feminine-genius

How many A&F pieces do your kids own?

I know you can't fight cool -- and some labels just reek of prestige. I see Abercrombie and Fitch labels everywhere (it's the brand that's meant to be sported to indicate you've arrived). When we had exchange students in from France last year, all the families met at the malls so that they could take home suitcases full of the best name brands, and that's when I learned that a slinky little t-shirt from A&F was ridiculously expensive.

So now there's a "New College" line, in case their goal hasn't been obvious enough:

The first A&F T-shirt pictures a young girl opening her blouse - exposing herself. A&F titles the image: "Show the Twins". The second picture is of a female running nude. A&F titles it: "Female streaking encouraged." The next Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirt is entitled: "Female Students Wanted for Sexual Research"

Abercrombie & Fitch does not merely sell a popular line of clothing -- they sell a lifestyle. And because A&F clothing is popular among teens and college kids, the influence of their sex-as-recreation lifestyle is widespread.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention reports that Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) remain a major public health challenge in the United States. CDC estimates that approximately 19 million new infections occur each year� almost half of them among young people 15 to 24 years of age [Is that the "research" the stupid t-shirt is talking about?].

And feminists wonder why women aren't taken seriously. Images here, as well as information on how to grumble. I doubt you can stop them from being their boorish selves, but you can reconsider those more innocent "billboards" you let your own kids wear to prove they're hip. It's not a lifestyle we can afford to ignore.

Abandoning the children

I suppose a nation that doesn't value children enough to protect them in the womb or from diverse "family" settings that damage their psychological development wouldn't find it necessary to to protect them from sexual harms either.

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to revive the Child Online Protection Act, designed to protect children from sexual material and other objectionable content on the Internet.

Pat Trueman, who was a pornography prosecutor in the Ronald Reagan administration, is now special counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. He objects to the decision by the nation's highest court on Wednesday not to revive the federal law that would have barred websites from making harmful content available to minors over the Internet.
 
"Why is it that the Constitution allows adults to give pornography to children?" he asks. "Point me in the direction of that provision in the Constitution. It does not exist."

He then goes on to point out the inconsistency of prosecuting adults who produce it, but ignoring the distribution of it to children. Sadly enough, that inconsistency will most likely be taken care of by liberalising the laws on porn, allowing more and more depravity on every level. Oremus.

What's appropriate?

Evidently, the overwhelming number of sexual images offered to children before they are even teenagers has severely impacted their ability to process what intimacy is really about. (Estimates Even Newsweek is in on this shocker as it reviews a book by Kevin Scott making the claim that pornography has successfully taken over the wider culture.

All it takes is one look at MySpace photos of teens to see examples—if they aren't imitating porn they've actually seen, they're imitating the porn-inspired images and poses they've absorbed elsewhere. Latex, corsets and stripper heels, once the fashion of porn stars, have made their way into middle and high school. An ad for Axe shower gel, marketed to teen boys, uses the slogan "How Dirty Boys Get Clean," while Burton, the snowboard company, partnered with Playboy earlier this year on a new line of "Love" boards—complete with voluptuous cheeks smack dab in the middle of each. The boards' online description reads: "I enjoy laps through the park; long, hard grinds on my meaty Park Edges followed by a good, hot waxing." One of the most popular kids' videogames, Guitar Hero, features animated rock stars that stand on a stage with a neon stripper gyrating on a pole behind them. Strippers have become cool—unremarkable even.               

In July, a Florida defense attorney argued in an obscenity trial that porn had become so commonplace—evidenced by the fact that a Google search for "orgy" is twice as common as one for "apple pie"—that his client, a porn-site operator charged with racketeering and prostitution, could not be considered as behaving outside the societal norm. (The obscenity charges were dropped, though the defendant was found guilty of money laundering.) "All you have to do is live here on a daily basis, and you pick this stuff up through every medium," says Sarracino, who teaches at Pennsylvania's Elizabethtown College. "But it's been so absorbed that it has almost ceased to exist as something separate from the culture."

Even Camille Paglia warned against this years ago in her defense of depravity. Roughly, she said that you will always have debauchery but it has to stay on the outskirts of mainstream culture. Once decadence becomes a centerpiece of society, all is lost. Funny, most of the feminists are stone silent about the objectification of women. Seems to be a perverse power trip for many of them.

NOTE: do not watch the accompanying film on Newsweek page with kids teenagers anyone looking over your shoulder. Not without screening it first.

Could this be the new Band Aid?

If all of these high profile names could really align themselves against the sex slave trade, it would be a marvel to behold. Call + Response is released in a limited showing this weekend. Tough going, but necessary.

CALL+RESPONSE is a first of its kind feature documentary film that reveals the world’s 27 million dirtiest secrets: there are more slaves today than ever before in human history. CALL+RESPONSE goes deep undercover where slavery is thriving from the child brothels of Cambodia to the slave brick kilns of rural India to reveal that in 2007, Slave Traders made more money than Google, Nike and Starbucks combined.

Luminaries on the issue such as Cornel West, Madeleine Albright, Daryl Hannah, Julia Ormond, Ashley Judd, Nicholas Kristof, and many other prominent political and cultural figures offer first hand account of this 21st century trade. Performances from Grammy-winning and critically acclaimed artists including Moby, Natasha Bedingfield, Cold War Kids, Matisyahu, Imogen Heap, Talib Kweli, Five For Fighting, Switchfoot, members of Nickel Creek and Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, Rocco Deluca move this chilling information into inspiration for stopping it.

Music is part of the movement against human slavery. Dr. Cornel West connects the music of the American slave fields to the popular music we listen to today, and offers this connection as a rallying cry for the modern abolitionist movement currently brewing.

Maybe later, we could connect the whole sexual revolution and absorption of the entertainment industry around promiscuity to show that the demand then drives these profits. Might be too much to ask at this point. I'm simply grateful that these folks are using their influence for a good cause. I see it's in Boston -- I may have to take a drive...

 

First line of defense

How absolutely marvelous of this woman to go to the mat to protect the innocence of children:

Time is running out for JoAn Karkos. The Maine woman has until 4 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29 to return the sexually explicit children's book It's Perfectly Normal to a public library in Lewiston.
If she does not, the 64-year-old grandmother may face jail time. "I'm not giving the book back," Karkos said. "Every citizen has an obligation to protect the innocence of children."

Karkos said she was inspired to check the book out of the library in September 2007 after reading an American Life League alert about the pornographic cartoon sex content in the book by Robie H. Harris. The book should be nowhere near children, according to Karkos.

Meant as sex education for preteens and adolescents as young as 10, It's Perfectly Normal contains cartoons of naked men and women in various sexual poses, long-winded descriptions of masturbation and homosexuality as depictions of 'perfectly normal' behavior.

She's gone through all the right steps, taking out the book, offering to pay, and then refusing to go against her conscience. How many libraries across the country have purchased such books with tax dollars? How many students of library science have checked their brains at the door of the office, defending "freedom of speech" that is barren of common decency? How many more citizens will now be aware of what is accessible to children?

It's all good, and her cause should be made known as widely as possible.

"JoAn is a courageous hero standing against one of the vilest examples of Planned Parenthood's war on families and hatred for childhood innocence," said Judie Brown [of American Life League]. "We hope her trial will alert parents, who can no longer trust libraries to be free of pornography, even in the children's section. We now know the abortion industry is willing to invade our public libraries to distribute inappropriate information and get our kids hooked on sex."

[Interesting aside here, for those who don't think about addiction.]

Could 80,000 people be wrong?!

From Reuters:

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A New Zealand court has allowed a parade of topless porn stars on motor bikes to proceed on the main street of the country's biggest city, local media said Tuesday.Auckland City Council had sought a court injunction to stop the "Boobs on Bikes" parade, scheduled for Wednesday, saying it breached a bylaw banning offensive public events.

But Judge Nicola Mathers said while opponents may find the parade offensive or tasteless, the fact that 80,000 people had gathered for a similar event last year meant a significant number of people did not agree with the critics, New Zealand Press Association said.

The parade on Queens St., featuring leather-clad local and international porn stars, is part of an "Erotica Expo" organized by self-styled "porn king" Steve Crow.

Similar to the "lunatics running the asylum," we have the perverts defining taste. Imagine a parade ridiculing the Prophet YKW, and we'd see new interpretations of both "taste" and "offensive." Very sad that no fatherly figure will protect young girls from these distasteful depictions of a woman's "worth" and acceptable "entertainment" for men.

Mother-daughter outing

Spending the day with mother is often unappreciated by teenagers. Most kids prefer to hang out with friends, maybe being dropped off at a mall or some such. But by the time the daughter turns twenty, many mothers and daughters begin to get along much better, to which Megan Lampros and her mother can attest. They stopped into the Westin near their home in Columbus to allow Megan to have some pictures taken and really enjoyed themselves.

She winked and smirked for photos in a blue bikini, then agreed to take off her top.

She wasn't so sure, though, about her next move.

"Do I just throw it away?" she asked the photographer, holding her bra.

(Well, yes, but toss it over your shoulder, like a bride with a bouquet, she was told.)

Next, she was instructed to remove her suit bottoms -- a request she didn't expect.

Her question: "Do I take my shoes off?"

After the five-minute audition Tuesday, Megan returned to the lobby to tell her mother that she had just been photographed completely naked.

"Oh, nice, princess!" the proud mom exclaimed.

There is a competition, doncha know, for the 55th anniversary edition of Playboy, and lots of girls want to make the cover. It seems lots of mothers think it would be a real accomplishment as well. Not much experience necessary, evidently. Win or lose, it's the chance of a lifetime.

If she doesn't become the Playboy model, Whitney Degroat, 22, of Springfield figures she'll at least have a life experience to share: "It's something to tell my grandkids: 'Grandma tried out for Playboy.' "

No doubt, they'll be thrilled.

Baby booty

Michelle Malkin alerts NRO readers about trash for tots, courtesy of a fashion line by Beyonce:

One of the children wears sparkly, killer high heels (more pint-size Pussycat Doll than Dorothy from The Wizard of the Oz) and another slouches, gangsta gal-style, with a neon pink boa, leopard-skin fedora and stilettos. An even younger model is a toddler-aged Beyonce Mini-Me with huge hair, skinny jeans, spike-heeled leather boots, and attitude to match.

Abercrombie & Fitch prompted an outrage a few years ago with its line of thongs for elementary school girls and pedophilia-chic catalogues. And, of course, Calvin Klein started it all with 15-year-old Brooke Shields purring that “Nothing comes between me and my Calvins.” But the House of Dereon photo spread sinks even lower. It’s sick and it’s wrong, and it’s not social conservatives who first said so. Fashion and celebrity websites have been buzzing with outrage over the past week.

“Pimp my kid,” decried one blogger. “Dereon Girls ad too adult,” concluded another. Gossip king Perez Hilton polled readers on whether the ad was appropriate. The overwhelming consensus: Hell, no.

The creepiness factor is heightened by the fact that women were responsible for marketing this child exploitation. I’d ask: “Where was Beyonce’s mother to tell her daughter to wipe all the gunk off the Dereon models’ faces?” But Beyonce’s mother — who has helped manage the “Bootylicious” singer’s career from childhood — is her eager and willing partner in crime.

Sad to say, I don't think these attitudes are confined to ghetto aspirants. Chatting recently with Helen Alvare, she noted that she's considered making a "no cleavage before 9am" rule in her classrooms, and has been stunned to see what the other mothers in her daughter's Catholic school push their daughters to wear. Indeed, her priest insists that quite often the mothers are worse that the daughters.

[FYI, the Derion line is found here. I couldn't get past the music for a snapshot. Enter at your own risk.]