Cassy Fiano wrote an interesting lament regarding the objectification and hyper-sexualization of young women today. The piece drew an interesting mix of reactions.
Parts of it are very troubling, but I think she had a good point. I welcome you to give it a look.
Update:
Roxeanne de Luca considers the same in her usual matter of fact, no holding back style. Pretty darn good.
As a father who has been allowed little contact and limited influence, I am always thinking about the world in which my daughters are growing up in. They are very, very precious. I would hope that they would know that. They should be allowed to be little girls for a time. The troubles of adult life can wait, and they should enter that time with the full knowledge that they are valuable and loved.
ReplyDeleteEven men who have grown up with little real moral grounding as regards to sexuality wish to protect their own daughters from the predation of "sexual liberation." Consider the example I submitted to Laura Wood:
ReplyDelete"I know a young man, whom I’ve known since he was an infant, who recently sired a daughter. I say “sired” because this beautiful little girl is a bastard … as, for that matter, is the young man. Now, this young man was raised without a father (he was sent in the summers to visit the man who sired him, until that man married), and was raised without soundly grounded moral teaching … though, his maternal uncles were able to somewhat ground him as a member of a family of men, with a history and a future.
And so, reflecting on his own life, he swore to himself that he’d never do to another child what was done to him, that is, leave it fatherless. Sadly, with his morally ungrounded upbringing in the degenerate modern culture, this personal vow did not extend to realizing/affirming that he ought to “keep it in his pants” until he is married.
A couple of years ago, he had moved to Florida (from Indiana) to:
1) finally have a father-son relationship with the man who sired him;
2) get a fresh start on life.
And then he found out that a former co-worker, with whom he’d had an alcohol-lubricated one night stand, was pregnant. So, he returned to Indiana to “be a part of his daughter’s life.” There is no need to go into my opinion on how that is or will work out.
With that background out of the way: what prompted this comment is something that happened when the child was just a couple of months old, and he and the child’s mother were still playing house. He’d learned that I was in Indiana visiting my sister, and so he brought the baby over to my sister’s for me to admire. At some time in the visit, he joked that he was going to lock his daughter up and not allow her to “date” until she was 60 years old. My point is this: even with his terrible upbringing, in a culture which devalues and mocks virtue, he knows that things are seriously wrong, and he has the desire, inchoate though it is, to protect his daughter from it."
Yes, one's perspective tends to change when you are the parent. Your vision of what is best is based on a longer term view, and is steeped in love for your child.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment.
Thank you for the link!
ReplyDelete"Yes, one's perspective tends to change when you are the parent. Your vision of what is best is based on a longer term view, and is steeped in love for your child."
Ah... to watch middle-aged men talk to their daughters about how to dress properly, and then get a weird, almost pained look on their faces as they say, "I know how men think".
Not only middle-aged men, but middle-aged women, as you and Cassy were pointing out. The fact of the matter is that maturity comes, and that is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteThe things that your mom or your dad might say stem from their experience, and the deep love they have for you. It would be nice if young people would understand that, but I am sure that is a time worn lament.
Great post over there at Haemet, Roxeanne. Thanks for stopping by.