#303 - A Terrifying Trend(?) *

*Warning:  This post discusses social mores and sexual taboos!

All right, here we go.  This could be the post that gets me an interview with Chris Hansen or law enforcement officials due to the controversial nature of this post, but as a believer in the U.S. Constitution and subsequently, its Bill of Rights, I feel I have some legal precedent to state my opinions.

The issue at hand is the over "sexification" of today's young women, most especially those in the entertainment industry.  What's more, we are living in a society that condemns some individuals from acting on the sexual impulses created by this environment while continuing to encourage the objectification of these young women.  At the same time, these young women are saddled with the responsibility to promote a positive message of empowerment and a presumed stance on sexuality that has a subtext of abstinence.

Where I Stand

I think that pedophiles are the lowest sort of human being and should be given the death penalty for their crimes.  I can't watch Dateline's To Catch A Predator because I get very frustrated.  This is because I am surprised at how many of these cretins are out there.  For every one of them that appears on the show, there are probably a hundred others that are not being caught.  Furthermore, once the perpetrator is arrested, I get frustrated because I keep waiting for the part where they pistol whip the guy while he is handcuffed to a chair or where they tase his nutsack repeatedly while his feet are in a bucket of water.  Let's take a moment and revel in that.

Now some of you are saying, "Right on!" and others of you are saying, "Hey, these people need help, their sick."  To the latter, I say, "There's nothing wrong with them that can't be fixed with my hands."  They are sick, and they are broken in my opinion.  No amount of lying on a couch and talking about their feelings is going to fix this.  There's no chemical substance they can consume to keep them from wanting to diddle little children.  That being said, they need to be removed from society permanently once they are caught.  We have no problem shooting a rabid dog or putting entire herds of cattle down.  Why?  They pose a threat to society at large.

Now that I've said that, I believe that the laws regarding this subject should be changed.  In other words, if someone has sexual relations with an individual under the legal age of consent various factors should be considered.  In other words, you can't label someone as a "pedophile" or "child sex offender" if the victim is biologically capable of reproduction.  In other words, a 15 year old who bangs his 15 year old girlfriend is NOT a child sex offender and shouldn't get the death penalty.  In fact, he shouldn't do any jailtime at all.  I'd even go so far as to say that an 18 year old who has consensual sex with a 15 year old who has been menstruating for the past 3 years has not committed a crime against nature.  The same goes for these thirty-something and twenty-something female teachers having sex with their 14 and 15 year old students.  Is it unethical?  Yes.  Is it creepy?  Yes.  Is it completely unnatural and against society?  No.

What makes someone sexually attractive?

We're going to have to admit that we ain't nothin' but mammals.  Our base physical desire to survive includes passing on our genetic material.  This means that the target of our urges at least gives the appearance of fertility.  They must appear healthy and able to sire or produce offspring.  We will be attracted to this regardless of the target's physical age.  It is our societal conditioning that makes us shut off our desires at hearing a person's age. 

Remember the "good old days"?

Yeah.  I'm not talking about the 90's, 80's, 70's, 60's, or even 50's.  OK.  Maybe I am, but I'm talking 1800's and back.  Yep.  I hate to break to you all, but people were getting married at 14 and popping out kids at 15.  Age of consent didn't matter.  If the person was capable of having kids and supporting themselves with their skills, it was time for them to leave the nest, get married, and start their own family.

This is due to the agrarian nature of our society at the time.  If you wanted a successful farm, you needed a lot of inexpensive, yet loyal, labor.  How do you do that?  You have kids.  Lots of them. 

As the industrial era progressed people no longer saw the need for such large families; thus, concluding with the "nuclear family" of the 50's and beyond.  After, WWII the Industrial Age concluded and we are now in the post-industrial "Infomation Era".  We live in a time where we don't actually create many lasting products.  This is a "throwaway" culture.  Technology changes so quickly that something purchased today is obsolete tomorrow.  We are more interested in "ideas" than in physical things.

As our society has changed its economic focus, it has changed its biological focus as well.  In the pre-industrial era we needed lasting pair bonds that created multiple offspring.  It was required for survival.  Much like the farms on which they lived, the family itself had to take time to sow seeds, cultivate them and harvest the rewards (free labor).  In the industrial age, strong pair bonds were still required for financial success and stability, but less offspring were needed (or perhaps desired).  Now, in the Information Age, pair bonds are no longer necessary for the survival of the offspring.  Yes, physical coupling must occur, but a person can be successful on their own as many jobs no longer require exceptional physical or even mental skills.

Biology, Media, and Social Mores meet

And believe me, I think they hate each other's guts.  Here's where we are right now.  We have a lot of young women as entertainment fixtures.  Because of the industry in which they work, being sexually attractive is an unwritten job requirement.  Biologically, men are very attracted to them.  Socially, they must outwardly conceal their desires.  For the starlets, they know that their money is being made because they are attractive.  Biologically, they are ready for sexual activity.  Socially, they must outwardly conceal their desires.

This is really screwed up.  Now, I have to admit that American culture is more hung up on the age thing than other cultures.  As a society, Americans are pretty sexually repressed.  Just my opinion.  I find it amusing that violence is OK here, but sex is not.  Mainly because sex is natural while violence (in the human sense) is unnatural.

Let me explain, I know that violence occurs in the animal kingdom.  It's limited to two types though.  Getting something to eat/avoiding being eaten or getting the opportunity to pass on their DNA.  You could over simplify and say that we commit acts of violence for the same reasons (which we do) but then we have a lot of complex violent behavior such as religious martyrdom or sociopathic genocide.  Let's be honest.  It is unnatural to shoot someone in the face for drug money.

The problem is that we are affecting future generations with this current trend.  Media is teaching young girls that sexing things up is the way to go.  Society is telling them that sexing it up is OK for entertainment people, but not regular people.  So then Society gets in Media's grill and says, "Hey, stop telling girls to sex things up!"  And Biology is like, "Why are you two fighting?  People are going to sex things up.  It's just the way things are!"  That's when Society and Media give Biology the finger and team up.  Meanwhile, everybody is just plain confused.

Here's the thing.  College dudes who are currently jacking it to Miley Cyrus bikini pictures are deemed degenerates, but in 2 or 3 years, it will be perfectly acceptable (if not encouraged) for them to jack it to her pictures.  This makes absolutely no sense.  Again, I'm not a proponent of the "Old enough to bleed, old enough to breed" or the "Grass on the infield?  Play Ball!" philosophies, but as a society we need to stop labelling people for thinking.  What we need to do is punish people for acting.

If we want to cling to our idea of a non-situational age of consent, then punishments need to be severe.  For everyone.  Letting Debra Lefave off the hook because she was a good looking teacher despite the fact that the kid was underage, yet throwing the book at every male high school teacher that hits on a female student or convicting an 18 year old of possession of child pornography because his 17 year old girlfriend sent him a naughty phone camera photo is ridiculous.  Death penalty for all.

Guess what else, if media conglomerates want to continue their little game of sexing up their starlets but contractually obligating them to speaking out against sexing it up, then those executives, managers, and parents can be held accountable and face the death penalty, too.  Especially, when we find out that the starlets have been sexing it up.  They are contributing to the delinquency of society.

Will someone please think of the children?

Believe me, I am.  Here's the thing though.  I don't believe in this romanticized version of childhood.  You know the whole innocence thing.  This was an invention of the 60's and 70's.  This idea that childhood should be carefree and protected from all the harshness of the world.

I believe that your experiences in childhood should prepare you for adulthood.  That's not to say that everything should be traumatic and unhappy.  Everyone needs pleasant memories.  It's the only thing that can keep you going during a very unpleasant present.  What I don't think children (especially young girls) need is to learn how to prance around and gyrate seductively.

END OF LINE