Let’s talk about sex for now to the people at home or in the crowd
Carol Platt Liebau does us a solid and lofts a softball of wingnuttery in our general direction:
On “A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila,” both straight men and lesbians vie for Tila’s affections. To do so, they engage in a variety of sexually explicit activities features lewd behavior among the contestants, encouraged and applauded by Tila herself, including group sleepovers and raunchy rounds of “Truth or Dare.” It is the most popular show in its time period among people 18-34, and no doubt has many younger viewers. [Emphasis added]
MTV’s “A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila” — which features the MySpace phenom choosing from among male and female suitors — wooed 1.8 million viewers in its premiere Tuesday night.
The show, which aired from 10-11 p.m., ranked No. 1 in its time period across all of cable in the network’s target demo of persons 18-34, averaging a 2.0 rating. That’s also up 36% compared with MTV’s “10 Spot” series premieres year-to-date. [Emphasis added]
Ladies, all the ladies, louder now, help me out:
In fact, recent academic research has suggested that even modest sexual experimentation increases the risk of depression for girls, so it’s worth asking: Does the widespread sexual behavior celebrated by teen culture explain in part the CDC’s latest report finding that suicide rates among preteen and young teen girls had spiked by a whopping 76%?
Given that the suicide rate for preteen and young teen girls in 2004 (0.95 per 100,000) was the same rate as that recorded in 1994, we’re gonna go with Sadly, No! on that one as well. (Leaving aside the fact that the Paris Hilton tape, unless it caused some very spontaneous suicides, seems an unlikely trigger for an increase in suicides in 2004).
I almost killed myself when I tried to watch that vapid dreck known as the Paris Hilton Sex Tape.
Seriously. If I’m ever tappin’ it from behind and the girl pauses to answer her cell phone, I might consider a new way to get my jollies.
I wonder if there will be suicide prevention counselling at this event celebrating teen culture:
http://www.twincities.com/life/ci_7354037?nclick_check=1
” .. even modest sexual experimentation increases the risk of depression for girls,.. “
Reminds me of that horrid PSA our tax dollars are paying for, the one where they tell you if you have sex before you are married you are doomed to a life of abject failure, misery, STDs, prison, and worse.
(I wrote about it in September if you haven’t seen one yet).
Carol’s argument means that preteen and teenage sexual experimentation has also “spiked”?
Ok, you’re right, you’re right. I’ve already tried too hard to make sense of it. Batsh*t insane is batsh*t insane.
Certainly most young people understand that what they’re watching is more than a little over the top. But seeing the behavior also normalizes it – and allows women like Tila to set standards for young people all across the United States
I could have sworn she was talking about Ann Coulter there.
Yep, Paris Hilton is why young females have emotional issues, not the way our society treats them or the pressures they’re under.
Or the fact that every news item since Bush took office is about how yet another aspect of our civilization is collapsing, and how changes in the environment will make the world we knew increasingly but a memory.
It’s cause some rich bitch got famous, not the societal trends that carried her to fame.
Oy.
CPL sez
“That’s quite a contrast from the days when American society (and media of all sorts) reflected a consensus that took into account the dangers – not only physical, but also emotional, psychological and even spiritual – of giving too much too soon.”
Guess I didn’t realize that the phrase “cheap slut” was so fraught with meaning.
I kan haz furburger?
Apologies for my semi-incoherence. Guess something hit a nerve.
I once watched a pornographic motion picture in the presences of college co-eds. I was shocked to learn that they responded mostly with giggles and “whoa daddys” rather than with attempts to slit their wrists in the shower.
That said, is this MTV show hot or really lame?
Meanwhile, Clowhall and like-minded sites constantly have banners on their sites advertising “conservative” t-shirts with – wait for it – big breasted young women modelling the t-shirts!
Yes I click on them. Yes I am disappointed every time. But that’s not the point!
That said, is this MTV show hot or really lame?
Lame with a capital L. Next is more entertaining that SOL. Oh, and Real World Sydney rocks. No darkies or gays this season. Just straight kids fighting over other straight kids.
Oooh! Oooh! Let me do a passage:
Ranging all the way from TT to PH! Well fuck, that’s like ranging from 1 to 1.
Yea, the name ‘Hilton’ didn’t mean shit until then.
This is speaking from personal experience right?
You keep on thinking that; As for me, I saw Beme Seed ’round about 1987…
The 76% increase is from the 2003 rate of 0.54 going up to 0.95 in 2004. As pointed out, the 0.95 rate in 2004 is the same as it was in 1994. Those same statistics show that this rate of suicide among girls aged 10-14 dropped to 0.51 in 1999. How can this be when we know that the Clenis made girls attend MTV-approved BJ parties? What was the program on MTV in 1999 that made the suicide rate drop? My personal vote is for “Lunch with Jesse.”
However, I think that if I were forced to watch “My Super Sweet 16” again, my personal rate of suicide would approach 1.
Her argument isn’t so bad, she just has the wrong target.
“It’s not easy to fight the pernicious messages being purveyed by the culture – but making the effort is important for the mental, physical and spiritual health of America’s”
Many wingnuts seem to conflate “The Culture” with “Liberals”. In my opinion our culture is very anti-liberal and as sexist as it is racist.
“It’s high time for a change. After all, a culture in which someone like Tila Tequila can be vaulted even to the outermost rings of the celebrity galaxy isn’t anywhere that America’s girls belong.”
Damn right, that is why we need more feminism taught in the schools. Because that is what it will take if we, like Carol Platt Liebau, really want young women to “realize that their objections to the status quo are hardly idiosyncratic.” If “The Culture” around you tells you that you only exist to sexually satisfy men and that you should shut, keep you legs together and wait till marriage. It isn’t very likely that you are going to then stand up against popular opinion when it glorifies Paris Hilton or Tila Tequila.
The TV show “Charmed” debuted in October of 1998. I believe the juxtaposition of smokin hot babes and witchcraft (rather than explicit sex) is what depressed the young teen girl suicide rates the following year. Scientific studies show that when young girls dabble in witchcraft it increases their self-esteem by eleventy-six percent over young girls who dabble in sexual experimentation. So there!
You forgot the minus signs:
Fixed.
Also wanted to point out that those high rates in 1994 and 2004 may have been due to a copycat effect from the two famous suicides in those years:
1994 – Kurt Cobain with a shotgun
2004 – USA with a vote for GWB
I have to say that even though MTV is the worst thing culturaly to come out of america since the second comming of jeasus, Tila Tequila is prity hot : )
I want to scream every time someone points out that young women who have sex sometimes end up having some sort of guilt/shame/regret about it later. They seem to think that this is evidence that sex is ITSELF is harmful.
Right.
Couldn’t be all those conservative assholes that purposely maintain this whole damned-if-you-do/damned-if-you-don’t culture around female sexuality. No, couldn’t be that.
Out of curiosity (I’m just not of a mind to click through right now), does any of the “academic research” she’s referring to actually show a cause and effect, or is this another daisy chain of idiots conflating correlation with causation?
Because it’s just so hard to imagine that the girls who already had other issues would be more likely to engage in sexual behavior before they’re ready, you know?
Don’t forget to vote for Sadly in the weblog contest, once a day! They’re cleaning up!
That said, is this MTV show hot or really lame?
Completely lame. Like, you can’t even really snark on it it’s so stupid. And it’s horribly acted and edited. I was looking forward to some comedy gold, but…sadly, no!
Did he just say “darkies” with insufficient irony? I believe he did. I feel as I imagine I would if someone found a floater in the punch bowl at a wedding.
Something weird is going on around here.
WTF is up with Kevin? Vote for Sadly? I’m very confused by the troll/not troll.
As we have see from the ‘beth’ episode, simple names are anything but simple.
Why is it that every time people get all hand-wringy about this sort of thing, it’s always the girls they’re worried about and never the boys? Oh wait, that’s right. Female sexuality = bad.
To interject just a little seriousness here, it may be that the rise in teen suicide is correlated to the reduction in the use of antidepressants due to (heavy irony alert) concerns about teen suicide. See this article (ABCNews.com) for more detail.
Back on-topic, the ‘nuts are wrong again (surprise!)
WTF is up with Kevin? Vote for Sadly?
Could be his swing at the irony thing. Could be he finally yakked up his lunch after reading all the posts this PJ creep created. Either way, hey, it’s nice when Kevin stops by to visit without ruining the carpet — have a beer, Kev.
Either way, hey, it’s nice when Kevin stops by to visit without ruining the carpet — have a beer, Kev.
Now you want him to pee on the carpet.
Now you want him to pee on the carpet.
It would be a notable improvement…
mikey
Kevin said something several (several, as in more than two, fewer than many) posts ago – way too freakin’ lazy to look – about planning to vote for Sadly. Sometimes I suspect Kevin really doesn’t mean half of what he says. Other times . . .
That said, is this MTV show hot or really lame?
As lame as Tequila’s cover of “No Woman, No Cry”?
How stupid do you have to be to not realize that sex is fun. It’s practically the reason champagne, chocolate, strawberries, bubble baths, and porn were invented. Screw moveon. It should be Getiton.
Until this post I had never heard of this show. Of course, I haven’t had cable since 1994.
You goshdarn kids get off my lawn!
Her “Fuck Ya Man,” on the other hand, is bound to be a classic.
I stopped watching MTV when they stopped playing music videos. When was that, like 15 years ago?
I agree with Candy.
P.S. Speaking of lawns, I don’t believe Kevin actually mows one. And until I see proof (before and after photos), I’m sticking with my opinion.
I watched MTV due to a Beavis and Butthead addiction. Now that you have to have a cable package that includes MTV6 to see B&B, at a cost somewhere close to the GDP of a mid-sized third world country, I don’t even have it on my “Favorites” any more.
Speaking of TV, did you see bush awarding the Medal of Freedom to Brian Lamb? Awk WARD!
mikey
I watched MTV due to a Beavis and Butthead addiction.
That was great. “You can tell it’s college rock because they’re like, in a field.”
Best criticism on the tube ever.
People still watch TV?
Only the cartoons.
Jeebus, Jillian, I feel like that every fraggin’ day. At the same time I’m like, how could you not know? It was all over teh toobz! Whaddaya, live in a cave? Must be I’m one of those new-media types you’ve heard tell about.
kOOz iz Bad1!!!kthxbai1!!
I was suicidal at 14-15 but I figured (rightly) it had everything to do with my alcoholic mom and a violent home life.
Btw, my boyfriend (at the time) with whom I was sexual, rescued me.
Certainly most young people understand that what they’re watching is more than a little over the top. But seeing the behavior also normalizes it – and allows women like Tila to set standards for young people all across the United States.
So most of the kids at the local university–who incidentally scored over 1400 on their SATs–accept everything they see on TV as “true” or “normal.” They also can’t read the directional arrows in the parking lot of the shopping center. I think there may be a behavioral link!
In fact, recent academic research has suggested that even modest sexual experimentation increases the risk of depression for girls
The first time I can get completely behind wingnut science. Every time they invoke teh Clenis some people feel like getting the razor out.
I wonder what the suicide rate is of girls forced to marry their daddy ala abstinence pledges and dances?
This one is funny to me because my boss told me just today he watched 5 minutes of this show recently, and we both had a good laugh over how hot man/woman/woman/man/womanwoman action would make for good “reality” TV, since we’re all wearing bathing suits and totally teh hot, all the time in every televised sequence we’re all on.
I haven’t seen it, and I don’t want to, but it sure is funny to hear people bitch about it, since the “free hand” of the market is bitch-slapping these moralizing morons left and right with this show, and about a zillion others, and they’re too stupid to recognize it.
One thing that will triumph over morality? Cash, baby. Welcome to capitalism, jackasses.
I don’t really qualify as a target of Ms. Liebau, because a) I’m a gay male, and b) I’m not a teenager anymore, but I have to say, having a sexual relationship with my partner has been anything but detrimental to me. I almost wonder if it’s not the lack of wingnut sex that causes, well, their wingnuttery. You want to vanquish conservatism?
Get ’em laid.
I just had a passing thought I want to share.
When Keith Olbermann is arrested on, oh, who knows, child molestation, embezellment, tax fraud, whatever?
What would we be willing to do about it?
Or would we cluck, cluck, and watch the administration he had the courage to speak to imprison him on whatever charges.
I mean, who knows? How would we know for sure he wasn’t actually guilty?
mikey
it seems more difficult to resist the advances of boys interested in nothing more than sex, appropriate to wear revealing clothes, and acceptable to behave in suggestive ways that would have been unthinkable even twenty years ago.
Hmmm. Approximately 40 years ago, the concept of “Free Love” became acceptable among the (then) younger generation. Shortly thereafter, personal mace dispensers made their commercial debut, which leads me to believe that the sexual advances of boys is hardly a recent development. And slutty chicks have been around since before Cleopatra’s day.
No doubt about it, Simba. Unless they’re elected officials, these poor people aren’t getting anything but begged-for missionary with their reluctant SO’s, some of whom are the same gender.
As I like to say, one of the very few things about the Bush Admin that has been good is the now rock-solid idea that the louder you moan about teh gay, the more likely it is you have caught teh gay, and are doomed to teh gay madness forever.
Fucktards, all of them. If I were gay, they could suck my dick very submissively.
mikey, I don’t know, no one does, but I love Keith, and would like to think I could at least get arrested for him on peaceful demonstration grounds.
He’s the only major media figure speaking truth to power.
Honest to God, I’m incredibly surprised MSNBC is letting him get away with it. Except for his ratings, you moralizing nitwits.
Get it, homophobe/Bush-loving, torture-loving, authoritarians? The market will rule unless you have your way. And then one day, the Dems or whatever remains of them will control the reigns, and you’ll be imprisoned, just like we’ll be before them.
Goddamn, explaining this is tiring and boring.
Well lack of sex can also lead to depression and suicide…
Oh goody. More masturbatory gibberings from yet another sex-obsessed SoCon.
I bet Ms. Laybau has a couple of skeletons in her closet.
P.S. Speaking of lawns, I don’t believe Kevin actually mows one. And until I see proof (before and after photos), I’m sticking with my opinion
Huh! I just assumed from the start that mowing Mom’s lawn was a eupemism.
Oh, and if nobody else is even gonna swing at it,
In fact, recent academic research has suggested that even modest sexual experimentation increases the risk of depression for girls.
Then try immodest sexual experimentation!
Thank you, tip the veal, try your waiter.
This just in: Sex sells.
Well lack of sex can also lead to depression and suicide…
good bye cruel world…
good bye cruel world…
There’s a Republican convention coming up, and they’ll have lotsa bathrooms.
I just watch color weather radar. But its excessive sexual content is making me depressed.
Sex sells and SadlyNo has left PJ-Comix in the dust.
Of course, according to the cancer-patient harasser sore losers it’s a big conspiracy of cheatin’ leftists who can’t bring themselves to find the funny in cancer.
Damn, dinner was write-home-about-it good.
When we’re in the camps, I’m betting I can make you forget you’re eating rats and bugs…
mikey
“In fact, recent academic research has suggested that even modest sexual experimentation increases the risk of depression for girls, …”
Objection!
I would love to see the results of those studies, because they sound like bullshit. Sexual activity and depression are more then likely independent variables to the psychology of the adolescent females. Meaning, ones who partake of sex are already more likely to be depressed, regardless of the level of their sexual activity.
And don’t even get me started on the claim that the increase in suicide among teens (aside that it doesn’t appear to be, in technicality, true) is due solely and utterly to cocks being put in various orifices.
And even if it WERE true, I don’t think the solution would be telling the younglings that they’re evil and sinful is going to help their self-esteem any.
The first time I can get completely behind wingnut science. Every time they invoke teh Clenis some people feel like getting the razor out.
Me too, but that’s because I’m thinking about using it on the lazy wingnuts who keep whinging about Teh Clenis. It’s not that they make me depressed, but they’re hell on my blood pressure.
When we’re in the camps, I’m betting I can make you forget you’re eating rats and bugs…
Well, mikey, tonight was a roast chicken, using Barbara Kafka’s easy recipe, mashed red-skinned potatoes, and a salad. Served with a nice French rose.
I think perhaps in the camps, I can do a fine job with some trapped pigeons and some dandelion greens. Maybe there’s a few potatoes or turnips to mash.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “Sex is for making babies and it makes your body ugly afterwards and let’s not talk about it.”
I happen to think that there are good reasons for young women to refrain from being sexually promiscuous. Maybe someday in the future when we live in a healthy, sex affirming culture with good birth control widely available, less hysteria surrounding abortion, equal employment opportunities for men and women, a culture that doesn’t glorify rape and violence or make celebrities out of empty headed sluts like Paris Hilton, maybe then the heydays of the sixties can return, but it ain’t today. HIV pretty much ended the free love of the 60’s and 70’s didn’t it?
Carol Liebau seems to be trying to make the argument that there is some sort of biological reaction inherent in being sexually active. I rather doubt that is true. What is true is that there are different consequences for women than there are for men. With one great big consequence that should be pretty obvious. Add to that the very real power dynamic that exists between men and women and a culture that is, in my opinion, quite sick and well… I just don’t think being sexually promiscuous these days is a good idea.
However I’m all for having a healthy sex affirming relationship with the partner of your choice but in this f*cked up country.. good luck with that.
I want to scream every time someone points out that young women who have sex sometimes end up having some sort of guilt/shame/regret about it later. They seem to think that this is evidence that sex is ITSELF is harmful.
Yeah, these are the same people who quote the “gay teens are 3x more likely to commit suicide statistic” as proof that we need to do more to shame gay kids. That way they’ll become straight and happy and no longer in danger of killing themselves.
Who provided those links to “Steve, Don’t Eat It!?”
Whoever, it was, I owe you this; you are fucking awsome.
“In fact, I can now safely say that the DUmmie FUnnies is by far the PREMIER conservative humor blog on the web. I don’t take all that much credit for this situation.”
— wingnut.
This may have already been pointed out and I just missed it (because I’m a lazy bum who doesn’t read all the comments before posting his thoughts), but doesn’t suicide seem to be going down as a whole?
And, when you add in males the trend becomes even clearer.
So, suicide rates have gone down since 1990, and, if, as the right claims, sexual experimentation is what has changed, well, then, if they really cared about the children, the course seems obvious.
Although, and sorry to double post, while we are tying things together with no evidence.
I think it’s clear that the decline in suicides is a clear result of growing popularity of video games and Japanese animation, which, with a little work, we could probably make fit the trend pretty well. If we want to save our great nation, the course of action is obvious. How are children to save themselves from suicide with the high cost of the latest game systems and anime DVDs?
Fascinating discussion, kids… however, the “rushkis” are ahead of the curve on this one. In case you missed out last weeks’s Pravda (highly unlikely for a bunch commie-traitors like the gang here), they are into hymenoplasty now:
http://english.pravda.ru/print/science/health/99808-virginity-0
It’s the Sputnik thing all over again… We are getting beat, arguing here about abstinence and stuff… So much better to have the option to, you know, you get into a little experimantion, make some little “oshibka” if you will… that’s OK, no worries, nothing that can’t be fixed with a bionic hymen…
This great nation must regain its prudish edge. What should be the response to this bionic hymen? What should be our new “Neil Armstrong on the Moon” thing to beat their new “Sputnik” in the race for Total Moral Supremacy Through Technological Innovation?
Why, dear, I reckon our goal should be nothing short of a 100% efficient, no side-effect, gay-cure! You with me?
I hear they’re tying the rise in porn with the drop in rape.
Paris Hilton is probably the most ridiculous scapegoat for society’s ills that I have ever seen. The fact that someone says she is ‘the problem’ is, in my mind, cause to immediately dismiss everything that that person says.
“they are into hymenoplasty now:”
Gentlemen, we must not allow a hymen gap!
Marco: Good point. If the very concept of purity balls don’t reck of creepy incest undertones, I don’t know what does.
-It’s funny how the right wing screams about sexual immortality when it’s their people who commit it the most: Foley, Haggard, Cregger, Gingrich, etc.
-Personally what I think hurts girls more is the fundy\right wing idea that if you’re not this super-pure virgin, no man is going to truely love you. Not only is this a problem if the girl ever gets raped, but acts as if that’s the only thing a girl has going for her.
Wow, it’s just like conservative religious cultures everywhere. I always wonder how the religious right can look at radical Islam and no see themselves.
I think the problem is we’re already allowing a hymen gap.
Honest to God, I’m incredibly surprised MSNBC is letting him get away with it.
A hackishly written, lazily edited article from the front page of today’s NYT:
Oh, cool, who do they have in mind to bring on board to follow Olbermann, I wondered. Surely not someone irritating, buffoonish hothead.
Super.
S, N!,
You know as well as I do that a ‘pre-teen’ can too be over 18 years of age!!!!!!1!!ONE!!!!1111
I always wonder how the religious right can look at radical Islam and no see themselves.
Christianity starts with a C and Islam starts with I. Where’s the similarity?
it seems more difficult to resist the advances of boys interested in nothing more than sex,
Because we all know that girls are never, ever, ever interested in having sex.
Wow. I got the whole “women have no sex drive” and “your job is to fend off the boys because they can’t control themselves” bullshit thirty fucking years ago (that’s what counted as “sex ed” in my fucked-up-uber-conservative-Catholic school).
Glad to see we’ve come such a long way, baby!
[…] they will need to race to help these ships to save lots of the people before most is misplaced.Author name: Mutner S.P. Lero Treating your taboo content with large comedy is definitely dangerous …Craig and Fessel Novak, Lindsay plus Akhtar who seem to like him wish to be jihadists. Omar plus Waj […]