The government here is supposedly taking a stand for parents and parenting, starting with the crackdown on sexual music videos. I think that’s an interesting place to start, but I’m bemused that the example used as ‘offensive’ is a woman defending herself from rape. Oh teh noes, was she supposed to take it passively? *shakes head*

But in general, I am cautiously pleased that the government wants to give parents a bit of help. I know there are some people who say that it should be completely on the parents, buuut… are we supposed to cloister our children and not even take them outside? Because there’s tits everywhere, and me? I don’t want my daughter growing up thinking she’s a sexual object, and that she should allow marketing to tell her she’s nothing but one (or that she needs to spend money on things to be happy. I am glad that the backlash against these things are happening before my child gets too drowned in them; I plan on explaining everything under the sun I can to her and making sure she understands these things, but much like baby Storm – what kind of life is it if you have to spend every single minute explaining that no sweetie, that is also aggressive marketing attempting to prey on your well-being, and my pocket book.

Anyways, it takes a village to raise a child, and so while the parents should definitely be doing their fair share, it’s not fair to throw them in a snake pit and then accuse them of failing because baby got poisoned. A healthy sexuality is something precious to cultivate… outside of the child years, after the advent of menarche at the earliest, but definitely when the mental maturity is at the right point. When I, a child of the 80s can say that she remembers having that ideal thrust on her  before the age of 10 (to be sexy, to want to be sexy) as ‘normal’… *shakes head* I can see why it makes it harder for people to see the forest for the trees on this issue, because it has been creeping up all around us for a long time.

But on the other hand, government regulation makes me wary, because how long before wearing a short skirt becomes ‘offensive’? I might not want to show off my legs as such (I get the razor burn bad, hee hee), but I get some people like it and feel comfiest breezy and free. And that should be fine and dandy if that’s what that person wants. I celebrate the right of individuality; it’s when it becomes the peer-pressured herd mentality that I rail against it.

Anyways, we’ll see what comes of it all in time. Change, after all, cannot happen overnight, but I am hopeful that our ourselves and our children will see a day when we’re less targeted and bullied to conform with a certain idea of gender, or sexiness, or… or whatever. 🙂

And now – to lunch!

<3