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Posted on 03/11/2007 2:01:01 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The American Psychological Association has discovered that too early sexualization of children, particularly girls, is damaging. How about that? Because I have well-developed views on this subject, I almost didn't read the long article about it in the Health section of The Washington Post this week. But I'm glad I did because just when you think you're up to date on cultural decline, you are surprised.
Here is reporter Stacy Weiner on the state of preteen fashion: "Ten-year-old girls can slide their low cut jeans over 'eye-candy' panties. French maid costumes, garter belt included, are available in preteen sizes. . . . And it's not unusual for girls under 12 to sing, 'Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?'" As Nora Ephron memorably put it in another context, "No matter how cynical I get, I just can't keep up."
The Post article and the APA report focus on the increasing rates of eating disorders, depression and low self-esteem among younger and younger girls. Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., for example, is now seeing patients as young as 6 with eating disorders. Girls are worrying about their weight and expressing dissatisfaction with their bodies at younger ages.
But both the Post article and the APA conflate two very separate issues and therefore confuse matters. "When do little girls start wanting to look good for others?" asks the Post, and quotes a sex educator as guessing that whereas it once began at 6 or 7, it now gets started as early as 4. Similarly, the APA report warns that "Exposure to narrow ideals of female sexual attractiveness may make it difficult for some men to find an 'acceptable' partner or to fully enjoy intimacy with a female partner."
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
ping for later read.
Reaching Gommorah.
Are we suppose to be surprised? The symptoms of early "sexualization" of girls have been all around us for some time - early physical maturity, earlier sexual activity, earlier pregnancies, and now the HPV vaccination craze...
I guess it is just fundamentalist fogies like myself that have long had strong feelings that the sexing-up of little girls (read that as the Ramsey case) for show, and for the gratification and proxy living by adult "parents" to be disgusting and wrong.
Years ago, when my twin daughters were in the early teens, I let them have a subscription to Teen Magazine. It didn't last long because I was appalled by what was in the magazine. I started a little project. I separated the acceptable from the unacceptable with the intention of mailing it to the publishers with a complaint. Something came up and I didn't have time to complete the project, but I'd love to see some young parents pick up the project where I left off so many years ago.
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It has to be internalized however. I've been around churches since the early 70's when I accepted Christ and I saw many a child abandon their parents faith when they left their house because it wasn't their own faith.
Still, it is the right thing to do to show and live the morals of the Christian faith.
Don't despair - plenty of working class filth feel the same.
I agree. It does have to be internalized. Which also means it has to be first introduced.
My heart breaks for kids who never get that chance.
What a bunch of BS. If this were true then sweet little Britney Spears would be a drug addled slut ..... Hey, wait a minute!
It's great that you spent time with your daughter on the magazine issue. Thanks for the Brio suggestion. My kids are grown, but I have a granddaughter.
Well, now that young girls
have seen what parties and sex
do to the pop tarts . . .
She's still behind the times. It's kindergarteners who have been wearing and singing such for some time now.
Agreed. And TV is the first place to learn indecency.
Check out this "Beauty Test" from Brio magazine. Notice the advice under the scoring section. The editors use the girls' self-absorbed focus on their body image to draw them into deeper spiritual truths.
http://www.briomag.com/briomagazine/quizzes/a0006905.html
You said -- "Get your kids in a good church when they're young and keep them there throughout high school. Bible believing churches are the last bastion of decency in this country. The kids are actively encouraged to adopt a Biblical world view and the peer pressure is to be counter-cultural (which is a good thing)."
The "Devil is in the details" on that one. Since we're in a "post-modern" society and mentality, the thinking in churches, schools and society is that "what is true for you is not necessarily true for me..." And then, that means as long as it "holds" for your kids in their "thinking" (if they unconsciously adhere to this post-modern thinking) -- then it will work for your kids. But, then if there is a shift in thinking -- then "everything is out the window".
And when the attacks come in college, when the entire institution is brought to bear against the "truth is absolute" type of thinking -- kids simply buckle under the pressure, and especially so, since they were never innoculated against the post-modern thinking in churches and schools, anyway.
This is prevalent in churches and even church-schools. It's even prevalent in so-called "Bible-believing churches", too. And as far as peer pressure keeping kids in line -- that's fine when the peer pressure is working in your favor. But, there's a problem there. If one's *position* on something is based upon "peer pressure" (and you've made sure that the peer pressure is the kind that you prefer) -- then it works *against you* once the peer pressure shifts the other way -- which it will in college.
I would *innoculate* kids *against* peer pressure and teach basic ways of thinking about *truth* as it relates in today's "post-modern society -- because that's where the battle is at...
Regards,
Star Traveler
"If the passengers will look to their left, you'll see Gomorrah in all its splendor. Next stop...Armageddon!"
You are a disgusting fat-body, Pyle!
The model doesn't look as though he'd buy it.
History tells us that the Virgin Mary was pregnant with Christ at age 13 and that this was not at all unusual for the times. Are we regressing?
Yes, all you say is true. We're blessd with our church. Our kids just finished studying, "How to Stay Christian in College." If you're familiar with that book, i is about learning to stand up against post-modernism and situational ethics.
Having said that, we've decided to steer our boys (both 17 yo) into conservative Christian colleges that won't undo all we've taught.
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So religion is only half the story? Without a grounding in the basics of Western thought, that's what it looks like. For hundreds of years, education was considered incomplete without Plato and Aristotle, Homer and Sophocles, Virgil and Cicero. They filled in, applied, and supported Christian principles from the point of view of natural law. If both religion and nature point in the same direction, then man is more likely to follow this wisdom.
And people wonder why there are more high profile pedophilia cases. Nice one, libs! You're the gift that keeps on giving aren't ya?
I have been doing some substitute teaching in the local ISD, and I was somewhat disturbed to see a girl, maybe 16-17 years old, wearing a T-shirt which advertised some sort of alcoholic drink, or a bar, called "Big Willie's." Her shirt informed me that "Size Does Matter."
Go to pimphats.com
History tells you no such thing. Someone made that up.
The pregnant at age 13 story was told to us in religion class by a Christian Brothers teacher. How does your version of the story go?
When their fathers are passive, absent, and unwilling to protect them.
Her age is never mentioned anywhere
"History tells us that the Virgin Mary was pregnant with Christ at age 13."
Although the Bible doesn't say anything about it, I believe the young age would not be untypical for the times. The average lifespan back then was much less too - perhaps 45?
So 13 is about 1/3 the lifespan, which with today's ratio (lets say 60 years) is about 20 years old.
One of the reasons I don't like the trashing of mohammod with regards to his young wife. Mulitple wives and everything else about him is fine though!
If even a Christian brother did not have a Biblical reference for a statement, we can't accept it as being necessarily factual; it's just a supposition. In the past a girl would not be eligible for marriage before she was physically a woman. As little as 125 years ago statistics showed that girls tended to reach menarche, and thus become marriageable, at a later age than they do today. So while today's diets are causing many girls to become fertile at 11,10, 9, and even 8 years of age, in the past the age of fertility was much later--often 16 and 17. So while it's possible that Mary conceived Jesus at 12 and delivered at 13, it's unlikely. She would not have been preparing for marriage with Joseph at such an early age unless she had reached menarche.
Tag line material.
Where'd you hear that? Really, I'm serious. I've heard plenty of people speak confidently about Mary being a pre-teen (13,12, etc.) when pregnant, but this is completely unsupported by any hard evidence to my knowledge.
So, I'd much appreciate it if you'd show me something supporting a claim like that.
One thing about moomoo. Marrying a pre-pubescent girl ain't right any way you cut it. After all, what's the point? It's one thing to betroth children at young ages, it's another to marry a child when you're an old lecher, and consummate the marriage when she's still pre-pubescent.
One other thing. Do you actually have any evidence about the lifespans in those days? I'm not saying you're wrong, I just would like to know if there's any validity to these statements. It's all to common to spout something as truth without actually done any research. Personally, I don't buy into the common 12 year old (or 13 y.o.) "age." Unless, my experiences are very weird, that's just about the time things start changing.
Also, if you look at some of the notables of the day (roughly speaking), they seem to have had fairly decent lifespans (i.e. the apostle John, Augustus, Tacitus, Josephus). Some of these undoubtedly benefited from good diets, but still, some people lived as long lives as those of people today (in the 1st world).
One of Mohammed's many wives was six according to historical accounts.
Once again, this is a supposition unsupported by Scripture. It's just a guess.
One thing overlooked
in these kind of threads is that
kids often just play
at silly fashions.
Our local library has
quite a few interns
who are teenage girls.
Some of them dress like nightmares.
But talking to them
you find they're "normal"
teenage girls who giggle and
don't obsess on sex.
In a reverse way,
the fact that our culture lets
teenage girls play act
in this silly way,
is a sign that we're relaxed.
Kids grow out of it!
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