Are You Gonna Stay the Night?

For the last forty years (and probably a lot longer) the question has been "How much does media (films, television, music, even commercials) affect behavior and morality and how much does it reflect current society and the reality of life?"

Liberals and the folks that control 99% of the media tell us music and films are reflective, showing real life and people's aspirations to find a place within it.

Conservatives and media critics generally blame the media for encouraging promiscuity, bad lifestyle choices and the decline of morality in society.

In reality it is more a vicious cycle with breakdowns in traditional society portrayed in a positive way, encouraging further breakdown and movement toward a new societal structure.

Forty years ago most families, from every ethnic and socioeconomic group, had traditional marriages and families with both a mother and father in the home.

In the 1950's and 1960's the general result of teen pregnacy was a hasty marriage, the so-called shotgun wedding.

Today teen pregnancy all too often results in either abortion or unwed teen motherhood, often in a cycle of poverty.

What caused me to reflect on this situation is a Time Magazine report out yesterday that "Sexting" of the use of cell phones to act out sexual activity (including the exchange of nude photos) is now rampant among middle school aged children, even preteens. 

Today's pop music, virtually the entire "Top 40" glorifies sexual activity, often eschewing any potential of a long term relationship.  One of my favorite songs today is "Stay the Night" by Zedd featuring Haley Williams.  

LYRICS include:

"I am the fire, gasoline,

Pour yourself all over me.

Are you gonna stay the night?

Doesn't mean we're bound for life."

Enjoy this amazing, creative video, but keep in mind, every ten year old in America loves this song and hears it a dozen times every day!

This video is legally displayed here, but due to tight copyright control the copyright holder may well delete this video in the future. We apologize if it is no longer available when you read this blog.

Now let's flip the coin and show you a video from Argentine for a relatively new product not available in the United States, Coca-Cola Life, a Stevia Sweetened reduced calorie (but not calorie free) Cola.  Currently Coca-Cola has no plans to introduce the cola in the United States.

Regardless, this commercial has gone insanely viral and one viewing will tell you why. It's absolutely brilliant. One of the reasons it's gone viral is because it glorifies the family, and glorifies parenting, mother AND father parenting!





Which message do you want your children or grandchildren to see?

The Secret Life of the American Teenager

I must admit that my lovely wife and I are secretly addicted to The Secret Life of the American Teenager. We love every minute of this breakthrough drama about a 14 year old girl who becomes pregnant and has to deal with ALL the consequences. The show is at once hopeful and heartbreaking, tragic and inspiring, funny and sad.

It's easy to fall hopelessly in love with Amy Juergens (played beautifully by Shailene Woodley, pictured to the right), the 14 year old who makes a terrible mistake one night while away at band camp. Through much of the first season Amy kept the secret from her parents and most of her friends and even her new boyfriend Ben (played with a deft romantic touch by Kenny Baumann) who is NOT the father of the baby.

And all America has fallen in love with Amy and Ben and Ricky (the baby's father) and the extremely large cast who cover the very real issues of sex and pregnancy and growing up without ever sugarcoating or holding back on any issue.

As you might suspect, writer and producer Brenda Hampton's Secret Life is a very, very liberal Hollywood values show. Sex is dealt with openly and honestly. The show is a weekly one hour commercial for sex education and then tops that off by providing a great deal of sex education right in the show.

Abortion was covered logically and dispassionately as a real option to be considered by any young girl who finds herself in this situation. Amy, for several weeks, considers having an abortion and visits an abortion clinic. She almost goes ahead with the abortion.

But the "pro-life" position was also handled fairly through a strong Christian character, Grace (played by the very beautiful Megan Park). Grace, who wore a "chastity ring" until recently, is terribly tempted to have sex and is having great difficulty reconciling her emotions, not to mention her hormones, with her Christian teachings. No subject is taboo on this show.

Most importantly the show empowers young women. Amy stays in High School and works to graduate and go on to college. It certainly doesn't romanticize pregnancy, but it never condemns it, nor does it ever condemn Amy who faces some of life's toughest decisions with a realistic mixture of fear, ignorance, bravery and hope. Amy is the hero of her own life.

Even though the show on cable (ABC Family), it has a huge audience (3 million viewers plus) and often actually out performs major network shows in the ratings.

However, back in the real world, the cable and network news today covered with occasional irrational glee, the breakup of 18 year old unmarried Bristol Palin and the father of her baby, Levi Johnston. MSNBC has, frankly, been disgusting in their coverage of a young lady whose only claim to fame is to be the daughter of Alaska Governor and former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

But what is truly pathetic is the left wing and progressive blogosphere's treatment of Bristol which has been sexist, vitriolic, hate filled and often just grossly pornographic. It is simply hard to even imagine this much hatred. And it's tough to read this much filth.

When they aren't portraying her as a slut who was begging to be used and abused by a variety of men, they portray her as mindless bimbo completely incapable of controlling her urges and sexual libido. And I'm cleaning most of this up. Every foul word to describe women and every gross misogynistic term used to degrade women can be found on The Daily Kos, The Huffington Post and other bastions of supposed liberal thought.

So as liberal Hollywood producer Brenda Hampton works to bring America into the 21st Century of enlightenment about teenage pregnancy and the innate worth of every woman, the so-called progressive left does their damnedest to treat women much worse than the most horrific fundamentalist Muslim Taliban society or extreme, backwards, fundamentalist Christian sect.

Amy Juergens, American Hero. Brstol Palin, American Whore and Slut.

It would be funny if it wasn't so tragic.

If U Seek Amy

There is something terribly wrong with our liberal agenda. I can feel it. Perhaps I might even be able to articulate it. But I don't have the slightest clue as to what to do about it. And I believe many other liberals feel the same way.

We are able to stand and fight with great passion, courage and an unyielding sense of right and wrong for environmental issues. We see our planet in peril and we know we must defend her. The facts, the statistics and the scientists help us and solidify our arguments, but our hearts tell us we must do what is right.

We are able to stand and fight with great passion, courage and an unyielding sense of right and wrong for civil rights and the rights of minorities. There is no doubt in our minds or hearts. Equal pay for men, women, minorities. Equal protection under the law. We are on rock solid ground.

Our instincts are keen. We rebel instinctively against any attack on our basic rights. Freedom of Speech is one of our most sacred rights. Sexual freedom is another. The right of a woman to control her body, her future and her destiny are beyond debate.

So when the Southern Baptists and the censorship fanatic Parents Television Council and several other conservative groups launch a very public and well coordinated attack aimed at these rights, we react instinctively.

Except.... Today's target is Britney Spears, an easy target if there ever was one. Spears is having one sensational comeback. God knows she had hit the lowest depths. She had no where to go but up. Her new album Circus is topping every chart. Her first two singles off that album, Circus and Womanizer, are super hits. You can hear them on virtually every pop and adult contemporary radio station in America.

The problem arises with the record companies decision to release the third single from the album, the obviously suggestive "If U Seek Amy." Let's let Southern Baptist Kelly Boggs tell the story:

"If U Seek Amy," is offensive, inane as well as immature. This means with the state of American popular culture one step below the gutter the song likely will be a success. Only a week after it hit American radio it is already 92 on Billboard Magazine's Hot 100 chart. While it is true that lyrical depth has never been a feature of American pop music, Spears' "Amy" scrapes the bottom of the barrel. In fact, it seems as if the song's only purpose is to provide the framework for a refrain that is on par with the worst lyrics found in rap music. The lyrics of the refrain are: "But all of the boys and all of the girls are begging me to if you seek Amy." The fact that the written lyric makes no sense is really not the problem. Quite a few rock song lyrics have not made much sense. However, what Spears does phonetically when she sings the song makes all the difference. When listing to the song, there is no doubt she is spelling out one of the most offensive words in the English language.

If U Seek Amy = F-U-C-K Me.

Cute. Actually, it is cute. And I strongly disagree with Boggs analysis of the song. It's the strongest song on the album. If kids (or anyone) really listens to the song and lyrics it is really about a person longing for an unattainable icon. It is a story of a tragically overinflated ego. But few people will ever submit this song to this type of analysis. For one reason the song is fun and catchy, fast and danceable. It is going to be a huge hit at clubs.

But what about our teens and pre-teens? As this hits radio stations, what messages are we sending? One reviewer, who I won't bother to link because he is a compete idiot, claimed that young listeners would never pick up on the double entendre. Instead I'll quote a young lady named Cassie who added this comment to a lyrics site:

*snort* I love this song. My mum still doesn’t get it, so lets me listen to it when I’m driving my grandmother to work. My school played it at a dance. Thank you Brit for being tongue-in-cheek. It lets us pull one over on my school and my mother. I O U 1

Don't ever underestimate our children. They get it. The current efforts to play a "censored version" are certainly not going to accomplish a thing. For one thing the song is all over "You Tube." It's spreading like wildfire.

But back to my question. What messages are we sending to our young teens and pre-teens? Read this cautionary essay written for the UK Daily Mail by Olivia Lichtenstein, "How the faceless and amoral world of cyberspace has created a deeply disturbing... generation SEX"

Remember that Hilaire Belloc cautionary tale - Matilda told such dreadful lies, it made one gasp and stretch one’s eyes? I used to love it as a child when telling lies was one of the naughtiest things you could do: Matilda ended up getting burned to death. These days, however, everything has changed and it’s the truths that children tell that make one gasp and stretch one’s eyes. A couple of years ago, my daughter Francesca, then aged 13, told me about a party she had been to one Saturday night. In the course of the evening, she came upon one of her friends, also aged 13, performing oral sex on a boy in the garden. The boy was standing and videoing the event on his mobile phone. I apologise for shocking you, but then there are a number of things shocking about this event: the casual nature in which such an intimate act is performed in public, the young age of the participants and last, but by no means least, the fact that it is being filmed.

How do we, as liberals, handle this continuous onslaught of sex and sexual message directly at our teens and preteens? Do we join the conservative outraged parents in Australia and America are demanding radio stations stop playing the song? **

If not, what message are we sending? Can this problem be fixed? How? You realize it's not just this one song.

I hope you will all discuss this issue in the comments section.

**Additional link: MUCH MUSIC: Racy Brit Song Angers Parents