Quote of the day 1-8-11
So I just came across an article and photo spread of Justin Bieber for Vanity Fair…. The Biebs also graces the cover of the magazine’s February 2011 issue.
Now I would really like to know why no one is outraged about this. Not just the fact that Justin Bieber was deemed worthy of the cover of Vanity Fair – although I am a little outraged by that, and nauseated – but the photos themselves. Bieber is covered in different lipstick kisses and his tie is being pulled somewhat suggestively. I don’t personally think there’s anything outrageous about these photos… but I think the fact that no one seems to have a problem with them is pretty f***ing outrageous, when you remember the huge fuss everyone made over Miley Cyrus’s photoshoot for Vanity Fair a few years ago.
~ EvilSlutopia.com, January 5
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Well I actually agree with this blogger. It is inappropriate. The rest of the photos are sexualized and suggestive and definitely not something any child should be posing in. I get her point that everyone made a fuss over Miley Cyrus and nobody thinks its wrong when its a boy. Well I for one am saying its disgusting. Everything is so sexualized these days. Children can’t be innocent any longer. But I think any parent that lets their impressionable child get caught up in the entertainment industry needs their head examined. Is all the money in the world worth the ruination of your innocent child? look at Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears. Their time in the entertainment world has def MESSED THEM UP.
It’s Justin’s parents’ fault.
This blogger states, “I don’t personally think there’s anything outrageous about these photos…” She is just upset because she thinks that the people who were upset about a similar Miley Cyrus photoshoot are not vocal about this photoshoot.
I went into the EvilSlutopia site (name is very fitting by the way). Let me be vocal about these photoshoots and the blogger’s view of them: These photoshoots and your mind is absolutely OUTRAGEOUS! If you don’t see a problem with these photos, you have a screw loose. I hope supporters of this garbage do not work around teenagers.
What weirds me out about the whole Justin-Bieber-as-teenage-heartthrob thing is that he doesn’t look like a teenage boy on the verge of adulthood; he looks like a child. The Puberty Fairy seems to have barely tapped this kid on the shoulder. It would be one thing if he was just supposed to be “cute,” but he’s supposed to be “hot” as well, and even though he’s sixteen he wouldn’t look out of place in a seventh-grade class. Kids who look like twelve-year-olds are not “hot”.
I feel like the photo is a commentary on the whole Bieber-fever. I don’t think he should be made into a sexual icon (but, then again, I don’t think ANYONE should be).
I’m also a little surprised someone who’s as young (and looks as young) as he does is on the cover of “Vanity Fair”, but given his popularity, I suppose I shouldn’t be.
I see a bigger problem with all these pre-pubescent girls going gaga over this little boy. (OK, he’s sixteen, but he looks twelve, like Marauder said.) They should be out playing sports, reading books, hanging out with friends and not going nuts over boys at their age. They are the same ones who’ll be clubbing and drinking at sixteen and pregnant and aborting at nineteen. Sad. Maybe they are following in their Mom’s footsteps.
Really, Janet? I was a tween who was obsessed with Joey McEntire from New Kids on the Block and still managed to read tons of books, hang out with friends, get a college education, etc. Just being a bit boy crazy doesnt mean you’ll go out and get pregnant and be clubbing and drinking.
Baby,Baby. Oh no!
Could one of the differences be that Bieber, himself, isn’t doing anything wrong in the photo, but is rather shown as idolized by girls (we assume)? Bieber, himself, isn’t posing scantily clad, or being sexual; others are the ones all a-flutter over him.
This doesn’t negate the double standard that has been suggested, of course. I agree with the overall point.
Hi Sara,
You’ve got a good head on your shoulders. Do you have any friends who turned out they way I described? Maybe I’m way off on this. Thanks for your response.
I asked my tween daughter what she thought of Justin Bieber.
“EWWWW.” she said.
The message from the photo is crystal clear. Sexualize a boy that does indeed look 12 years old.
My soon to be 13 year old nephew was in the young marines. He always had a buzz cut. Just recently he grew his hair out into this awful, scraggly, boy band hairdo. GAG. When I saw him at Christmas I said “Whats up with your hair? You look like Justin Bieber!” He looked like I had just punched him. Oops
I’m just as repulsed by these pictures as the ones about Miley Cyrus. The sexualization of teens, which have a following of prepubescent kids, is alarming. My 9yr old niece IDOLIZES Justin Bieber but her 17yr old sister could care less.
Janet: Yeah, I think you’re way off on this. When I was eleven Titanic was the big movie and I wanted to marry Leonardo DiCaprio. I don’t know if you ever read the Betsy-Tacy books, but there’s one in which Betsy, Tacy and Tib, age ten, read about the teenage king of Spain in the newspaper and get huge crushes on him. That was written in 1942 about girls in the early 1900s, so I think it’s a pretty normal, if maybe not universal, part of growing up.
You don’t think this photo is a tad suggestive, Marauder?
When did I indicate that I didn’t think the picture was suggestive? I was responding to Janet’s comment that preteen girls who get crushes on Justin Bieber are headed for clubbing, drinking, getting pregnant, and getting abortions by saying that preteen girls often get crushes on famous teenagers or guys in their early twenties, and that it’s a pretty typical thing.
I was in “love” with Donny from New Kids on the Block…then Kevin from the Backstreet Boys. I mean, that is just kind of part of being a kid and growing up.
I don’t like the photo…but mainly because it is on the cover of Vanity Fair. That is a magazine for grown women. It honestly creeps me out. Since it is on that magazine, it makes me think that those are grown women kissing on him…a child. Gross.
But, I do believe there is a double standard between men and women. But women kind of ask for it, no? I have never seen a modestly dressed women on the front of a magazine cover get called a “slut.” Reputations come from how we act and how we portray ourselves. We want men to lust after us, so we dress the part. Then we cry about it when we succeed and they treat us like sexual objects…but that is what we wanted in the first place!! We certainly dressed the part and acted like a floozy!! I don’t know…women seem to less and less self respect.
We want men to lust after us, so we dress the part. Then we cry about it when we succeed and they treat us like sexual objects…but that is what we wanted in the first place!!
I agree Abby and unfortunately many women who do dress modestly pay the price because of the women that don’t. The same way that men who don’t objectify women pay the price for men that do. Vicious cycle that needs to be stopped including being vocal about photo-shoots like this.
I have never seen a modestly dressed women on the front of a magazine cover get called a “slut.”
I have. Despite the fact that she’s married to her high school boyfriend and has five children with him, some Leftist types still call Sarah Palin a slut.
Yeah, when I was in seventh grade I had a crush on JTT. When I was fourteen I was so enthralled with Leonardo DiCaprio that it HURT. I have never enjoyed clubbing or partying or excessive drinking, and I didn’t have a boyfriend until I was 22. My crushes and “loves” were as innocent as I was – I dreamt of JTT popping out from the bleachers in my junior high gym, and being nice to me when no one else was (is anything worse than gym class, for unpopular kids?); and I fantasized about Leonardo DiCaprio meeting me at a party (usually I cast myself in the role of ‘catering service waitress’ – kept it moderately realistic) and falling head over heels in love with me despite me not being famous or hard-partying or glamorous, and us walking around everywhere holding hands.
I was NEVER a boy-crazy kind of girl, but I did have my crushes. I knew lots of girls who got into clubbing and drinking, and lots of girls who didn’t, but adolescent crushes or lack of them seem to have little correlation.
Ok, I’m going to date myself, but I had huge crushes on Scott Baio and Shaun Cassidy…. Go Tiger Beat!
Leif Garrett!!
Justin Bieber needs a spanking for having that haircut. Hopefully he will fade from the scene in a very few years, as almost all of them do.
The more things change the more they stay the same….
http://www.buzzfeed.com/gretchent/justin-bieber-is-1972-donny-osmond-4v7
Janet, I think you are waaayyy off. Pre-teen girls have had celebrity crushes as long as celebrities have existed. I don’t know how old you are, but you may remember Ricky Nelson? The Beatles? Leif Garret? Shaun Cassidy? NKOTB? Backstreet Boys? My pre-teen crush was on Wayne Gretzky. I’m not really sure what that was about. I think it is perfectly normal for young girls to fantasize about grown up stuff like boyfriends and dating. And I think it is a lot healthier to have a fantasy celebrity boyfriend than a real one from school.
When my daughter was in 6th grade she was absolutely infatuated with Orlando Bloom. I considered her obsessed. Her walls were covered in posters and pictures cut out of magazines. We recently found an old notebook of hers with some writings about him and about died laughing. She had written that she could just tell that he loved animals (especially cats!) and if they ever met and got married they would have the famous artist Lisa Frank paint their portrait.
She is now 17 and was just accepted into the pre-med program at a well-respected university and last week enlisted in the NROTC. She has never been “clubbing” and has not yet had a real-life boyfriend. Possibly because she hasn’t yet found a boy who can live up to Fantasy Orlando!
Alexandra: Ohhhhh yes, I remember the whole “JTT” phenomenon. Everyone at Girl Scout camp thought he was soooo cute.
Trying to remember my old Leonardo DiCaprio fantasies…I think I went to Hollywood and became a famous actress and we drove around in a red convertible or something like that. For some reason, even though I was at least twenty-two in these fantasies, he looked exactly like he looked circa 1997.
len: Oh my God, the Lisa Frank thing has me dying of laughter. Especially because she uses all those neon colors!
I thought my daughter describing her as the “famous artist” was the funniest part! I just hope the wedding portrait would have contained a glittery panda and some purple kittens.
There would have to be a dolphin somewhere in it, too. It was always freakin’ dolphins.
Oh my goodness, Marauder, JTT – I remember we would always play pogs in between shows, when I was a kid (I was a child/adolescent performer with a professional ballet company for years) – well usually we would play jacks, in the hours we had to kill, but then pogs took the world by storm so we’d alternate. Anyway there was this pog with a picture of Simba, from The Lion King, on it, and we were RUTHLESS in pursuing that pog. Of fierce debate in our backstage games was always the issue of whether we were playing “for keepsies” – to keep the pogs you won – or “for fun,” where all pogs were returned to their rightful owners at the end of the day; and it just so happened that whoever DIDN’T currently own the Simba pog would feel VERY STRONGLY in favor of playing for keepsies. It was a friggin picture of a cartoon lion that JTT had provided the voice for, for crying out loud! It’s not like it was even a picture of him!
I agree, len, that in some ways it is healthier for a girl to fantasize about a celebrity boy, than to be preoccupied with “real” boys. I know that when I was in my daydream days, it never even occurred to me to date any boys I actually knew. With daydreams, a girl fleshes out an idea of how she wants to be treated and who she wants to see herself with – whereas in any relationship, it’s a compromise between two people’s occasionally conflicting desires. Relationships are “adult stuff” for that reason – because it can be hard to manage your own standards and desires and needs while still respecting those of another person. And you can’t respect and adhere to your own “wants” until you really know what they are. Teen-dream crushes let a girl build her “ideal” relationship, so that she knows what that even is and is less likely to settle for just “a relationship.”
I view it kind of similar to playing with baby dolls. No one looks at a little girl with a doll and thinks that she’s destined for early motherhood, or “growing up too fast” – it’s just a little girl playing, fleshing out her feelings about something that will eventually be real for her. Crushes are part of the same progression, in my mind.
The only thing that really bothers me is that young girls are focused on looks. How the heartthrob looks in a photo shoot says nothing about his character.
My daughter likes Zac Effron. I have encouraged her to find out something about him.
How old is he? How did he get into show biz? Does he have a degree? Does he come from a big family?
I lived in fantasy land(saw Blue Lagoon when I was 12 and that was rated R)and want my daughter to at least see that these are real people and who they portray is not always what they are really like.
I would rather she not live in fantasy land as NO ONE can ever live up to those expectations.
But with a celebrity crush a young girl can imagine and create the kind of character in a boy that she wants and deserves. Zac Efron might be the biggest scumbag on the planet in real life, but what are the chances of your daughter actually meeting him? Instead of asking her to research his background, why not ask questions like:
If you and Zac were to go on a date, how would you want him to treat you? How would you expect him to act toward your dad and I when he picked you up and met us? Do you think he would try to kiss you, and what would you do if he did? What if he wanted to go somewhere that you didn’t? How would you speak up? What if you met Zac and he turned out to be a jerk? What if you met another boy who wasn’t very good-looking but was really, really kind and respectful?
Of course no one is perfect, and real life guys never live up to a young girls’ celebrity crushes, but fantasizing about being in a relationship is a good way for teens and preteens to establish how they want their future potential partners to behave and how they should expect to be treated by them before they actually happen. I think it’s better to be star-struck by an actual star than by the first boy that pays attention to you!
I don’t believe fantasizing about boys or girls in any form is a “good” or “healthy” thing. That’s just me.
My daughter and Zac will never “date” so that conversation won’t be happening.
We speak in general terms about dating even though I am encouraging that she focus on friendships, soccer, softball, snowboarding and piano.
She is not star struck by any boys. Her three brothers have already dashed that thought to the ground. They act like apes.
Also her father is a solid, respectful man who has set the bar for her. She wants to marry someone like her Daddy.
Hi Carla,
I think we see eye-to-eye on these things. My experience with brothers was the same…until they were about 20 years old when I could finally relate to them and have a normal conversation. (I’m kind of exaggerating, kind of.) LOL. Ok, y’all, I had a few crushes when I was a teen, I admit it! Baseball players, not pop stars! That’s all I’m sayin’! The screaming and crying of these girls is a bit much, but I realize now that the girls on the video were directed/acting the part. All girls aren’t as nuts as them., thank goodness!