Letters to the Editor
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re: My wife picked up on Spears' skeeviness
Anonymous,
"She had "banned" Zoey 101 from our boys' viewing, as she picked up a weird vibe from the younger Spears."
WOW Anon! You need to hang ON to that woman! She's GOOD!
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re: Right now I am thanking Almighty God
Anonymous,
"that I am not the daughter of any of you sanctimonious assholes."
From your attitude, I'm thanking God you aren't TOO.
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character confusion
It seems like the interviewed parents feel betrayed by Jamie Lynn failing to act in her real life like her character, Zoey. (Which is really pathetic).
Jamie Lynn, by contrast, plays an innocent girl-next-door type (I presume, since I don't watch Zoey whatever). So, the show is probably fine for young kids to watch. The *character* of Zoey is probably a good enough role model. But the character is *not* a real person. Why must we conflate the two?
In contrast, sister Britney, after her long-ago stint as a new Mouseketeer, played a very different character. Britney's concert persona dressed and dance like a porn fantasy, and her songs were about sex, teasing, and getting hot for guys. And yet, people seemed to think that that was "all just an act," and "the Real Britney" was a sweet, innocent girl next door. (I was always nauseated at the number of moms who took little girls to Britney concerts, when clearly she was marketing herself to boys 14-40). Her star fell when the Real Britney behaved much like the "video Britney."
Bottom line is we should probably try to wean our kids off of (or, better yet, never start!) celebrity-gazing. I do not subscribe to People, Star, and other celebrity-watch magazines, and I do not want my kids to read or view them. I don't gossip about celebrities, google for the latest news about the Aniston-Pitt-Jolie triangle, or coo over celebrity baby pictures. Their personal live are none of my concern, and they hopefully won't be of concern to my kids, either. Enjoy the work that celebrities do on stage o in the recording studio. But involving ourselves (and our kids) in the details of their personal lives will just disappoint us.
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re: "she's never alone at home"
"I have taught my daughter to wait until she's married to have sex. I am pretty fortunate that she has done so, and I am sure she has up to this point because she's never alone at home"
Not every 16 year-old is having sex--16 is just the average. But the notion that one has ensured one's daughter's celibacy on the basis of her not being at home alone is ridiculous.
Teens sneak and have sex while their siblings are in the house and while their parents are in the house. They do it in cars, at friends' houses, in bathrooms, in school hallways and on sports fields. And teens don't exactly need a lot of time to do the deed.
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re:re: "she's never alone at home"
mizbinkley,
"But the notion that one has ensured one's daughter's celibacy on the basis of her not being at home alone is ridiculous.
Teens sneak and have sex while their siblings are in the house and while their parents are in the house. They do it in cars, at friends' houses, in bathrooms, in school hallways and on sports fields. And teens don't exactly need a lot of time to do the deed."
Granted, and I do not base my knowledge just on that...there are other clues to this. Be that as it may, I am fairly certain she has not done the deed as yet...but cannot be positive. However, she also knows how to prevent pregnancy.
I've done my best to raise her as well as I can. At 18, I can only hope the lessons have taken by this time.
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It is shameful
For a 16 year old to decide she's mature enough to have sex but not mature enough to protect herself. And it's not entirely Jaime Lynn's fault, either, as things can get carried unexpectedly far in the heat of passion (I can say with all honesty that as a teenager I was extremely cautious about doubling up on birth control *and* keeping Plan B around, but now in my mid-20s I've skipped birth control a few times when I knew my odds of getting pregnant were extremely low... though, of course, I should've used it anyway.) But clearly a combination of her stupidity and denial and bad parental and family influences/information have rendered her barefoot and pregnant.
What needs to happen is a widespread use of depo for teenagers. Some amount of dishonesty is useful in teenage sexual relationships -- get your teenage daughter on depo, but tell her to tell the guy she sleeps with that she's not on birth control. The condom both doubles up on birth control and helps prevent STIs. All you parents who think your kids aren't doing it, would never do it -- you're deluded. Plenty of my very intelligent peers were having sex at 16, and even those who wait for the right time or person often do not make it past 20. Teaching your kids to wait for marriage only instills a deep-seated sense of denial and abdication of decision-making responsibilities that lead to a much higher rate of NOT using BC and getting in bad sexual situations. Stigmatizing sex outside of marriage isn't achieving what you think it's achieving; nothing good can come of it. Consider yourself lucky if your child escapes your overbearing antisexual dogma in college and the worst that happens is sober, protected sex with someone she/he actually likes. In the *best* scenario of following your wishes, your child will be getting married at 18, 19, 20 *just* so they can have "pure" sex. ...And that's just as bad as "oops, I had sex and didn't mean to!" at 16.
Not to mention, consensual, adult sex is a wonderful thing, and greatly strengthens a good relationship. Who in the world would want to get married without having that sort of bond with someone? It's as stupid as it is archaic and anti-sex.
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Disturbing Ethnocentrism
I'm seeing some disturbing ethnocentrism here. Being pregnant and deciding that you're ready to be a mommy at age 16, might be the sign that you are a wayward youth in the developed world. But, Jamie Lynn is from Louisiana. She's practically an old maid for goodness sake.