Here’s today’s COMMENT FROM AN OLD FART: Moi had to look twice at this notice from CBS to those attending the GRAMMY show, Breasts, buttocks banned by CBS from Grammys:

NEW YORK (AP) — CBS is asking stars not to bare too much skin at the Grammy Awards on Sunday.

The network requests that “buttocks and female breasts are adequately covered” for the televised award show. The memo sent out Wednesday also warned against “see-through clothing,” exposure of “the genital region” and said that “thong type costumes are problematic.”

Representatives for CBS and the Recording Academy declined to comment on Thursday. Deadline Hollywood first reported the memo.

CBS broadcast the infamous 2004 Super Bowl halftime show that included Janet Jackson‘s “wardrobe malfunction.” The network was initially fined by the Federal Communications Commission, though the fine was later overturned. http://www.seattlepi.com/entertainment/article/Breasts-buttocks-banned-by-CBS-from-Grammys-4260323.php?cmpid=emailarticle&cmpid=emailarticle

See, Was Beyoncé’s racy Super Bowl outfit too much? Parents’ backlash over ‘trampy’ stage costume http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2273282/Was-Beyonc-s-racy-Super-Bowl-outfit-Parents-backlash-trampy-stage-costume.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#axzz2KQqoELyE

One of the hallmarks of a generation or a cohort are attitudes which were formed by the period of time in which the generation or cohort existed. Perhaps, the best capsule to explain the attitude differences between the early days of the women’s movement and the sex is one way to climb the ladder of success ethos of the Sex in the City crowd is in the Dolly Parton movie, 9 to 5 which was released in 1980. It is interesting to read the NOW 1966 Statement of Purpose which states principles such as:

WE BELIEVE that it is as essential for every girl to be educated to her full potential of human ability as it is for every boy — with the knowledge that such education is the key to effective participation in today’s economy and that, for a girl as for a boy, education can only be serious where there is expectation that it will be used in society. We believe that American educators are capable of devising means of imparting such expectations to girl students. Moreover, we consider the decline in the proportion of women receiving higher and professional education to be evidence of discrimination. This discrimination may take the form of quotas against the admission of women to colleges, and professional schools; lack of encouragement by parents, counselors and educators; denial of loans or fellowships; or the traditional or arbitrary procedures in graduate and professional training geared in terms of men, which inadvertently discriminate against women. We believe that the same serious attention must be given to high school dropouts who are girls as to boys.

The naive little idea which NOW was enunciating at the time that was that women should get educated and gain experience so that they would be qualified on their merits for promotion. Women’s ENews has an article about the casting couch syndrome which the movie 9 to 5 highlighted and the early women’s movement fought so hard to overcome. In the article Sexual Harassment  Sandra Kobrin correctly takes the likes of Polanski and Letterman to task.

Marc D. Hauser writes in the Education Week commentary, Don’t Run Away From Teaching Pop Culture:

Check out the music children listen to, and you will hear rap and hip-hop songs about sex, violence, women as objects, and domination. Sometimes the questionable language is explicit and sometimes it’s implicit, veiled in metaphors. Ask children if the content is appropriate or what the song is about, and you will get one of four answers:

“I don’t know. I just like the music.”

“I don’t know, but it’s OK because it doesn’t have any swears in it.”

“I know it has cursing in it so I listen to the ‘clean’ version.”

“I know it’s about sex and violence, but I like the beat.”

When children think that music is inappropriate, most often they believe that the moral infraction lies with the use of profanity. If you clean up the words, you cleanse the moral space and thus are free to listen, they believe. In fact, YouTube is littered with tunes that are designated “clean” because censors have “bleeped out” the swearing in them. But that really isn’t good enough.

There are two problems with editing out profanity and acting as if a song is subsequently appropriate for all listeners. First, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what words have been papered over and then mentally fill them in as the song goes by. Second, I think it is fair to assume that most parents and educators are far more worried about the larger meaning of a song—its message—than we are about a few bad words….

The bottom line is that educators (and parents) can’t run away from these issues, and we certainly can’t keep the material from children unless we believe that a life without radio and the Internet is possible; similar issues arise with books and movies, including many of the topics covered within the Twilight and Hunger Games series….

Although these issues are critical for parents, I’m going to focus here on what educators can, and I believe should, do to address this matter.

“Teachers should actively engage their students in discussions about the controversial material bombarding them.”

First, we must recognize that our students are surrounded by material that is, in many ways, not only age-inappropriate, but in some cases, morally inappropriate. Although what counts as morally inappropriate is certainly debatable, I would hope that most educators might agree on some topics, such as the barrage of rap songs that demean women or seem to promote violence as cool and exciting.

Second, we cannot sit back and let our students passively digest this material. No, instead, teachers should actively engage their students in discussions about the controversial material bombarding them.

More concretely, it should be a priority of all schools to develop classes around the lyrics in present-day music and to fully engage with the fiction that many of our children seek out. Literature classes provide a natural home for these topics; after all, great literature addresses moral challenges. Think Anna Karenina, Adam Bede, David Copperfield. So why not do the same for the song lyrics and for many of the most popular works of fiction on the market now? Or, if high school English teachers are too busy with other tasks, why not create electives centered around the moral issues that modern songs and books raise? http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/02/06/20hauser.h32.html?tkn=RYCFHYHX7zZNkAI6qv8hs9lOI5U7ENQ%2BQ9Wo&cmp=clp-sb-ascd&intc=es

The American Psychological Association has written a report Sexualization of Girls and the Executive Summary contains the following definition:

There are several components to sexualization, and these set it apart from healthy sexuality. Sexualization occurs when

• a person’s value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics;
• a person is held to a standard that equates physical attractiveness (narrowly defined) with being sexy;
• a person is sexually objectified—that is, made into a thing for others’ sexual use, rather than seen as a person with the capacity for independent action and decision making; and/or
• sexuality is inappropriately imposed upon a person.

All four conditions need not be present; any one is an indication of sexualization. The fourth condition (the inappropriate imposition of sexuality) is especially relevant to children. Anyone (girls, boys, men, women) can be sexualized. But when children are imbued with adult sexuality, it is often imposed upon them rather than chosen by them. Self-motivated sexual exploration, on the other hand, is not sexualization by our definition, nor is age-appropriate exposure to information about sexuality.        http://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/girls/report.aspx

This society is setting up women and girls to make some personally destructive choices which have nothing to do with a liberating and healthy sexuality. Much of the culture is simply aimed at demeaning and trivializing women. Children of both sexes need to be urged toward education, training, and life experiences which grow them as responsible and caring people. They should be urged to make choices which benefit them and the society in which they live. Unfortunately, there are some who enter the world of whoredom because they are forced. There is a lot of information about human trafficking No one in their right mind would honestly advocate that someone they care about was “in the life” or “on the game.” But if young women are going to voluntarily take the road of whoredom, then you need to sell yourselves for Goldman Sachs type $$$$$$$$$$. That is what Miley, Britney, Janet and the other pop tarts have done. Short of that, you might as well be walking the streets looking for a really nice car that isn’t leased so that you can become the next “Pretty Woman.”

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