Posted on 12/29/2008 8:05:34 AM PST by NYer
So I took the kids out to the mall to shop for Mom two days before Christmas. I want them to know that Christmas is not just about receiving but giving as well.
Now let me ask a weird hypothetical. If I showed up at the Mall wearing only briefs and say my wife showed up in a minuscule bra and panties we'd likely be dragged from the premises and arrested. And rightly so, especially if you've seen me in briefs. But no matter what, it's bad, right? So why is it OK for some of these stores to have huge window displays of essentially naked people. I mean, are these store owners out of their minds. Walking by Abercrombie or Victoria's Secret is essentially a walking tour of porn for children. Hey kids step on up and peer inside the sick twisted mind of adulthood where we view others as vessels of flesh waiting to be boarded and devoured.
It's lunacy.
So as we're passing a bunch of sex-soaked stories, I do my best to distract the kids from the window display. I start singing a loud Christmas carol and they all become embarrassed by me and try to stop me from singing anymore. So for anybody who saw the fat bearded dad singing in front of a ten foot porn window display with children laughing and climbing all over him, it was me.
But here's the thing. I know my kids saw it. They didn't mention it. But I know they see it. They see it. They internalize it. They think that window display represents the realm of adulthood. They intuit that adults desire 8-pack abs and 38 D breasts. And kids want to be adults.
Here's the truth. If a man was caught showing pictures of topless women in pink underwear holding their breasts or men in wet briefs, they'd be arrested. But when a store does it, it's capitalism.
So a few hours later I'm making the call I never thought I'd make in my life. I call the mall two days before Christmas to complain about the lewd window displays. The funny thing is that while I'm on hold I'm feeling like I'm the crazy one. I'm feeling like "I can't believe I've become the guy who complains about lewd window displays." I didn't think I'd ever use the word 'lewd' never mind call to complain about aforementioned lewdness. I'm feeling like I have to convince this guy on the phone that I'm not one of these crazy religious Jerry Falwell types. But then it hits me. I'm the sane one. Those displays are crazy to have in front of children. So instead of getting into a morality type conversation with the guy I just decide to speak his language. "I'm just calling to let you know that my family which comes to the mall often will not come back unless you guys stop allowing pornographic window displays."
So I make the call and I'm feeling proud of myself. And I walk back into the room where the children are watching The Polar Express on ABC Family. And then comes a commercial about some show about a fifteen year old girl who is pregnant. "Fifteen!?" says my nine year old.
"How can you have a baby if you're not married," asks my six year old.
They all look at me. "Hey guys Polar Express is back on!" And thanks to my amazing powers of distraction I muddled through yet another awkward moment. But I know my kids. Nothing escapes them. Questions build. They never fade away.
And we wonder why are children are ending up sexualized. It's simple. Somewhere between the Merry-go-Round and the pretzels they're seeing and interpreting the adult world. They're unprotected out there. The adults want too much to be like children and the children want to be adults. It's time for adults to start acting like adults.
Move to the bible belt
You said — “Easy answer: walk the kids using a different route, maybe by a church or cathedral. Problem solved.”
It permeates society so that when you’re not around, it’s with ads, billboards, TV and radio commercials, songs, friends and how they talk at school, the attitudes of their friends (and even in so-called “Christian schools”, too...). There won’t be any “other route” to take to get away from it...
Good lord.
It would be most refreshing to read a balanced perspective.
I know how you feel...
Every year we go to the Jersey shore (SEASIDE) and I noticed a lot of girls ages 12-16 looking like hookers.
I asked one of the local police on the Boardwalk what was going on..This was his response:
Oh, you mean the prostitots? (pros-ti-tots)
That’s the accepted term for this look at the jersey shore, from the locals...
WE haven’t been back since!!!
“I simply explain that everybody has an opportunity to show class or a lack of class.”
I take those opportunities to talk with my kids (my two young girls especially) about body image mostly - it’s not what you are on the outside, it’s what you are on the inside, and also about modesty, respect for your own body, etc. And they are both good looking young girls.
And that goes both ways. My one daughter and I are in a new hobbie where the folks are a bit out of our normal dealings - goofy colored hair, numerous tattoos and body piercings. But real nice folks! (”Yes dear, they ARE really nice folks aren’t they. However, that still doesn’t make it okay for you to have a tattoo - at least while living under my roof!” Not that she’s ever asked. Yet. She’s 11.)
and seriously, have you walked in there lately? the music is as loud as a frat party. i swear to god i am not that old but you literally cannot talk to the sales people. it's amazing.
“What do these naked women have to do with Washing Machines?”
I think the article said “to annoy the feminists...”
Common decency, modesty ect are some traits which separate humans from animals. A human who cant comprehend this has inner issues that they need to deal with themselves.
It’s kinda like grafitti.....
Study after study shows that when you reduce grafitti in an area crime reduces as well.....
Soft porn pictures like Victoria Secret 10ft nude posters in the mall windows is inappropriate in a family area.....
This does pattern children and adult brains as well.....
Create your hedonistic country. Drink it in 24/7.
Make is it your sole raison detre.
Reduce your rationale human mind to animalistic compulsions. Devolve.
But don’t expect your Eloi world to generate worth.
It is a strung out world of sugar highs, substance refused.
Well, the problem is (with our society and other societies) is that you’re going to go one of two ways..., get naked or go burkas...
Now, that’s because when societies don’t have the internal moral guidelines any longer (which is what the Bible provides) and societies have abandoned God (like ours is so adamantly doing), you are left with someone always going further and further in the direction that everyone else is going to be just a “little bit more” than someone else.
Now, with us “going naked” (which is the current trend), that means “less and less” — and that’s what we get.
BUT, on the other hand (and also absent the guidelines of the Bible, God’s Word), you see a different direction in a different culture with their false and evil religion (of Islam) and you get “burkas” and covering up every last square inch of a woman (because we all know it’s the woman who causes men to sin, in the first place... doncha know...).
You’re either going to go naked or go “burkas” when you throw out the God of the Bible and the guidelines that it provides for our society (which is what people are doing right now...).
“Common decency, modesty ect are some traits which separate humans from animals. A human who can’t comprehend this has inner issues that they need to deal with themselves.”
Exactly.
doh-—I guess it would not have anything to do with tittilating male prurience?
Let’s all avoid the big flaming elephant in the middle of the room. Please.
It’s about indulging base appetites regardless of systemic harm, unshackled by restraint.
Very “me”. I want it, screw you and what it does to your world. Very much at the heart of the tearing down the framework of our value system.
Not sure what that commercial is selling but I’ll take 100.
When I was a kid, sneaking a peek at the "Playboy" Dad had stashed in the bottom of his dresser, was a BIG deal. Now, a kid can go online and get submerged in filth - stuff that Hugh Hefner never would dream of putting to print - in about 3 seconds.
I'm wondering what the end result will be. I figure that there will be an eventual backlash, back to 50s sexual values....kids rebel against the norm, and when the norm is "Hey, everyone does it", I figure that a puritannical streak will be the end result. Or maybe a "Wow, porn. Just like the last 50 websites I saw. Biiiiig Deal." -type attitude.
Not much else that I can do, other than raising my kids right, and not patronizing the worst offenders - "Victoria's Secret" did NOT get any of my holiday $$$, despite the fact that Mrs WBill particularly likes their "Pink" lotion. What else is there to be done?
Oh really, Dr. Freud? Just what is it that we're insecure about? What are my issues? I'm dying to know.
You see, some of us actually used our reproductive systems to, you know, reproduce. I know what the darned things are *for*. And they damn well ain't for titillating 11 year olds at the mall, no matter what this pervert culture says otherwise.
Astute. You’ve nailed the dynamic.
The window displays at Victoria’s Secret in our mall are the same thing you’d see in those Amsterdam brothels you read about. I try to get my kids to purposely look the other way. I’ve been teaching them to guard their eyes and tell them it’s okay to NOT look at something. I guess the occasional trip to the mall gives them practice, sorry to say.
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