Posted on 12/30/2006 7:27:56 PM PST by shrinkermd
It’s hard to write this without sounding like a prig. But it’s just as hard to erase the images that planted the idea for this essay, so here goes. The scene is a middle school auditorium, where girls in teams of three or four are bopping to pop songs at a student talent show. Not bopping, actually, but doing elaborately choreographed re-creations of music videos, in tiny skirts or tight shorts, with bare bellies, rouged cheeks and glittery eyes.
They writhe and strut, shake their bottoms, splay their legs, thrust their chests out and in and out again. Some straddle empty chairs, like lap dancers without laps. They don’t smile much. Their faces are locked from grim exertion, from all that leaping up and lying down without poles to hold onto. “Don’t stop don’t stop,” sings Janet Jackson, all whispery. “Jerk it like you’re making it choke. ...Ohh. I’m so stimulated. Feel so X-rated.” The girls spend a lot of time lying on the floor. They are in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.
As each routine ends, parents and siblings cheer, whistle and applaud. I just sit there, not fully comprehending. It’s my first suburban Long Island middle school talent show. I’m with my daughter, who is 10 and hadn’t warned me. I’m not sure what I had expected, but it wasn’t this. It was something different. Something younger. Something that didn’t make the girls look so ... one-dimensional.
It would be easy to chalk it up to adolescent rebellion, an ancient and necessary phenomenon, except these girls were barely adolescents and they had nothing to rebel against. This was an official function at a public school, a milieu that in another time or universe might have seen children singing folk ballads, say, or reciting the Gettysburg Address.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
FYI East of the Apple Chain Mountain Alert
I'm sad to say, it's some of what the mussies see and hate about us... I hate it too. Just a prig I guess.
Destined to become tomorrow's man-hating, childless, therapy-seeking, 32-cat owning spinsters, IMO.
"It’s hard to write this without sounding like a prig."
He writes for the NY Slimes. He is a prig.
Interesting enough, my 12 year old nephew saw this with his parents and siblings at his school in CA. His younger sister (9) said, "look at those dancers". The 12 year old said, "that's not dancing, that's sex".
Since when did the Slimes care about pre-teens dancing sexually? This is akin to abortionists showing concern over miscarriages.
Parents applaud their daughters bumping and grinding to music with “Jerk it like you’re making it choke....Ohh. I’m so stimulated....Feel so X-rated" lyrics?
Sick.
"Wally, we absolutely forbid you to date Mary Ellen Rogers again. You and Beaver go take a bath."
These 'dance' classes started cropping up about 8 years ago and have escalated to some ungodly point. My SIL had her 7 year old niece quit gymnastics after she saw the floor show of an older group and realized that what she was seeing was nothing more than soft core kiddie porn. The mothers were actually showing the 9 year olds how to gyrate their hips and used the words "pout a bit more" "look sexier" "put your hand lower" She told me it was sickening. I can only imagine how these girls will act when they are in high school a few years from now.
make that "my" 7 year old niece, who btw is now in Teeball, a much better sport where the bodies stay covered and noone is judged on how cute you look.
You're too late. It's already in the government High Schools. Schools that my kids will not be attending, either.
I'm very lucky to have a good dance studio for my kids, which is popular and successful, but really in tune with parents' wishes when it comes to this stuff. There is no booty-popping in the hip hop classes for kids. No belly shirts. No t-shirts are allowed with lewd things on them. It's nice.
He might be a prig, but this is what IS happening in the schools. My grandson is 10 and hasn't experienced it yet, but I've heard about it from parents of older kids & also heard a radio show with call-ins about this also.
YES, it's the parents who need to set limits, but it's the same parents who seem to be encouraging it & pushing their daughters to do this! SICK is right!
Homeschool
Myself, I graduated HS in 1978 and the school dances back then were nothing like what goes on today. I can't believe the decline in standards (and the standards in 1978 were not all that high).
This is probably just one of their rare times that they try to look "objective." And now they'll eagerly look forward to (and print) all the hate mail that comes in from their "enlightened" readers castigating this guy as a "prig" and a "Republican" and a "fundie." Anyone who writes agreeing with him will, of course, have zero chance of getting their letter into print.
Of course, they STILL want to act like rape is against the law!
These girls can parade around dressed like prostitutes and then they blame the BOYS for getting aroused!
I couldn't be happier I never had a girl in this day and age!
Is wickedness becoming biblical in its proportions?
Thank the pot smoking, liberal parents of these kids today!!!
"Just you be sure that Beaver is clean."
I'm more of a prude when it comes to this topic. I work at a middle school, and I do not like seeing little girls becoming overly sexualized by this society. I hate even more seeing the children at the elementary schools I also work at wearing clothing that have been shown at fashion shows and designed for adult women (even then, I don't like seeing those fashions on adult women). While I want the enemies we are presently fighting defeated, I can certainly see why they don't want us involved in their world.
Both of my daughters attended public high school,(my younger is a junior) but they never went to the dances. Not their scene. I was glad and never pushed them to go to the prom. Now the after prom party was another story. That was put on my parents and apparantly was a great deal of clean fun which they enjoyed.
I never noticed much of a distinction myself. There is definately a slutty aspect to the Bratz toys.
I'm from your generation, and H.S. dances where I went to school had teachers and parents who were constantly going around the dance floor and putting a stop to any activity deemed inappropriate. Sometimes they were busy, but the behavior was stopped or those students left the dance. I can't see any reason why this approach should not be in use today.
Of course, since O'Reilly reads the NY Times, he'll be all over this. He loves the subject of school students gone wild for some reason or other. Should do him with a eeek of shows I won't watch.
LOL!!
Very good article. I have read of schools banning dances because of the simulated sex acts that are called dancing these days. Yep some parents did complain. But too bad for them.
How any parent can watch their daughter strutting like Sluts R Us is beyond me. Yanking my daughter off stage if she had ever done such a thing would only be the first part of a very long grounding.
Parents need to be aware of the toxic music, dance, movies and tv that our children are exposed to every day.
We can do our part by keeping these deadly toxins out of our home. We can provide a haven. We can give them the love and discipline to help them grow into self assured persons. Persons who do not need to define themselves by sexualizing their gifts. We can teach them that all they do should be for the glory of God.
I graduate in 1957 and believe me nothing like this would have been tolerated by the parents or the school administration. We were lucky if they let us square dance with the females in our class. As I remember, only once did that happen and the principal's wife was in charge. She was also a teacher and one false move she would have pulled us off the gym floor by the ears.
I'm no prude, but I was stunned at the performance they gave on the smoke filled turf. The crowd thought nothing of it and applauded loudly.
I mentioned it to a friend who explained the new dance rage called the 'freak'. ... well, I guess I'm a dinosaur.
Perhaps I'm misreading this. It looks like you're saying that being aroused is an excuse for rape. Most people have roundly rejected the They-Were-Asking-For-It Defense, whether it applies to rape or any other violent crime. Besides, teenaged boys are aroused all the time.
The ACLU has fought against standards and dress codes at schools.
Anything goes.
It's not just adolescents. Could you imagine being Britney Spear's parents. I'd be so ashamed, I'd disown her.
Now in the 'zero tolerance' generation, the solutions are reduced to either banning social functions altogether or permitting sordid exhibitions as if nothing can be done. Whatever happened to adult guidance?
The thing is though, if the Principal wanted to, he could tell the little darlings that he will not allow overtly suggestive sexual performances, and that it is a privilige to be at or in some school functions, it is not a right. The ACLU might beat him on a dress code, but it might be hard to beat him on a code of conduct matter. He could simply cancel all further functions where they danced or performed as cheerleaders.
Yep...then they move on to MYSPACE and post their simulated sex scenes for all to see......believe me....I have "relatives" I monitor who are doing this....
Glad I homeschool.
The actor who played "Ward" was homosexual. Holy irony Batman.
Well, I wouldn't say that.
But I think Camille Paglia has a good approach. As I understand it, she feels that rapists should be locked up because such behavior is abominable and inexcusable -- and then the victim (if she's been dressing and dancing like a whore, or perhaps drinking excessively at a fraternity) should be slapped and told "You deserved it, you little slut! I hope you learned something!"
Hey, the students have rights. At least that is what they are taught. Definitely not taught the 3 R's.
20 years ago the gym teacher at the nearby elementary school was teacing her girl charges "go-go dancing".
No, I was just not clear. I am NOT saying rape should be OK.
Sorry for my bad formulation!
my wife is a cheerleader sponsor at a Jr. high. Her girls are not allowed to do the suggestive dances. At school dances the kids are not allowed to do suggestive dances. The teachers, principal, and parents are pretty much on the same page.
There is another Jr. high in our area that is a feeder for our high school and things there are completely different. The kids act horrible and the teachers and principal stand there not knowing what to do.
The kids actually want discipline, but some lazy adults don't want to provide it.
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