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.
You said — “I guess it would not have anything to do with tittilating male prurience?”
Well, it’s like I was saying in my other posts, the Muslims know that it’s the women who are at fault and not the men. You can’t blame the men for being (ummmm....) “men” can you... Of course not, and that’s why Muslims cover up the women with Burkas... (they are the “temptresses”)...
I have a set of guiding principles. They are different from yours. They are my own. My guiding principles say that sexuality is no big deal. Why does nobody remember the lessons from prohibition? When you forbid something you make it that much more enticing.
At the end of the day, humans are animals. Look at our behaviors in groups and alone. “A person is smart, people are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals.” Common decency, morals, etc. are artificial societal constructs. One man’s common decency is another man’s prudishness.
I understand that when you poke and prod at someone’s inner “moral fiber” that you’re going to get resistance because human beings are conciously resistant to change. We are mentally lazy. I understand that when I say something against the “God squad” here that I’m going to get flamed. It doesn’t change my frame.
*rimshot*
When I won't let my seven year old watch something on television I don't wait for her to ask why, I explain that somethings should remain private and that people do lots of things that are wrong for money. And that watching such things makes us part of the wrong.
That she can understand, that people act with bad motives and that she'll see many examples of it.
But most importantly I teach her by how I react to the vulgar and crass displays of sexuality.
And she also sees how her parents treat each other. Thereby we teach her what the relationship in marriage should be without having to say a word.
For certain children will be taught, the only question is by whom and what.
I take your point. It’s really all the women’s fault.
Jeez, wonder why God even bothered to add in any brain power, talent or anything else to the female, beyond brood mare. Why should they even be mobile?
That way they could not get around and cast their influence, so they wouldn’t be corrupting the hapless males against their will to do bad stuff, right?
Plus women should have an expiration date equivalent to their breeding years. Should blink out as soon as menopause hits, i mean what good are they after that, right?
As they continue to be objectified (read dehumanized, as the Hadith teaches), perhaps one day any emotional attachment to women will cease as well, so no great loss to lose one, replace with another.
A bright future.
>>Like I said earlier, in my experience, the people that have issues with these ads actually have inner issues that they need to deal with themselves, but instead project their insecurities onto everyone else.<<
So let me ask you, what are your credentials for your diagnosis?
Don’t buy into ‘pop culture’. Don’t go to the mall and don’t watch TV (TV is much more loaded up with ‘porn’ these days) and don’t go to the movies.
Now the sleazy covers on magazines at the supermarket chekcout stand is a bit harder to avoid.
You cannot live in a box.
That really is a version of the Taliban women in their windowless locked rooms.
From where I live, it's a 3 hour drive to NYC, or Boston, or Montreal. We enjoy the 4 seasons - from vibrant new grass in spring to russet, gold, orange, plum and red leaves in autumn. We have farms, orchards, vinyards, as well as hi-tech industry.
We even have the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Perhaps you should consider visiting us :-)
I’ve never seen a church or cathedral in a shopping mall. Have you?
The women in the Victoria's Secret ads in the mall aren't wearing anything more skimpy than what you would expect to see at the beach. And the Abercrombie ads aren't even that flesh-revealing.
I'm not sure I see the issue, personally.
No. The root of our economic collapse is the decades-long moral/spiritual collapse. Welfare, covetous-driven government taxing and spending, breakdown of the family, absent fathers, on and on and on. It all has it’s roots in the sort of garbage that the story relates. Consider that 70% of single female voters supported Obama. Decades ago they would have been married and not looking for government to provide for them and make sure abortion were available.
Guess I will also need the fire-suit after this one however...
Regardless of what you see in the malls and on television in the U.S., we remain one of the most puritanical countries on the face of the earth. So if we are so puritanical and go to such great extent to protect our children from such “filth” why is it the U.S. has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the world? Same goes for alcohol. We think we are doing such a great thing by keep the legal drinking age at 21, yet constantly we see cases of teenage binge drinking and resultant deaths.
There seems to be no understanding that children will invariably succumb to the “forbidden fruit” syndrome. That which you try to shield them from will be that which they seek out. Education and open explanation about sex and alcohol are the key to protecting children and ensuring a normal development. Kids are not stupid, they can handle the truth.
A couple of weeks ago I was sitting with my wife in a pizza place here in Moldova (a former Soviet Republic). Three boys, none of which could have been a day over 15 came in, ordered a pizza and each had a beer. They sat there, talked, laughed, ate the pizza and drank their beer, paid, and left. The uncle of my wife is an Orthodox priest in a small village, we were there this weekend and I asked him about the attitude here regarding young people and alcohol, and told him about the kids in the pizza place. He said he has seen families in his village who absolutely forbade their children from any alcohol, and that the rate of alcoholism in those families was terrible.
The advertising here is much more open and revealing than in the U.S. regarding nudity, yet there are virtually no sex crimes. I am constantly amazed that small children here can safely put on their little back-pack and walk to school with no worry they will be bothered by “chester the molester”. In the states 12 and 14 year old kids have been abducted by perverts while walking alone to school, where here 7 year old kids walk a mile to school by themselves with no worry.
I am at this point convinced that the Puritanical attitudes, hiding the truth, and the creation of a “guilt complex” regarding the human body and sex by the religous community in the U.S. has created the monster it was seeking to prevent.
With respect, citing beach culture as a defence of mall culture is like saying that the Chicago Fire wasn’t much different than the San Francisco Earthquake.
The point of the bikini is sexual transgression, not athletic performance—that’s why it was named after a thermonuclear test site.
I noticed that, too. I don't understand it. It must be cosmetic malpractice, but why has she allowed it to continue?
My point is, a bikini isn't indecent and neither is a picture of a model in boy shorts and a bra. The ads at Victoria Secret stores don't even show the models in thongs, so they're even more covered than some girls at the beach who wear thong or g-string bikinis.
The point of the bikini is sexual transgression, not athletic performance
The point of the bikini is something women can wear to the beach while staying cool and minimizing tan lines. You're about 50 years late when it comes to complaining about the bikini.
Maybe my persepctive is different because I've spent time on European beaches where many women (including my wife) go topless, and people don't give it a second thought. American beaches are remarkably covered up, in comparison (with a few notable exceptions, like South Beach).
You said — “I take your point. It’s really all the women’s fault.”
Of course, I’m spouting off the Muslim line... You can take that for what it’s worth, being that they’re following an evil and false religion.
There’s a much more balanced, wholesome and righteous “worldview” in God’s Word, if anyone would ever bother to think that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had anything to do with our society — which He absolutely doesn’t have, according to many (i.e., “don’t have your ‘religion’ try to tell me what to do...”).
You would think that the so-called “feminists” would be more outraged at the Muslims and their treatment of women (and the Muslims’ attitude and viewpoint of women) than they are. I don’t see that they protest the Muslims at all (at least I don’t hear about it). Where is their “outrage” at the Muslims?
Perhaps I should! L0L
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