"sexual disconnect with girls who exhibit provocative behavior they're not ready for"
that's the crux, right there. ‘cept i’d add … sexual disconnect with girls who exhibit
or are exposed to provocative behavior they're not ready for
nor do they understand
there is the debate about violence in the media versus sexuality in media, and how we'd all rather have our little ones be subjected to the boobage rather than the savage. while it's easy to say that, i can testify that it's way harder to put the sex in context than it is to explain the violence - why the violence is inappropriate, when it can be appropriate, how people can resort to that sort of thing and - when it's portrayed in a fictional program (as opposed to news) - how it's fake and those people are not really getting hurt or hurting each other. plus how and why people find that sort of action and drama entertaining. but trying to do the same thing with sexuality ... well, we've found it's pretty damn difficult. and it’s not any sort of prude factor, or unwillingness or embarrassment on our parts.
it’s partly the mental maturity of our kids, but it’s also partly the unrelated ways in which sexuality is used. just the other day, my girl and i were watching rachel ray on the food network and she was making a date dinner, talking about sexy food. i’ve explained to my girl what sexy means, cause you can’t watch a freakin’ commercial these days without hearing the word, but she just doesn’t get it, and when she heard rachel say “is there any food sexier than this” she turned to me with the most confused look on her face saying, i like raviolis, we make raviolis, why are they sexy, i though you said sexy was about people who are old enough to like the way something looks or makes them feel. am i sexy ‘cause i like raviolis?
my definition of sexy wasn’t repeated back verbatim, but she does sort of understand that sexy isn’t wrong or bad, it’s just something she will get later, when she grows up a bit … like algebra
but the term really throws her for a loop when it’s bandied about in the most disjointed (to her) way. i can understand why food would be sexy for me and not for her, but i find i have trouble getting her to understand the difference when the something being described or portrayed as “sexy” doesn’t have that clear adult/child delineation.
not sure i’m making sense, maybe someone will understand what i’m trying to say.
