It is news to no one, not even me, that eroticism in popular culture is a 24-hour, all-you-can-eat buffet, and that many children in their early teens are filling up. The latest debate centers on whether simulated intercourse is an appropriate dance style for the high school gym.

This is just amazing to me. It makes me scared to think how I will ever be able to raise decent kids(in the future) with so much negative pressure from society, which teaches ’sex sells’ at such an early age. I am also not surprised that in other parts of the world, Islam, even with the hard-core fundamentalists, gets stronger day by day. Although in many ways a very harsh alternative where the female gets no choice in the matter, women are viewed as valuable parts of society who need to be protected and not exposed.

I will note, however, that it is not always the men, but the women themselves who believe they need to ’strut their stuff’ for attention. Is that really the only way? Whatever happened to class, mystery, confidence, self-respect, and intelligence? I hope that we Western women find a better solution, one that allows us freedom without overexposure, so that we never have to witness a backlash or cultural revolution (like in the Middle East) that takes us backwards in time.

Well we’ve all heard about myspace (and other “friend”-linking sites, such as Friendster, Facebook, etc), and how it can e-link you to your friends (if you’re a teenager or sub-25? or whatever) or to your prospective fans (if you’re a start-up band) or help you find a date? I don’t know. About a year ago, a friend of mine urged me to sign up, since “it would be good to market my designs”. Even though I spent hours trying to hook my myspace up, as well as others’, and even set up a salsa group on myspace, I cannot say I like it or use it. I barely log onto it anymore, and frankly I’m just sick of it. Why, might you ask?

Let me tell you a story. Well really it’s an eavesdropping. I, on my way back from work on the train, overheard this LOUD conversation behind me between 2 young guys, maybe 19 or 20. Between their “likes” and “dudes”, I did find their conversation very interesting, especially when it turned to myspace. Basically the 2 guys were VERY upset(talking loudly like they didn’t care at all) about how young girls are acting nowadays, complaining that even the ‘good’ girls from nice families have become extremely trashy lately. One guy even used the words “FILTHY” and “DISGUSTING” he was so upset, especially since his younger sister seems to be acting a certain way because of her friends. Finally 1 of the guys said his hypothesis: it’s all because of myspace. And they went on & on about it.

Back to what I think - I agree! But besides complaining about the endless girls on myspace showing their asses or their boobs instead of their faces as their default picture, I never said much about it, since I just wrote it off as being a ‘younger generation’ type thing. But now that I hear other teenage boys upset about the raunchiness of their own sisters and girlfriends, I am quite alarmed. Has our society gone too far, with the older women barbie’ing themselves up with plastic surgery, while our younger women get caught up in marketing their own flesh in cyber-space? Have we all turned into wanna-be Lara Crofts, made by men, molded by men, played by men???