Oh My Sweet Baby Je-bus... (*Attempting To Suppress Rage And Poke Out Inner Eye Simultaneously*)

[hsifeng]

You know, sometimes you read something and you can’t decide if you should laugh or cry…

…or possibly shoot the first marketing executive you run across.

This article is crazy making. However, I am glad I read it, because when I stand in front of the judge after mowing down the entire Abercrombie and Fitch product development team with an AK-47 I will have a clear and reasonable defense at my disposal.

And sure, we can go after the parents who buy these things for their daughters next. That sounds like a completely justifiable plan to me.

Comments

[hsifeng.livejournal.com]

*sigh* An uphill battle for certain. I know some folks get tired of people blaming the media for society’s ills and instead insist that it’s all about the parents making the right choices and screening content (and I can their point, up to certain degree); but when Everything Out There Seems To Be Rated R it gets a little hard for parents to separate the wheat from the chafe.

Even in households where there is no TV (I have friends who are strictly anti-television, largely because of the amount of crap that comes across the airwaves and into their kids brains) there is unavoidable exposure that filters in via friends, relatives and school.

Sure, kids are going to see this stuff; they’re going to have to live in a world full of it. To some extent you want them to have awareness while being forewarned of the sort of issues this environment/behavior can bring about.* But knowing that thongs exist and that adults choose to wear them on occasion is totally different than strapping a pair on your seven year old and then sending her out to play with the neighbor kids.




*Yes, yes; I know that we’re all supposed to be so evolved that what someone wears doesn’t affect the way they are perceived by the people around them. Before someone jumps on me and starts trying to claim that I am attempting to relegate women to some sort of Madonna/Whore complex where they are non-sexual until their husband asks for it I’d like to point out - these are not women, these are children and YES there is a difference.

If a woman wants to wear a mini-skirt, spiked heels and a thong with their tramp stamp flying proud while they straddle a stripper pole; be my guest. One would hope that the age of consent brings a modicum of wisdom about personal choices and the ability to deal with whatever attention (negative or positive) that comes about as a result.

Kids don’t have that wiring.

Don’t make me take out my feminist stick and beat anyone with it.

[docryder.livejournal.com]

Okay, in your note you make the assumption that people suddenly gain wisdom upon reaching age of consent. You know better. :-)

Yeah, kids get exposed to sex WAY early now. A couple of years ago, Cam gets to telling me about how his friends showed him (at the friend's house) that if he just typed "girl porn" into Google, he'd get back these really interesting images. I just nodded and said something like "Well, that's not really something you and your friends should be doing," and didn't make a big deal of it, suddenly sweating bullets about when I'm going to discuss this with his parents. I let Rob and Kimiko know at a good time, and they dealt with it. But he was about five or six then.

So, yeah, they will get exposed, sooner than any of us would like.

On the other hand, most reasonable parents don't buy that shit for their kids. Sadly, there are a lot of unreasonable parents out there. :-\

[hsifeng.livejournal.com]

Not an assumption, only the hope. We all know that hope is a fragile, fragile thing...*sigh*

And yes, there are way too many unreasonable parents out there.

While I am sure fire will rain down on my head for expressing this opinion, I am all for the idea of chemical spaying and neutering to prevent folks from breeding until they take some sort of required coursework on How To Parent. It’s like getting a drivers license, it doesn’t mean you’ll be a great driver but it does mean that you have reached a certain age and have at least had to sit through the class (and should be less surprised when other parents take you to task for your horrible Parental Parallel Child Rearing).

Barring that, I may take to simply standing front of Abercrombie & Fitch and whacking mothers with sticks when they emerge with their tween daughters.