Posted on 08/21/2006 2:58:06 PM PDT by Pokey78
IN THESE polarised and war-weary times, it’s good to know that Americans can agree on one thing: John Ramsey is a total creep.
Ramsey is the 63-year-old software entrepreneur whose daughter, JonBenet Ramsey, was beaten and strangled to death in her own home ten years ago. Although neither John nor his wife Pasty were ever charged, he was widely blamed for JonBenet’s killing — and continues to be, even after the death of Patsy from ovarian cancer and last week’s arrest of the teacher John Karr, a child-porn connoisseur who claims that he broke into the Ramseys’ home and murdered the six-year-old (the possibly delusional Karr was extradited from Thailand yesterday, allowing the New York Post to run a front-page photograph of Karr in business class, alongside the headline: “Snake on a Plane”).
Given Karr’s confession — and the lack of any hard evidence against the Ramseys — why does the girl’s father continue to be vilified? Because the businessman, whose late wife was a former Miss West Virginia, allowed his daughter to be trussed up like a call girl and paraded around kiddie-pageants — collecting such titles as Little Miss Merry Christmas, Little Miss Sunburst, and, my favourite, National Tiny Miss Beauty.
What father, tub-thumped the US public, could possibly allow his daughter to be sexualised in this way and displayed for the complicated pleasure of adults? Indeed, the latest development in the JonBenet case has given everyone a new excuse to get all moralistic about such violations of childhood.
Take The New York Times, which on Sunday dedicated its front page to a story about child modelling agencies that publish suggestive online photographs of pre-teens. Read the intro: “The model is shown rising out of a bubble bath, suds dripping from her body. Her tight panties and skimpy top are soaked and revealing . . . The model’s name is Sparkle. She is — at most — nine years old.”
I’m not going to argue that this isn’t deeply unsettling. But it seems only fair to point out that America has developed an astonishing set of double standards on the issue of child exploitation.
Consider America’s Got Talent, the Simon Cowell talent contest that became a huge hit in America over the summer months. Cowell’s show was one long creep-out of novelty kiddie acts, including an 11-year-old yodeller, a 12-year-old harmonica player and, inevitably, an 11-year-old soul diva whose star turn was the Janis Joplin track Piece of My Heart (sample lyric: Didn’t I make you feel like you were the only man, yeah?/ An’ didn’t I give you nearly everything that a woman possibly can?).
Little Miss Joplin ultimately won the wholesome $1 million prize money, and now has Michael Jackson’s adulthood to look forward to.
As for the harmonica player, no one could have cared less when it emerged that he had a “day job” at the topless variety show Buck Wild at the Sahara Hotel in Vegas.
So — let’s get this straight — JonBenet’s pageants were wrong, but a 12-year-old in a strip joint is fine?
And what about the recent boom in slick and sexy marketing to children by corporations? This is apparently fine also.
Indeed, The Los Angeles Times recently ran a five-part series on American tweens (pre-teens), written from a Hollywood marketer’s perspective. The tween demographic (as children are now known) is now responsible for up to $59 billion of discretionary spending every year — whether it’s iPods, kiddie spa treatments or Disneyland holidays. The desire to grab some of this cash appears to have entirely overtaken any desire to protect children from an onslaught of precision-targeted consumerism.
And because the best way to sell things to children is to use other children — who also, in an ideal world, appeal to parents — American popular culture is now saturated by such fare as America’s Got Talent, Radio Disney, Tweenstock (Disney’s music festival) and teen stars such as the Olsen twins, who will be billionaires before they reach drinking age.
In light of all this, America should give John Ramsey a break. Sure, he was a creep in 1996. But can anyone seriously get upset about the dubious taste of the National Tiny Miss Beauty pageant now?
Let’s face it: times have changed. The creep-o-meter needs to be recalibrated.
The author is out to lunch. That statement is far from something "Americans can agree on."
I am still appalled everytime I look at the pictures of JonBenet with mascara on.
Some moms just go over the top.
The mascara will wash off, but replacing her teeth?
Why, damme, that's too bad!
hulloooo??? i guess this guy doesn't believe in equal rights...his wife was into that crap. it's a whole culture. .while i don't get any of that child beauty queen stuff, i think it is totally weird the way people have gone nuts over this all again.
even if this guy is proven to be the murderer, they still will believe the parents did it. weird. like some psychosis goes along with this murder and the way people have made their minds and it will shake their world view if they find out someone else actually did it.
People nowadays have this bizarre notion that a small child acting in a sexualized, cynical or worldly-wise manner is somehow cute and endearing. It's sick.
Me too. I can't understand why parents pimp their children out.
He's also out to lunch if he thinks that the Americans who were creeped out by Come-Hither JonBenet wouldn't also be creeped out by a 12-year-old in a strip joint.
It's not a "double srandard in America." It's two different standards representing two different communities: the responsible adults, and the irresponsible adults.
There is something different between a father (and mother) allowing their daughter to be dressed the way JonBonet was, and "talent" promoters. Neither is good or wholesome, but parents have the final say, and blame.
Oh give it a rest...how about children who perform on stage..or on TV or on commercials..or in print ads. To single out pageants is absurd. She looked adorable in those pictures...only the truly dirty and perverted saw sex in what she did.
Actually, John Ramsey said he only attended the "talent" portions of JonBenet's pageants.
JonBenet Ramsey Murder Case Suspect
FR Thread Roundup
Free Republic ^ | August 16-21, 2006
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1686829/posts?page=2#2
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1686829/posts?page=460#460
Sounds like a candidate for a future FOX News Alert.
Uh...kiddy spa treatments? I don't think I want to know...
The dyed blond hair is what does it for me.
Oh give it a rest...how about children who perform on stage..or on TV or on commercials..or in print ads. To single out pageants is absurd.
The kids who act etc. are working kids. Having known quite a few of them (kids of friends) I can tell you there's a lot of rules in place to protect them.
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