When I was a kid, I was desperate to become a Mouseketeer - wearing those mouse ears, dancing, singing, and acting in one of the weekly Disney specials. Alas, telling them of my dream in a postcard sent to them at the age of 12 got no response.At that time in Disney's history, children's "things" were innocent and sweet. No more. We are now in the era of Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Vanessa Hudgens and now, Miley Cyrus posing for
Vanity Fair
topless, beneath a draped sheet, and sporting a seductive look.It's no surprise that little girls and boys look up to young celebrities with enthusiasm and yearning, and it's obvious that these celebrities become instant role-models as well.
My
Disney role-models were talented and squeaky clean, because that was Mr. Disney's vision. That was a good thing - or at least most families with children believed so.Most parents of 15-year-olds are pretty upset about this inappropriate display of an adolescent in
Vanity Fair
, where Cyrus is exposing her body in a vulgar way and giving their own children the wrong idea of feminine modesty and self-respect.
Vanity Fair
defends this travesty as beautiful, natural, and artistic. How 'bout saying the truth: they did this to sell magazines, and the best way to sell magazines is to sensationally exploit somebody or something. When it comes to exploiting children and vulgarizing their innocence, somebody ought to pull the plug on the photographer's lights. Apparently, former teen star Hilary Duff professed (according to Fox News) that she would
never
have made the mistake that Miley did by posing topless beneath a sheet. When I first heard of Duff's statement, I got excited that someone of her celebrity would take on the elites of Manhattan and Hollywood. Well, that dimmed immediately upon reading her entire statement, which included the following:
"Everyone goes through things and takes their own path; who am I to judge decisions that she made? People are pushing you to do something, and if you want to do it, that's your choice. It's not what I would choose to do, but if she did, then that's fine. That's her choice."
In 2008, I am shocked to read the same lame, amoral, immature and gutless rhetoric of the 1960's. Anything one chooses to do is fine simply because it is their choice? So, there is not right and wrong? There are no obligations to standards for the sake of others and the community? All things we choose to do have value simply because we choose to them?Take that philosophy to your standard innocent and naïve youth, and what do you get? You get the blasé determination that the best thing for little girls is an injection for a sexually transmitted disease (venereal warts) almost as soon as she reaches double digits in age! You also get Planned Parenthood aborting babies for these little girls and not reporting to the police that the fathers are adult men. You get young women so scarred and corrupted by all the "choices" they've made, that they can barely imagine, much less trust, the yearning for a safe, committed, happy marriage and family.That one look of Miley over her shoulder, with her chest barely covered with a sheet is an assault on the innocence of even more young girls...just when we thought they got the idea that becoming another Britney Spears was not such a good thing.
