Today’s letter comes to us from Jetson, a new reader who thinks I write gushy things about myself and then sign someone else’s name to it. Oddly enough, Jetson’s message comes in the form of a request…

Hi Jag,

This is supposedly very innocent and includes no nude images, but it is still alarming non the less.
By following this link you’ll find a very young girl who’s image is apparently being “sold” to anyone who’s willing to purchase. After all don’t’ all models get ‘discovered’ this way?
Is it just me or is this fucking nuts? Her parents obviously know about this and encourage it.
Is there any way that we can find out who put this up and how many idiot bastards have bought it?

http://www.megan-model.com/arch01.html

the filing cabinets are talking to me,
I gotta go.

Jetson

WARNING: The URL in Jetson’s message will take you to a site featuring a young, teenage girl dressed and posing provocatively. This kid isn’t exactly the poster child for kiddie porn, but it’s still the kind of thing that’ll make you want to beat a pedophile with a tire iron for about an hour. I didn’t make it a link because I don’t want that site getting traffic directly from mine. Proceed with caution. You have been warned.

Now, on to my response…

Jetson, of course I agree with you. If you go back through the archives, you’ll notice that I’ve made a few entries about bad parenting and the continuing decline of American values. I followed your link and had the same reaction you did. I’m sickened by this country’s apparent need to eroticize its children, and am amazed at how acceptable it’s become in the last ten years. Allow me to illustrate my point…

This is Debbie Gibson. When I was a kid, she was America’s It Girl when it came to pop music. She debuted at 19, wore baggy shirts and floppy hats, and never really showed more skin than she does on the cover of this album, with her jeans ripped at the knee. She sang about love and dreams, giving the impression that all she was looking for in life was a sweet guy to hold hands with. Tiffany was another young pop star with the same image who made a name for herself singing Beatles covers in shopping malls.

This isn’t to say that Debbie Gibson and Tiffany weren’t hot, but their labels pushed them as wholesome and nice; the type of girl you could bring home to mommy and daddy and receive lots of approval. Fast forward to today and it’s almost painful to note that in an effort to keep their careers going and names in print, both of these women have posed nude for Playboy in the last couple years.

Now, on the other hand, this is Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, the leading pop music role models for teenage girls just ten years later. Despite being younger when they debuted (17 and 18, respectively), their promotional shoots and videos depicted them as sex kittens. Lyrics on their debut albums weren’t over the top, but when coupled with the videos, the word “suggestive” immediately springs to mind, the highlight being Britney’s Catholic schoolgirl outfit in her Hit Me Baby One More Time video. That getup wasn’t meant to illustrate the classic idea of high school rebellion. No, it was more like something a depraved old guy asks a hooker to wear.

Their labels pushed them as, “I’m almost legal, boys! Come and get me!” It wasn’t that they were young girls being made to look older. By the time they hit it big, they were both 18. What bugs me is that they were being marketed as teenagers to a younger demographic, in extremely revealing outfits, spewing lyrics that are all about being obsessed with boys. The message it sends is, “Hey, 14-year-old girls! Dress like sluts! Have some sex!” This is the type of girl you could bring home to mommy and daddy, as long as you don’t mind daddy staring at her ass.

And music isn’t the only place you see it. Remember Anna Kournikova? The sports world pushed her on us as a young hottie years before she turned 18. So much was made of her looks that it never really mattered that she never amounted to anything as a tennis player. Again, bad message. “You don’t have to be good or try hard! All you need to do is look hot and have some sex with Enrique Iglesias!”

Television is the same way. When I was a kid, Beverly Hills, 90210 was the teen soap drama. It featured young, wholesome kids dealing with troubling issues in about 44 minutes. Yeah, they had some sex, but it was always depicted as a Big Deal. There was always a ramp up to it and a consequence. So the Before picture included a lot of, “Does he love me? Should I have sex? Will he respect me? Is it the right time? Do I have enough hairspray?” And the After picture always contained a pregnancy scare, VD, or broken heart to show that these things don’t always end well. It also featured characters that were celibate by choice, God forbid.

Nowadays we’ve got shows like The O.C. and One Tree Hill that are all about the sex lives and adult relationships of high schoolers. Sex is used as comedy, and it’s very rare that it’s seen as something that maybe a 16-year-old kid might not be ready to do. No pregnancies, no VD, and the broken hearts are usually repaired by hopping in the sack with the next kid in line. The only virgins are the geeks, and even they get some play on occasion.

So, Jetson, am I troubled by the website you pointed me to? Yes and no. I’m personally disgusted by this country’s fascination and complacency when it comes to teenage sex, but it’s obviously where we are. I’d like to say that this kid and her parents should be locked up, but the truth is that the only reason she’s featured that way on a website is probably because she can’t sing, act, or swing a tennis racquet.

Yeah, I’d like to hit her parents with a shovel, but Britney and Anna’s parents needed that same treatment, and so do the parents that let their children buy those CD’s and watch those videos and TV shows.

There just aren’t enough shovels…

Tags: teenage sex, anna kournikova, debbie gibson, christina aguilera, britney spears, 90210