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Middle School Girls Gone Wild
New York Times ^ | 29 December 2006 | LAWRENCE DOWNES

Posted on 12/30/2006 7:27:56 PM PST by shrinkermd

It’s hard to write this without sounding like a prig. But it’s just as hard to erase the images that planted the idea for this essay, so here goes. The scene is a middle school auditorium, where girls in teams of three or four are bopping to pop songs at a student talent show. Not bopping, actually, but doing elaborately choreographed re-creations of music videos, in tiny skirts or tight shorts, with bare bellies, rouged cheeks and glittery eyes.

They writhe and strut, shake their bottoms, splay their legs, thrust their chests out and in and out again. Some straddle empty chairs, like lap dancers without laps. They don’t smile much. Their faces are locked from grim exertion, from all that leaping up and lying down without poles to hold onto. “Don’t stop don’t stop,” sings Janet Jackson, all whispery. “Jerk it like you’re making it choke. ...Ohh. I’m so stimulated. Feel so X-rated.” The girls spend a lot of time lying on the floor. They are in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

As each routine ends, parents and siblings cheer, whistle and applaud. I just sit there, not fully comprehending. It’s my first suburban Long Island middle school talent show. I’m with my daughter, who is 10 and hadn’t warned me. I’m not sure what I had expected, but it wasn’t this. It was something different. Something younger. Something that didn’t make the girls look so ... one-dimensional.

It would be easy to chalk it up to adolescent rebellion, an ancient and necessary phenomenon, except these girls were barely adolescents and they had nothing to rebel against. This was an official function at a public school, a milieu that in another time or universe might have seen children singing folk ballads, say, or reciting the Gettysburg Address.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: culturewar; dancing; education; girls; indoctrination; middleschool; moralabsolutes; publikskoolz; schools; sex; sexualizingchildren; teensex
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To: shrinkermd
That this behavior is present and condoned by our corrupt, immoral society is not a surprise to me. That parents who claim to "love" their children still voluntarily subject their kids to these wolves does.

Stop complaining about your kids exposure to this filth and pull them out of public schools. HOME-SCHOOL YOUR KIDS! My wife and I did just that 3 years ago (at no small expense) and we have never regretted that decision!

Once we raise a large percentage of the next generation without this crap, we'll have to deal with the government who requires us to fund this destructive juggernaut.

181 posted on 01/01/2007 12:39:43 PM PST by DesertSapper (I love God, family, country . . . and dead Islamofacists!!!)
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To: Lucas McCain

Rape is about power and subjugation, not sex.


182 posted on 01/01/2007 2:38:56 PM PST by cinives (On some planets what I do is considered normal.)
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To: Cailleach

Even the NYTimes gets it right on this one!


183 posted on 01/01/2007 4:33:12 PM PST by kalee (No burka for me....EVER!)
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To: cinives

"Rape is about power and subjugation, not sex"

I know that is the PC femenist mantra, but I don't believe it's necessarily true. It's like saying that robbing banks is not about wanting money, it's about the challenge (or some such thing). I have no doubt that rape is often, if not ususally, about sex.


184 posted on 01/01/2007 5:28:07 PM PST by Lucas McCain (The day may come when the courage of men will fail...but not this day.)
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To: Lucas McCain

I didn't say that rapists didn't enjoy the sex, I'm just saying sex is not the primary motivation in many cases.

Do you think rapists are looking for hot sex from 70-80yo women, for example ? Or might there be another reason ?
http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2006/12/18/mayor_investigation_into_rape_of_elderly_woman_is_top_priority/


185 posted on 01/01/2007 6:17:16 PM PST by cinives (On some planets what I do is considered normal.)
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To: shrinkermd
Zeitgeist....Having said that, when I was a preteen, I'm 50 now, I loved and still do love the band, "Jethro Tull". The lyrics of one of their songs to "Aqualung" refers to a dirty old man sitting in the park stareing at the little girls playing there."watching the frilly panties run". Looking back I realized a very important point. My friends and I were too young to really comprehend the ramifications of the act that was being described in the song and we really didn't care, we weren't judging the songs' social responsibility, we just liked the melody. Most preteens exist without judgment. Yes girls and boys judge each other on the things they posses, superficial things like clothes or what kind of cell phone they have. But if you ask a 11 or 12 year old a question where a response requires an OPINION based on a deep knowledge of, or a lifetime of experience in order to come to a responsible conclusion, you are not going to get the answer you are expecting. I think we have to try to remember exactly what it was like to BE that age before we judge someone that age.
186 posted on 01/06/2007 9:48:41 AM PST by realist2
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To: cinives

You said — “Rape is about power and subjugation, not sex.”

I would say that this is what is going on, then, in that age group 13-18 years old, when they engage in those s&f parties. That part that you describe as being involved in rape — is also involved in these parties — except by consensus, as a group, and they see this as okay and normal behavior (within their group, no matter what others “outside” say about it).

The boys come expecting to use their “power” (whatever they possess in that particular situation, and it can take on many different forms) and then “subjugate”, while the girls come expecting to be overcome and be subjugated — and both come away, wearing it as a badge of honor.

Both (the boys and girls) are extracting an emotional benefit from it (at least from the way their are interpreting it, within their circle and understanding, and how they’re being “programmed” today).

The only difference here is that both parties are agreeing — the power and subjugation is the same, however.

Interesting in how this is playing out, in this manner, with that younger age group (in terms of power and subjugation and with one another).

Regards,
Star Traveler


187 posted on 04/13/2007 1:06:44 PM PDT by Star Traveler
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To: nctexan

I guess I’m officially a member of the prig club. If I’m ever lucky enought to have kids, I’ll just lock them up in a closet in one of those old-time “knuckle-dragging, homophobic” churches until they turn 18.


188 posted on 04/13/2007 4:37:00 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Will I be suspended again for this remark?)
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To: shrinkermd
It’s hard to write this without sounding like a prig.

I am SICK of people worrying about other people thinking they are prigs and wish more would start worrying about doing what is RIGHT. Ok...back to read the article.

189 posted on 04/13/2007 4:40:01 PM PDT by pollyannaish
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To: Baynative
girls who 'danced' to Clarence Carter's "STROKIN'".

I just heard that a few weeks ago for the first time, sitting in a bar while my friends were out on the dance floor. Grapic descriptions of sex, the female saying if you want it tighter you can stick it in my *** (I'm paraphrasing).

I was sitting by myself but I hadn't been that profoundly embarrassed in a long, long time.

190 posted on 04/13/2007 4:46:29 PM PDT by Lizavetta
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To: ClearCase_guy
I agree. Sex has been round for quite awhile as I understand...but gratuitous, exhibitionist, adult-sanctioned public sex hasn’t. People who can’t see the difference are warped.
191 posted on 04/13/2007 4:48:21 PM PDT by pollyannaish
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
You always hope that what you see is just a blip in the longterm. Sad to say, it looks like the overall trend line continues to 'go to hell in a handbag'.

That being said, things, have alway been goofy and good people have always prevailed.

I'd say, don't confuse right from wrong, just because "they" are always trying to move the goal post.

192 posted on 04/13/2007 6:59:56 PM PDT by nctexan (Top 10 Presidential Reqs. for 2008 - see my homepage)
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To: shrinkermd

“Boys don’t seem to have such constricted horizons. They wouldn’t stand for it”

Nope; when boys are all pumped up, they’ll settle for a knothole in a fence...


193 posted on 04/13/2007 7:10:38 PM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: donmeaker

Are you confusing the Brady’s with the Cleaver’s?


194 posted on 04/13/2007 7:14:47 PM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: Lucas McCain

> I know it has be come really PC to condemn any suggestion
> that a woman’s dress or behavior contributed to a rape.
> But I have no doubt it does. If you set your wallet down
> on the hood of your car before you walk into the mall to
> shop, don’t be surprised if someone steals it while
> you’re gone.

Thinking of women as objects to be taken contributes far more to rape than any number of poorly dressed skanks.


195 posted on 04/13/2007 7:17:28 PM PDT by socrates_shoe
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To: Kirkwood

And don’t forget Darrin II; he had an interview with George Putnam just a few weeks before he died with aids; the magic had gone out of his life, but he said he had no regrets.


196 posted on 04/13/2007 7:19:42 PM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: editor-surveyor
Bookmarked for later reference.

Cheers!

197 posted on 04/13/2007 7:21:24 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: kcvl

Nappy haired old folks bowing their heads in shame.


198 posted on 04/13/2007 7:23:11 PM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: Lucas McCain

Kind of like the difference between global warming and global climate change.


199 posted on 04/13/2007 7:27:51 PM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: Lizavetta
girls who ‘danced’ to Clarence Carter’s “STROKIN’”.

I just heard that a few weeks ago for the first time, sitting in a bar while my friends


I assume since you were in a bar you were over 18 years of age. Not at a elementary or middle school performing for cheering parents.

Are the lyrics of “strokin” very different from what the kids are dancing to?

200 posted on 04/13/2007 7:28:14 PM PDT by Grizzled Bear ("Does not play well with others.")
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