Nicole Symmonds: April 2008 Archives

On February 9th, Disney superstar Miley Cyrus and her "achy breaky" father Billy Ray Cyrus participated in a "relaxed family event" photo shoot for Vanity Fair's June issue. While Cyrus isn't on the cover, her scantily clad photo—where she is looking over her shoulder, bare-backed and covering herself with a sheet—has received much coverage and has been the source of much discontent for Vanity Fair, Cyrus and her fans.

Cyrus has released a statement saying she is embarrassed; photographer, Annie Leibowitz has apologized that the photo was misinterpreted; Disney has suggested that the photo was manipulated and not so much has been heard from her parents. Strange statements aside, I am bothered by what seems like the media's refusal to respect young stars for who they are instead of paving the way to their possible dysfunction.

Last August, Pentecostal televangelist, author, singer, and actress Juanita Bynum was the victim of domestic violence at the hands of her then husband, Bishop Thomas Weeks. The two had been separated since June but were allegedly coming together to reconcile at the Renaissance Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. Unfortunately, things turned out badly and Weeks stormed out of the hotel with Bynum following after him. Weeks then proceeded to strangle, body slam, stomp, kick, and threaten Bynum's life until a hotel employee pulled him off of her.

Once news of this attack broke, Bynum thrust herself into the spotlight. It seemed as if she didn't even take time to heal as much as she took time to score interviews, magazine covers, and news stories within the weeks and months following the incident. She made sure that the world knew she was a woman scorned but that she would be more than a conqueror. She went from a fairytale wedding to a nightmare split and now Bynum is letting the circus of coverage continue as she prepares to air her business in a two-part series on "Divorce Court" which begins today.

In just a few days the CW Network's hottest show "Gossip Girl," will be back on the air. All "Gossip Girl" fans and closet cases will be able to get their fill of Blair, Serena, Dan, Jenny, Chuck, and Nate—maybe I left some people out but these are the only ones that count. Secretly, I was kind of excited to have "Gossip Girl" back. The show fulfills my need for a guilty pleasure that doesn't involve me committing any actual sins. But for the past two weeks, I have been assaulted with an advertising campaign for the show that has made me think twice about watching it.

The campaign is based on the "sex sells" model. Sex in the back of taxicabs, sex in bars, sex in the middle of the floor of random places, sex in bed followed by post-coitus cuddling and chatting; all this sex on a show about a bunch of teenagers. Hot, steamy, teenage sex, without consequence is what the CW is pushing to get people's eyes back on "Gossip Girl." If that isn't bad enough, each of these steamy commercials is followed by a chat-speak phrase. The commercials started out with "OMG, " translated "Oh My God." But the latest group of commercials takes it one step further with "OMFG," I hope that I don't have to tell you what the "F" stands for. Not only is that blasphemous but in the context of the commercial—which I have posted below—it makes the CW Network look like it's in the business of peddling lascivious content involving minors. No, the actors aren't minors but their characters are.

One could make the case that there are adults who watch this show so the mature content doesn't matter, but what of the amount of teen and 'tweens that watch as well. What kind of message are we sending to them? Watching grown women have premarital sex a la "Sex and the City" is one thing--morally wrong to many of us--but at that age they are grown enough to make their own decisions and deal with the consequences. But teenagers having sex and treating it like a trip to the mall and never having an authority figure tell them about the seriousness of their actions is quite another. It's a bad message to send to the impressionable teenagers that watch the show. We can't be in denial any longer. Our children are sometimes deeply impacted by what they see on television, hear in music, and watch in the world around them. I can say this because I see teens every morning who have nothing but shows like "Gossip Girl" to watch, Snoop Dogg to listen to, Cosmopolitan to read, and parents who don't have time to enforce the boundaries they've established. It's a scary thing.

Shouldn't the CW take some responsibility and air a safe sex/abstinence campaign in the midst of airing a show that makes teenage sex look desirable—and without true consequence?

Maybe I am just an old-fashioned girl, but I just don't believe that the network—or the creators of the show—should be held blameless in helping a generation of kids to discover sex well before they know of it's true consequences--and know what to do when those consequences arise. Won't someone call them to task? See what all the hubbub is about below.

So where do we go from here?

We at Burn or Burn are always working hard to come up with good fire-related puns to attach to our recommendations (or disses) of today's faith-minded albums, and we'd like to thank the Mountain Goats for making this one easy: there's fire all over the place on the album; plus, you know, heretics. So let us take up the question of whether their new album, "Heretic Pride," should be tied to a stake and set aflame like a jewel-boxed Joan of Arc.

"Heretic Pride" is hailed as a return to fiction by John Darnielle (the founder and only permanent member of the band) to fiction; his previous three albums, especially the critically lauded "The Sunset Tree," about his abusive stepfather, tended toward autobiography. This record is a series of character sketches, many of them about people in dire straits. This is nothing new for Darnielle, who for years wrote songs chronicling a hopeless fictional couple's disintegrating, addiction-damaged marriage.