Anyone who considers themselves, or is collectively considered to be a "celebrity" did not sign any agreement to be a beacon of morality or a role model for our children. So twerk away, grind away, rub away at your privates, this is still a free country. Stick your tongue out (literally) at anyone who would criticize you for behaving so un-Disney like because after all, that is exactly your point. You're a grown-ass woman now doing grown-ass woman things, but the follow up question will always be: what is the wisdom and the quality of those things you choose to do? Is your choice (or the choice of those who manage your image) to replace your family-friendly TV persona with that of a sexually liberated spring-breaker, a wise one? Time will tell. Is it in good taste? That's a matter of opinion. So,why then? Where is the wisdom of informing the world that you're all grown up by behaving like a child who just found her mommy’s lipstick and high-heel shoes? It just further emphasizes that you are in fact not yet grown up, not yet ready. Its distracting at best, but disappointing at worst because rather than reveal your maturity through your talent and intelligence, you chose to make your declaration through social media, outrageous behavior and a brazen display of sexuality that is, in my opinion, the opposite of sexy.
Congratulations on receiving the enormous amount of attention you so crave, that part worked to perfection. Unfortunately you are not concerned with what is said about you so long as it is being said about you, evidenced by a staggering Twitter count. You don’t care that in this hyper-paced society of ours that kind of attention wears off within another week when some other phenomenally insecure and/or unbalanced celebrity will feel compelled to outdo your immature displays with some of their own. You may not be giving the future much thought, and that goes to show that regardless of your fame, your bank account, your opportunities and your privileges you display the same immaturity and ignorance of the average 20 year old without any of your advantages. You have fans that cry out your name just to touch your shoes, wear what you wear, they sing along to your songs without missing a syllable and fall over themselves to take your picture. The entourage of people employed to fulfill your wants and needs say yes when they might mean no. It must be hard NOT to think that you are important to the whole rest of the world, but remember, ye of only twenty springs, that your entourage are just today’s employees, and those fans of yours will be as willing to pay to go see someone else's concert as they were to see yours. You will have no choice but to continue upping the ante with your hijinks and shenanigans, leaving far behind and forgotten the last vestiges of talent, credibility and relevance you may have still had. The entertainment business has the indelible reputation of chewing up and spitting out its own young, but it seems that it's you and this youngest generation of celebrities who are chewing away at your own feet via a magnified lack of self-respect.
Our kids will admire questionable celebrities, they will sing along to inappropriate lyrics, they will be bombarded by the daily contrast of toddler beauty pageants and the awkwardness of real-life adolescence
And poor Mr. Blurred Lines! He was clearly absent from every single rehearsal and had no idea that a young lady half his age would bend over provocatively in front of him for millions of people to see. If you really believe that wasn't part of the show then there's a bridge not too far from the Barclays center that’s still for sale. Topless women parade about in the alternate version of his video that serve no purpose but to titillate (pun intended) while he and his other male friends remain fully clothed, perpetuating an iron clad double-standard in the media. I’m not actually advocating for dudes in music videos to stroll by with their junk swinging about, my point is that even when women are the willing participants, the objectification is strongly reinforced and it's remarkable to me that this isn't more of a point. The horror! The indecency! Why he’s a married man with children! Well if he's so St. George and she's the evil dragon in this painting, couldn't the married man with children have said something along the lines of appropriateness when this was still in the planning stages? And even if was not planned, then how about a few words after the fact? Oh wait, he did have a few words...
"That was dope"
He wasn't going to say any different because to have said any different would have meant that more than a week later there wouldn't still be talk about it. Not to mention that rather predictably, each of their current songs (interestingly, not the one she actually performed) has had a substantial sales spike as a result of their performance. Mission accomplished.
There is no actual argument here, no dragon to defeat, no heroes and no villains. Sex will always sell in our consumer driven society already addicted to sound bites, scandal and (social) media. And sex is sold to us from all fronts, whether it’s safe sex Public Service Announcements or the nearly naked in music videos and covers of “romance” paperbacks. Our kids will admire questionable celebrities, they will sing along to inappropriate lyrics, they will be bombarded by the daily contrast of toddler beauty pageants and the awkwardness of real-life adolescence. They will be tug-o-warred between the virtues of abstinence and the strong sexual messages in car and perfume commercials. They will be forced to leaf through 74 glossy pages of Photoshop perfection to reach the one article about being o.k. with your image. And through all these contradictions, as concerned parents we have the enormous task of teaching them the importance of filtering out the messages that matter; respect yourself so that others respect you. Don’t be in such a rush to grow up because life itself will slow you down, sometimes hard. Respecting everyone else’s messages doesn’t mean you also need to subscribe to them. Honor and love yourself.
It takes a special kind of sanity to stick with the program and see through all this distracting fluff that passes as news these days. But it’s only sane people that question their sanity. It's the crazy people that think that something is wrong with the rest of the world.
