Is it just me or is anyone else bothered by the trash presented by Hollywood and others as Idols for our children. Take a look at who our young people have to look up to. What little girl wouldn't want to lead the life of Paris Hilton, Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan? These media giants have carefully crafted the images of these teen idols. And then every teen in America wants to be just like them. Act like them, dress like them and grow up too fast, just like them. I am very concerned about the long term effects on our children.
I saw a little girl that must have been ten years old wearing a pair of hot pink soffe's with the word "Candy" across her backside. If you let your preteen daughter out of the house with slogans like that across the butt, you might as well call Heidi Fleiss and pimp her to the stars. I'm sure Rob or Charlie would just love to accompany her to the Playboy Mansion. And yet we sit and wonder why the teenage pregnancy rate is so high! H E L L O!
Have you visited a High School lately? It's a wonder any teenage boy is able to concentrate even a little on his academics. It's like the runway at a Victoria's Secret New Years Eve party. How can little Johnny pay attention sitting behind Susan with her thong riding high and her jeans riding low. Johny's not getting a history lesson, he's getting a lesson in female anatomy. Or maybe it is a history lesson, we'll call it the "Decline of Western Civilization". Hey, don't get me wrong, I would have loved to sit behind Susan in High School. What testosterone driven, girl crazy boy wouldn't? But as the parent of a teenage girl, I'm not so in tune with it.
I think much of this is driven by our media crazy society. Big companies like Disney take a cookie cutter approach to building up teen idols for mass consumption by our children. They nurse them along, carefully crafting their public image until they blossom into the teenage sex symbol they were meant to be! Take Miley Cyrus. Many, including me believe that the whole picture shoot malfunction episode of several weeks ago was a carefully planned transformation of Miley from cute little girl next door to the next teenage sex symbol. And like Billy Ray wasn't aware of what was going on, give me a break! He's right there calculating how many greenbacks this transformation will bring in.
One of the problems with shooting these young stars into the stratosphere, is they must eventually come down. And usually they land like a lead balloon. Think Britney Spears. No underwear wearing, climbing over car seats-back side bearing, Disney created boy toy eye candy. We have not seen a public mental breakdown like Britney's since Charles Manson's parole hearing rant "I could kill you with the edge of this book!" But fear not, she will soon be forgotten and replaced by the next big star. Tossed aside like a junkie's disposable needle. Where does that leave the millions of girls who looked up to her. Looking towards her pregnant little sister, I guess. At least she's not crazy, right?
