As almost anyone who knows me well can tell you, I rarely watch TV. In fact, despite the fact that I have a television set in my apartment, it was only in the past month or two that anyone finally hooked up an antenna to it. Since the antenna has been hooked up, I have turned the TV on a grand total of two times with the intention of actually watching broadcast television (I had turned it on other times to watch DVDs or play XBox). One of those times happened to be yesterday morning as I was eating a quick breakfast prior to leaving to pick up my friends so we could go up to wine country for the day. I don't even know what channels we get on the TV, so I just stopped at the first channel that wasn't static. It was a Saturday morning on broadcast, so it should come as no surprise that I stumbled upon a cartoon. The cartoon was Bratz.
I don't know much about Bratz, to be honest, but I do know that I have never really supported the concept. The dolls and characters are meant to represent teenagers, but they are clearly marketed to young children - girls around the age of 8. Two years ago, my then-8-year-old cousin, just had to have these Bratz dolls - they were all the rage. For some reason, probably mostly as a brief study in the American child's popular culture, I decided to watch a little of the show while eating my breakfast rather than change the channel. In the maybe three minutes that I watched the show, I was completely offended and disgusted.
In one particular scene, a girl who was clearly the "ugly chick" was talking to one of her "hot friends," and the "hot friend" was saying that they were going to give the the "ugly chick" a makeover. To this idea, the ugly girl said, "That guy that I'm crushing on won't even talk to me. Do whatever you want. Turn me into a blonde fashion doll if you have to." I heard this and was immediately so outraged that I had to write it down so I wouldn't forget to write about it here in the Journal. Is this what we are teaching our girls? That they need to become "fashion dolls" to get a guy to notice them? That they aren't good enough as they are? Now, the show could have used this as an opportunity to teach girls that they don't have to become someone else, but instead, the show immediately cuts to the girl's "new look," which was basically a slut. Rather than having her original unique, modest (if a little "grunge") appearance, she now looked like every other hot girl - sexy haircut, short skirt, tight shirt, make-up and high heels. And the destructve teachings didn't stop here. Not only did this girl have to change her physical appearance completely, but her friends started to coach her on how to compeltely change her behavior to be more attractive, as well. I couldn't even get through this scene, it was too much.
How can American society promote this image for our young girls? Some people have argued that, because the characters and dolls are meant to be teenagers (one of them was learning how to drive in another scene), the target audience is teens, but that's just plain gobbledygook. To suggest this would be to suggest that Barbie dolls are meant for adults since Barbie had a limo, her own house, and Ken, a pseudo-husband. When is the last time you saw Barbie dolls marketed to adults? Yah, never. So if anyone thinks that the Bratz target audience is teens, they need to - pardon the expression - get their heads out of their asses. There is no getting around the fact that these characters are setting examples that our 8-year-old girls are going to follow. They dress like skanks, talk like complete morons, act like bitches, but get all the best things in life. They have money to go shopping, they have the attention of all the boys, and they leave the "normal crowd" in the dust. It is disgusting.
Inevitably, any discussion about the things that influence children will come around to the parents, and rightfully so. Moreso that anything else, parents influence their children and their children's behaviors. A good, parent, then, would PREVENT THEIR CHILD from watching shows like this. I'm sorry, but no matter how deluded you might be, you can't possibly argue that an 8-year-old girl will watch this show and logically reason in her own mind that what is being portrayed is wrong. It is a simple fact of life that children don't have the experience or logical reasoning capability of adults - they are easily influenced. By allowing their daughters to watch shows like this, parents are indirectly telling the daughters that the Bratz are good role models for what girls should be. And girls aren't the only ones impacted by this - boys are, too. Boys who watch this show are being taught that girls are objects whose goalss are to look pretty and act slutty for the enjoyment of men. In my opinion, parents have no right to complain about the mistreatment of women as sexual objects if they are allowing their children - girls and boys - to watch shows or wear clothes that promote that image. Children simply don't understand that it isn't right if they're not told.
So no, I can't say that American media has single handedly corrupted our 8-year-old girls, but they definitely play a huge role. They are providing the example that parents are indirectly telling their children is the right one to follow. If parents didn't support shows like this, they simply wouldn't be made. American media doesn't, I believe, set out to courrupt moral values - they simply give people what they want because they can make the most money off of it. And parents are clearly sending our media the message that this is what they want by continuing to support it. It's time we all wake up and protect our children.
For my religiously-based perspective on Faith, Marriage & Sexuality, check out my December 31 post in God's Promise.
As January comes to a close, it is hard for me to believe that 8.5% of 2007 is already over. It seems like just yesterday that it was rolling over to the new year, and yet that was actually 31 days ago. The year has been busy and exciting already. I returned to the Bay Area after the holidays on Jan. 2 and have been going strong since then. Whether I've been keeping busy at the office, hanging out with friends or escaping from the world (see photo - Pigeon Point Lighthouse), the last thing that I've been is bored. To be fair, unlike the last four months of last year where I was constantly BUSY, this year has been active, but in a much more relaxed sort of way. Instead of galavanting off to far corners of the world, I haven't actually flown at all since returning at the beginning of the month. I've already turned down two invitations to Germany and an invitation to New Zealand. The only trip I've taken was my "Escape From Life," which was a leisurely drive.
One of the stops during my "Escape From Life" was a little town called Solvang. I had actually heard of this town before, though I didn't recall it at the time I was there. Solvang is a little Dutch town in Central California, not too far from San Luis Obispo, and it happens to appear in the movie Sideways. I ended up in Solvang quite by accident, to be honest. During the drive back to San Francisco from Los Angeles, I decided that I wanted to stop off at several of the California Missions along the El Camino Real. I didn't have a set plan as I left LA, but I had my GPS and a map and knew basically where the Missions were, so I felt set. 
One of the Missions, Santa Ynez (pictured right), turned out to be less than a mile from this little Dutch town. I finished at the Santa Ynez Mission around 3:30 or 4 p.m. and knew that I wouldn't be able to make it to Mission San Luis Obispo before they closed, so when I saw this little Dutch town, I stopped to take a look. It turns out that Solvang is in the heart of the Central Coast's wine country, so there were several tasting rooms in the town. How could I not stop and do some wine tasting? After doing some tasting, I went to Cafe Angelica, a local establisment recommended to me by one of the pourers in a tasting room. As I was sitting at my table, I distincly recall thinking to myself, "nobody in the world, with the exception of the people sitting here right now, knows exactly where I am. Sure people know I'm in California, but nobody actually knows exactly where." It was a good feeling - the feeling you get when you're living your own life, and not someone elses.