Zoey got pregnant, Hannah Montana's posing nearly nude, Two pre-teen boys are fronting something called "The Naked Brothers Band", and now Dora the Explorer is being turned into a pre-teen tramp. If all this sounds like an effort to sexualize your 8 year old daughter or son, you'd be right on target. The last time I wrote about this horrible trend in our culture, it was a couple of university professors that we're trying to convince you that adult/pre-teen sex was perfectly O.K.. Don't believe me? Check it out.
Being the father of 3 children and the grandfather of 6 grandkids, this effort by the disgusting "progressive"arm of our media and universities makes me nauseous like no other issue. When I bring up this effort (by some) to legitimize sexualizing children, or even having sex with children, I'm usually greeted with a large degree of scepticism. My efforts to tie that movement to the current Gay Rights movement is usually met with down-right anger and accusations that my '70's experimentation has left me with less than a fully operating brain. Let me assure you, The Hippie's brain is firing on all cylinders.
Anyone that's been around for more than two decades has seen this for themselves, even if they don't know it. If you don't have any young children, or don't pay much attention to what's going on in T.V. programing lately, I suggest you take a day or two and watch Nickelodeon or any of the children's networks. Be prepared to be shocked. Eight year old boys are chasing girls and walking around with bare chests, Lazytown, a popular children's show, is so sexualized that pedophiles have set up sites to salivate over the seemingly pre-pubescent star. Your children are being taught that they should use words like "hot" or "sexy" to describe their playground playmates.
Hollywood and our media have had a tolerant attitude towards sexualizing children for some time. When Roman Polanski, a famous director, raped a 13 year-old in his hot tub (after feeding her Quaaludes), Hollywood couldn't even feign shock. In fact, they even continued to celebrate his films and defend him even as he fled to France to escape prosecution. When Woody Allen, another famous producer and star, started openly dating his own step daughter immediately after she turned 18, Hollywood embraced them both without a hint of condemnation. Every day another teacher is paraded across our T.V. screen after being caught having sex with one of her "tween" students. Is she in the orange garb and shackles typical of past male teachers caught fornicating with a child? No. She looks like she just stepped out of a day spa. Our media offers no judgement, no condemnation for having sex with her student while we paid her!
How am I connecting all this to the current Gay Rights Movement? First, let me say that it isn't gay people that I have a problem with at all. It's the activists. Note that I didn't call them "Gay Rights Advocates". These are the left-over '60's era hippies (the one's that stole our movement for their own gain) that have made their way into the arts and our schools and our universities. They are reliving their past by clinging to anything that has the word "rights" attached to it. Having justifiably worked for Civil Rights, Women's Rights, The Anti War movement and now Gay Rights, they are quickly finding themselves with no cause to fight for. And no more attention. No more adulation. No more getting laid by young impressionable people. That's the crucial point, attention. They liked to be viewed as championing for the underdog and will back anything that gets them attention. This will include the lowering of age of consent (or Young Adult Civil Rights) and adult/child sex. Once Gay Marriage is passed and gay rights are established, do you really think they'll just leave all that attention? Or will they just find another issue?
To see how right I am on this subject, simply walk through any Junior High to see how well their efforts are working. Young ladies walk around in clothes that make street-walkers look conservative and no teacher or administrator says a word. No judgement is passed because they've been taught it's wrong to judge. The media has taught our youth that their sexuality is all they have to offer. And where are our Feminists? They are deathly afraid to cross these activists because they are on the same side on issues such as Gay Rights or abortion. Rather than risk offending their supporters, they stand idly by as young women are sexualized far, far beyond anything seen in our more oppressive past. If we can't stand up for our own children when they're being dressed up for pedophiles, sexualized before they reach puberty by cartoons and 'tween pop stars, and then preyed upon by sick gray-pony-tailed academics, maybe we should stop calling ourselves "parents". We will no longer deserve the title. H.C.
6 comments:
well, i've got nothing to say about the connection to gay rights because i haven't really considered that link at all prior to coming here now. but i will say the media portrayals of kids being sexualized at younger and younger ages and the difficulty finding appropriate clothing for tween girls is disturbing. it was miserable trying to find decent clothes for my girls at that age. watching disney and nickelodeon makes me want to tear my hair out.
and as upset as some people get about barbie dolls have you seen the bratz dolls? they are nothing more than little plastic prostitute dolls.
Hey Lime,
I sympathize with your effort to find appropriate clothing. it's awful hard to tell your kids that they can't wear what every other kid in their school is wearing and what is popular. It feels like your setting your kid up to be ostracized by their peers. These cartoons are everywhere and getting worse every season. I was shocked one day when I left my grandkids to watch some cartoon network show (that was mild enough) and returned 5 minutes later to find a program called "Drama Island" on. It was a program filled with cartoon teenagers talking about their sex and love lives. YIKES!! And Yes, I have seen the Bratz dolls! WTF. I don't understand for the life of me why everyone focuses on Barbie when trash like that is out there. I swear I'm not usually so prudish, but this is children, fergodsakes.
The ubiquitous "sex sells" mantra has finally gone tween and almost tween. A sign of the times, for sure.
I agree with most of the suggestions you've made in this piece. I'll get into those in a second. But for now, here are my objections:
(1) I don't think you're giving enough credit to pedophiles. They possess pedophiliac tendencies with or without the kiddie lipstick. They can get their rocks off (sorry for the language) just as much watching a child bundled up in layers of Michigan snow gear as they could by watching Lil Miss Miley strolling around half naked.
(2) I don't agree with their mindset, but certain child stars feel like the only way they can break out of their infantilization is to do something unchild-like. In an industry obsessed with looks, glamour, and adult themes, its no wonder why youngsters feel as if the only way they can achieve validation is by whoring it up.
(3) Making Dora a tween was a marketing move. Plain and simple. It was a pretty poor move - trying to adopt a Disney, princess-like look or the 'all-grown up' persona. But that's all it was. To consider Dora's transformation some sort of sexualized marketing is a bit of stretch, I think.
Now, where I actually agree with most of your piece:
(1) One of the unfortunate and frightening consequences of the kind of sexual packaging and exploitation you cited is how it defines certain social and gender roles. Boys, for instance, are conditioned to objectify girls based on how sexy they are. Even being introduced to terms like "sexy" so early in their lives is a recipe for disaster. Similarly, boys are indoctrinated with a certain limited understanding of masculinity. Aggression, toughness, and rougeness are become a part of their identity. Similarly girls begin to view themselves merely in terms of their sexuality.
In the end, I think you are being a bit prudish about the cartoons, but your general concerns are well taken.
Hey Dre,
Con;
1) I get where your coming from. Certainly there is nothing we could do that would stop full-fledged pedos from sexualizing children. But if it's YOUR kid, why would you want to sex her/him up and move her/him up the list? Hollywood seems to want to be the enemy of parents. Since we hold the purse strings, why would we reward them for their efforts? The hard thing is when decent parents (like Lime) are trying to do the right thing and it feels like no one is on their side from the media to the schools to the stores.
2)Absolutely. When Brook Sheilds appeared in Playboy at 12, naked from the waist up, it was instant fame for her and a top selling issue for Heff. Sex sells. But this is a classic case of "all evil needs to do to prosper, is for good people to do nothing." Simply expressing outrage at least lets other decent people know they're not alone. I know I'm being a Kantist here, but dammit, sometimes things are just plain wrong, like sexing-up children. I know you agree with me on at least that.
3) O.K. confession time. I didn't really think Dora was all that sexed-up. It was just a good segway issue for me to make a point that has had me steaming for a while. The other examples piss me off far more than Dora's makeover.
Pro;
1)Well said! In the past we have had minstrel shows with blackface and women being "good" only if they excepted the traditional role set out for them. Gay people were vilified as immoral. Even Irish people were portrayed as drunks. Just because the public enjoys being entertained by something doesn't justify the damage it does to them. I firmly believe this is hurting our children by encouraging them to act in a way that will cause chaos in their lives. It's all great when they show the romantic side of relationships to kids, but do they show them trying to raise a baby at 16? The answer there is just get them an abortion, but that has repercussions too. Most women I know that have had an abortion admit they sometimes wonder what their child would have been like. What teenager really understands that well enough? Our most important job as parents is to PROTECT our children from the things that we have learned will complicate and hurt their lives.
2) Prudish? Yeah, I guess. But I'm not calling for censorship-which I despise-I'm calling for calling bad people out. As John Cougar-Mellencamp said, "just because it's your job, don't make it right."
Thanks as always for your insight.
Just when I was ready to consider you the prude of all prudes, Burger King had to go off and prove your theory correct.
Hey Dre,
Just when I thought that B.K. freaky puppethead couldn't get any creepier. That dude's giving me nightmares.
Post a Comment