Response to Douglas's "Sex 'R' Us"

Douglas’s chapter Sex “R” Us did a very good job showing the shift in ads, magazines, and other media from fairly wholesome content to the complete permeation of sex and racy ideas into current media.  Several points throughout the chapter stuck out for me, and helped me to see the viewpoint she was coming from.  Unlike several of Douglas’s other chapters, this chapter was far easier for me to agree with in terms of her perspective.  Towards the beginning, she talks about song lyrics, which is something I’ve thought about a little on my own.  Twenty or thirty years ago, no one ever would have considered trying to write songs with the level of vulgarity that many songs today have.  It used to be more appropriate to speak vaguely about certain topics or use euphemisms, but many songwriters and artists these days are far from shy when it comes to writing lyrics.  In some respects, it’s warranted by our culture at this stage, yet I can see why a mother would hate the messages that many songs on the radio send to kids.

            The second part of the chapter that stuck out for me was the section on TV shows that advocate modeling and dressing up toddlers.  While I’ve never watched one of the shows, I’ve seen commercials for them, and always considered them to be somewhat twisted.  At some level, I suppose it’s okay to make a TV show out of the drama behind beauty pageants, but there is no reason for toddlers to be participating.  Girls that young don’t even realize what the show/pageants are doing to them, and it really just comes down to the parents of the kids trying to make money, at the expense of their children’s childhood.  It’s really weird to me that people even want to watch the show, but perhaps it has some strange appeal that I can’t envision.  All the same, I still find it inappropriate and unnecessary.