This week i had someone that i love, appreciate and loves a good verbal joust (but i would never say his name er... my little brother) in a light-hearted way give me a bit of hard time for seemingly to steadfastly avoid discussion of a several issues that have hit our nation's news wires and airwaves pretty hard over the past several weeks... the fact that i wasn't kicking these issues around for conversation here on this blog seemed to be a bit out of place for me he said.
i agreed... i have been avoiding a couple of "hot-topics" of late... in particular the one topic i have truly been loathe to talk about is the entire Michael Vick catastrophe.
What is there to say? As far as i am concerned, to borrow an idea that i read in a recent e-letter this week... "we should have seen this one coming...."
i mean think about it.... all around us we have people who think brutality to one another (UFC), brutality on celluloid (Saw IV... gimme a break) and brutality in music (misogynist lyrics, b**ch, H*'s, et al.) is perfectly okay as a matter of fact...it's big...no scratch that.... HUGE business.
Don't misunderstand, it in no way, shape or form makes what he has agreed that he did...right... i just wonder who are we kidding... is this unfortunately, what we have become?!?
So... let the conversation really begin....
Showing posts with label cultural trends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cultural trends. Show all posts
25.1.07
Do We Hate Kids?!?
Just a quick question... can someone explain when it became anything less than disturbing to produce movies intended for mass market distribution that include rape scenes of minors? Free speech experts might claim that this is a film, that it is acting and that it is artistic expression... i guess my concern is where have we gone off the path?
i can appreciate trying to tell a good story but what about telling a good story and doing so with good taste? Am i wrong here? Am i missing something? The 12 year old child actress that appears in this film and in particular the rape scene, was actually trotted out in front of an inquiring public and defended not only the specific scene but explained to everyone that what she was actually doing "is called acting"... Huh? Sorry, that's just weird, creepy, disturbing and everything other adjective that would relate to the previous three!
Over the last several days i have heard several reasons why this is really not all that big of a deal. Some would say say in response to other's objections toward this type of material that it is important that adults not shield children from the difficulties of life. On the surface that sounds reasonable but what sane parent would give their child alcoholic beverages with the intent of NOT shielding them from the effects of alcohol? i see this deal with this film and with allowing this 12 year old actress to perform this type of disturbing scene in the same light... it is parenting gone strikingly awry!
i am alright with making the mistake "over protecting" my daughter. Growing up i needed someone to protect me from many of the things that i encountered at way too early an age and was not ready to deal with on an emotional or physical level. If i can protect not just my daughter but my sons also no matter what the cost, i'll do it, no question about it. Even if that means being called "over protective"... i have been called much worse.
Like i said to start with, this is the type of reasonable discussion we should be having about this type of issue in our nation but typically it degenerates into a labeling, name-calling, hostile, yelling match and the discussion never occurs. How sad is that?
What is the answer to this type of situation in our culture? i think part of the deal is that we need to stop using children as props. We need to treasure children for being children and stop seeing them as an impediments, status symbols or trophies. i find myself growing more than a bit weary of seeing children on the laps and in the arms of public figures who seem to be playing the "lets-do-it-(whatever it is) for-the-kids" card.
i love the fact that i have at least three children who are in no particular hurry to grow up! They love to pretend, play with Lego® blocks, have made up stories told to them, play board games & play hide and seek. They just like being children and that is awesome! Seems like we (adults) have come to believe that childhood is the real inconvenient truth.
A film which includes a graphically suggested scene of a 12 year old girl being sexually violated indicates an ominous trend in our culture... children and childhood are really nothing special. How sad is that?
i can appreciate trying to tell a good story but what about telling a good story and doing so with good taste? Am i wrong here? Am i missing something? The 12 year old child actress that appears in this film and in particular the rape scene, was actually trotted out in front of an inquiring public and defended not only the specific scene but explained to everyone that what she was actually doing "is called acting"... Huh? Sorry, that's just weird, creepy, disturbing and everything other adjective that would relate to the previous three!
Over the last several days i have heard several reasons why this is really not all that big of a deal. Some would say say in response to other's objections toward this type of material that it is important that adults not shield children from the difficulties of life. On the surface that sounds reasonable but what sane parent would give their child alcoholic beverages with the intent of NOT shielding them from the effects of alcohol? i see this deal with this film and with allowing this 12 year old actress to perform this type of disturbing scene in the same light... it is parenting gone strikingly awry!
i am alright with making the mistake "over protecting" my daughter. Growing up i needed someone to protect me from many of the things that i encountered at way too early an age and was not ready to deal with on an emotional or physical level. If i can protect not just my daughter but my sons also no matter what the cost, i'll do it, no question about it. Even if that means being called "over protective"... i have been called much worse.
Like i said to start with, this is the type of reasonable discussion we should be having about this type of issue in our nation but typically it degenerates into a labeling, name-calling, hostile, yelling match and the discussion never occurs. How sad is that?
What is the answer to this type of situation in our culture? i think part of the deal is that we need to stop using children as props. We need to treasure children for being children and stop seeing them as an impediments, status symbols or trophies. i find myself growing more than a bit weary of seeing children on the laps and in the arms of public figures who seem to be playing the "lets-do-it-(whatever it is) for-the-kids" card.
i love the fact that i have at least three children who are in no particular hurry to grow up! They love to pretend, play with Lego® blocks, have made up stories told to them, play board games & play hide and seek. They just like being children and that is awesome! Seems like we (adults) have come to believe that childhood is the real inconvenient truth.
A film which includes a graphically suggested scene of a 12 year old girl being sexually violated indicates an ominous trend in our culture... children and childhood are really nothing special. How sad is that?
17.1.07
i have a question.... is it just me or is it fairly confusing to be a man in our culture?
i grew up in a home with no "father" and it has pretty much marked me for life so to speak. The really confusing part about that is if i had relied on current culture alone to sort of "father" me, man what a mess i'd truly be (well... i 'm a mess anyway but that's a subject for another blog). Why does our culture continue to send what can only be seen as conflicting messages about this issue?
Does anyone know what i mean by this?
On the one hand we see and hear messages in poular culture that i believe glorify "never growing up" from hip hop culture to just about anything coming out of Hollywood and the entertainment world. i just don't get it. We rarely hear about what it means to be a man, to think as a man, to pass on manhood to other men....why?
Perhaps i am not thinking clearly about this but the one thing i would have loved to know about growing up was what it meant to be ready for manhood. It wasn't ever really a topic of discussion in our home, so that meant that i had to try and find that information from other sources... often not real good sources either. Ultimately i think that led to serious problems in my pre-teen and early teen years.
The message from our culture is confusing, we don't spend a lot (or any) time talking about this in our homes so what do we, what can we do about this issue?
i grew up in a home with no "father" and it has pretty much marked me for life so to speak. The really confusing part about that is if i had relied on current culture alone to sort of "father" me, man what a mess i'd truly be (well... i 'm a mess anyway but that's a subject for another blog). Why does our culture continue to send what can only be seen as conflicting messages about this issue?
Does anyone know what i mean by this?
On the one hand we see and hear messages in poular culture that i believe glorify "never growing up" from hip hop culture to just about anything coming out of Hollywood and the entertainment world. i just don't get it. We rarely hear about what it means to be a man, to think as a man, to pass on manhood to other men....why?
Perhaps i am not thinking clearly about this but the one thing i would have loved to know about growing up was what it meant to be ready for manhood. It wasn't ever really a topic of discussion in our home, so that meant that i had to try and find that information from other sources... often not real good sources either. Ultimately i think that led to serious problems in my pre-teen and early teen years.
The message from our culture is confusing, we don't spend a lot (or any) time talking about this in our homes so what do we, what can we do about this issue?
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I AM NOT HAPPY AT ALL!
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