined by the societal views that have brought so many women down.

We are defined by our own definitions of who we are.

I hope you continue to read our articles and enjoy the boundaries that we break!

Thank you!

Sincerely,

Not Your Girls