Everything Happened Before, Everything Will Happen Again

Quilted fabric depicting large-breasted women playing at winter sport.

The above decoration hangs in a coffee house our family enjoys. For me it's a joke, a 1950s designer's attempt to show pin-up girls involved in winter pursuits. The humor is that we (society? my wife and me?) view it as dated and chauvinist to such an extent that it ceases to be offensive and moves into the realm of kitsch or/and weird retro art.

My daughter is now figuring out that women in video games don't have a fair shake. She finds few cool games with female protagonists and complains that those in the games are over-sexualized.

I agree with her assessment, but am wondering how does a an 11-year-old perceive these elusive boundaries between legitimate concern over sexism and retro chic.

I fear the humor of the winter women will be reinterpreted as just what society did before women became pinup dolls in video games.

I hope all of us can keep our sense of humor and perspective about these issues.