Maybe I shouldn't be surprised by the letters actually trying to defend this exploitive crap. The same old smugly superior bromides about Puritanism, prudery, squeamishness about natural sexuality -- yes, we've heard them all, ad nauseum, from those who apparently have no qualms about human beings as commodities. The same old garbage that tries to paint itself as "breaking restrictive taboos" and "deriding modern hypocrisy."

Yet as other letter writers have already pointed out, in this culture, *everything* is for sale. I just didn't expect to see parents so cheerfully & willingly selling their own children for the sake of the almighty dollar, even if they do gloss it over with talk of "college money." Christ, do they have even the slightest notion of what an emotionally mature parent is supposed to be? What an emotionaly mature human being is supposed to be?

Well, of course they don't. Nor do they have any notion of the shallow culture they're creating, the empty future they're creating, the essential Nothingness of their lives & their children's lives. What does any of that humanistic nonsense matter to them? As long as they make the money, get the status, "succeed," they've got it all.

Except for worthwhile lives. Which they'll never miss, I guess, because they haven't got the faintest idea of what that is.

Because these parents are crassholes.

While I can see how some might read it as an "okay" for "Barely Legal", I didn't take it that way at all. His main point about the US being uptight about sex compared to some parts of the world (in this case Brazil) and especially about how we treat violence as opposed to sex is correct.

The histrionic stuff about AIDS and Prostitution and grinding poverty and, I think someone even called him a child loving pervert, is a bit much. Yes AIDS, Prostitution and poverty are all big problems in Brazil. Although not as big, they are problems here as well. So? His main point about Brazil and some other parts of the world as it relates to their more relaxed attitude toward sex is still right.

But, I did love the idea that a Brazilian bikini wax (btw, all waxing hurts) is an example of a perverse male? imposed oppression against women because it makes a woman's privates "look like a child's". Too funny. Unfortunately, vanity and fashion are more to blame than the perverted Patriarchy. I guess Brazilian women decided that hair sticking out of thongs and other skimpy undies/beachwear/clothes wasn't all that attractive and decided to take matters into their own ...well, maybe not their own...hands.

.... where according to one writer, a woman's sexuality is a beautiful aspect of her being which she has every right to accentuate and even flaunt as an expression of her beauty, her sensuality, her self. Wow. Wouldn't it be great if the world were like that. Wouldn't it be wonderful if there were cultures in the world where a woman presenting herself in whatever manner she chose were supported in a healthy manner. Instead, women's dress, life choices, even their sex life and reproduction are constantly under scrutiny, and to wear a skirt of a certain length or a shirt revealing a bit of mammary is likely to result in the woman being compared to a stripper/prostitute/porn-hole. Why? Because as many writers have pointed out about Brazil, sexual exploitation is alive and well and as long as women (and children)as commodities exist, at least some other women will feel compelled to make sure they are not confused with strippers/prostitutes/porn-holes and society will indeed continue to try and draw such a line. Can't feel all safe and comfortable with your whores if you don't have the maddonna mothers, girlfriends, wives, daughters sharply delineated, at home, chaste, tastefully dressed with their legs crossed. Yeah, a culture where a woman can be essentially nude on "regular broadcast TV" could seem like healthy appreciation of the beautiful female form, were such expression not itrinsically linked to sexual inequality, exploitation and real harm to individuals and the society. So bluemoonmaze, to me your take on what seems to be a healthy culture would be just great ... if it really existed. I would love a culture where I could feel free to wear lug boots and jeans one day and accentuate the curves of my body with form fitting clothing the next, and not feel that I would attract attention beyond healthy appreciation and not be compared to the people in our culture whose sexuality has become commodity. This sounds great. Tell me what is standing between the current reality and that utopia, and lets work together to rid our culture of the dysfunction that keeps us from a full experience of healthy sexuality.

Don't forget about all those homeless street children in Brazil, who are horribly abused even by the authorities who are supposed to protect them.

Yes, Americans may be a little too uptight about sexual matters, but Brazil is no model for us, especially when it comes to treatment of children.

A few notes:

1. To all those who keep pointing out that it can't really be considered porn because the children are (scantily) clad: Bwahahahahaha. Yeah right. Nudity does not equal porn. A human of any age can be nude in an image and it can be done in a way that is not porn. The same human can be clothed, even fully, and posed suggestively in such a manner that it is much more "pornographic" than the nudes.

(As an aside, if all porn (the kind featuring adults) was about was nudity, I'll bet less people would be disturbed by it. It's not about nudity, which is generally a beautiful thing, but about commodification and often exploitation and degredation.)

2. People keep going on and on about the parents as if they should and could be shamed publicly regarding allowing their kids on the site. As if the parents temporarily lost their marbles and this would shock and shame them back to reality. Though it seems this would be satisfying, I would bet at least a percentage of these parents are the type that would pimp their own children out for drugs. College money my ass.

3. Anyone see the NAMBLA episode of South Park? Matt and Trey we need you on this one. It would be even more poignant than the one about Wendy getting breast implants.