Keep your eyes peeled for
Tween People: according to the NY Times,
8- to 12-year-old girls are getting loads of celebrity gossip from television, magazines, the internet, and so on. They know who is in rehab, who is adopting from a far-off land, and who is addicted to gambling and porn. Perhaps they've been spending
lots of quality time with us. But while most of the tweens express serious disapproval over the antics of former child stars, experts are concerned the exposure to celebrinsanity could make getting high, having sex, and engaging in all around drama seem more acceptable to the kids later in life. Like around prom time. See, back when I went to prom, we did not get drunk or have sex with our dates in cars because we wanted to be like Lindsay. We just sort of thought those things were exciting in and of themselves.
Okay, I don't think an 8-year-old needs to read that Paris flashed her hoo hoo, and frankly, I'm too young to read about it. I really don't like all the focus on celeb weights, and the weird emaciated aesthetic. But y'know what hidden moral bugs me more than the supposed "sex and drugs are fun" message? (Because they aren't fun. Oh no.) I hate the fact that while Britney and Lindsay get trashed for being trampy and messy, guys with slut reputations like Wilmer Valderrama and Jared Leto barely get a whisper of disapproval. Celebrity males basically have to shoot someone or have sex with a hooker to get any bad press. So our young 'uns get another cultural message that's been around for a while: there are very different standards of behavior for boys and girls.
I do like this: "Gone are the days when children who wanted to learn the meaning of a
naughty word or slang term had to find a dictionary or a more worldly
pal. Today, Wikipedia can explain in a matter of seconds that
badonkadonk is a term for a woman’s buttocks." Is that bad? I would like my child to use "badonkadonk" correctly if she's gonna say it. Unlike when we were kids, and someone circulated a rumor that you could get pregnant from french kissing. Oh, the innocence...
Do you think celeb gossip will poison our youth?
