America’s Girls: A Desperate Cry for Help
- Wednesday, February 3, 2010, 6:23
- Battleground Iowa, Blogs
- 1,244 views
- 22 comments
By Emily Geiger
What has happened to our daughters today?
Why do teenage girls have no respect for themselves? Around the time of the Bill Clinton/ Monica saga, we started hearing news stories every other week about the epidemic of oral sex among teenagers, particularly stories about teenage girls (and sometimes girls so young they aren’t even teenagers yet) being pressured to give oral sex to as many boys as possible in as many locations as possible.
Lately we’ve learned all about “sexting” in which girls take dirty pictures of themselves (or their boyfriends do it) with their cell phone cameras (usually, once again, to please hormonal teenage boys) and inevitably the pictures get forwarded on to 98% of a particular high school’s male population. Heck, this even happens in Iowa, and some of our politicians don’t seem terribly bothered by it.
Now, to further the physical degradation of our young girls, it seems the latest trend is to videotape teenage girls in knock-down-drag-out fights and put it on the internet.
Once again, experts are saying that girls’ willingness to do this is basically a desperate cry for attention.
So, why is it that girls are so desperate for male attention?
Well, let’s see. We have a 50% divorce rate, broken families, fathers who have abandoned their kids, workaholic dads who may technically still be in the picture but, for all intents and purposes are basically absent, a societal barrage of images that tells girls they are only valued for their bodies and nothing else, and out-of-control teenage boys who are also being ignored by their parents and have no role models for what a real man of integrity should look like.
And we wonder how we got to where we’re at now.
About the Author
Battleground Iowa has written 222 stories on this site.
Emily Geiger writes from a conservative perspective on everything from politics to religion to pop culture. Like the original Emily of Revolutionary War era, this Emily is delivering important messages crucial to winning the raging war of the time, but today, this is a culture war rather than a traditional one. And, like the original Emily, sometimes it takes a woman to do (or say) that which lesser men lack the courage and tenacity to do.
22 Comments on “America’s Girls: A Desperate Cry for Help”
Write a Comment
Gravatars are small images that can show your personality. You can get your gravatar for free today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
It’s called PARENTING(or actually a serious lack of it)!!!
Parenting takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. Our society has been busy preaching the gospel of instant self-gratification for the past 3 generations, and this is just one of the results.
It is obvious that all “Emily” does is read People magazine and the National Enquirer to catch up with the youth of today. If she were to visit any high school in Iowa she might hear rumors of a little of the above, but she would be struck by all of the hard working and happy girls that are juggling school work, sports, music and a social life. Get real!!!
Obviously the exact status lies somewhere between anonymous’ old b/w TV sit-coms on cable, and Emily’s [what was it anon called it?] “People magazine and the National Enquirer” scenerio, but based on my usually disinterested observations of kids on the street and in the park, I’d agree more with Em this time.
Important subject Emily and I thank you for presenting it.
Anon…
Think about this…we have behaviors like this being glorified on TV shows like Maury…”reality” shows like The Hills, Jersey Shore, etc.
Popular culture today doesn’t glorify the hard working and happy girls that do the right things. Its more exciting to hear about the dregs of society.
Emily’s bringing up a really good point here…as a society…we’re more interested in watching the trainwrecks…rather than celebrating and highlighting the success stories of today’s youth.
I always knew democrats lived in an altered reality. Hardly sit com stuff. Emily has done a disservice to all of the viewers of the blog who have high school aged daughters.
Hawk CR1. I would disagree with you. SOME of you choose to watch that drivel, or in the case of condem scope out girls in the park and the street. But you all must get out sometimes. What about the young women you see at HyVee? What about at your church? What about in the sports section of the paper or in your community theater or local bands? Sorry this hits a hot button, but none of you have obviously ever had high school aged children and recognized that there’s an awful lot of good stuff going on along with some not so good.
I wasn’t insinuating that this behaviour is the norm and apologize to those who think I did. I have a teenage niece that I couldn’t be any prouder of if she were my own daughter and there are a lot out there like her! I think though that there are many kids who have never heard the word NO from parents either too lazy or dissasociated from their children and reality to give them proper structure and balance. Too many want their kids to “like” them instead of loving their kids by providing the guidence they need.
Its simple really… if you don’t want your kids to do crap like this then take the time to really be a part of their lives instead of letting the boob-tube or the internet raise them.
Anon…
No one said there is good stuff going on with many kids… What I’m pointing out to you is that popular society today chooses to focus on the dregs and trainwrecks among us.
What gets more attention–a catfight on YouTube or a story about a youth group doing community service?
What get glorified more in our society? Behavior that we see on “reality” TV shows…or kids who work their tails off every day making something of themselves…
Is there any wonder why many youth in our society has the attention span of a fruit fly? Or why we’re consistently falling further behind in educational rankings in the world?
This fallout was all predicted by Pope Pius VI with the proliferation of the birth control pill.
Nothing to see here…move along.
Hate to tell you this guys but all this stuff was going on, in Iowa, in abundance, 20,30, even 40 years ago in some places. Anybody that grew up in a river town knows what I’m talking about . It’s just now alot cheaper to capture and distribute it with the advances in electronic media and our course the internet, instead of getting it thru whispers and gossip and maybe the occasional Polaroid or VHS tape.
On the flip side there are those who don’t dive into all that and get thru high school, go on to college and make something of themselves. Some grow up, get out of it, and do the same. It’s just that now it’s sensationalized because of the greater ability to get a record of it.
Peggy–good job out of you quoting our lovely Pope Pius VI (sic), you mean XI, whose emissaries conspired with Croatian facists in WWII that led to death of hundreds if not thousands.
Eliminate the Income Tax. Eliminate the Property Tax. Cut and keep low the Sales Tax. Drastically cut back government spending to pre 1970’s levels. And return to single income families. THAT will actually solve the problem. Anything else, anything less, and we are going to not only get worse, but totally fail and collapse.
Waywardson, your not seriously saying that a woman’s place is barefoot, pregnant, and the kitchen are you? You do realize this is the 21st century and not he 19th century right?
Mostly in agreement with Waywardson.
Check out this October 1, 2009 Pew Research Center Study re: Working & Stay-At-Home Moms…
http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/745/the-harried-life-of-the-working-mother
“A strong majority of all working mothers (62%) say they would prefer to work part time.”
“These findings echo the results of a 2007 Pew Research Center survey in which a majority of working mothers (60%) said the ideal situation for them would be to work part time.”
“Pew Research Center data shows that strong concern over the impact of day care on the nation’s children has persisted over time. In 1987, 68% of the public agreed that too many children are being raised in day care centers these days. In 2003, 72% agreed with this statement. Mothers themselves are particularly concerned about this issue. In the 2003 Pew Research Center survey 50% of mothers with children under age 5 completely agreed that too many children are being raised in day care centers today. This compared with 36% among the general public.”
WW sez: “Eliminate the Income Tax. Eliminate the Property Tax. Cut and keep low the Sales Tax. Drastically cut back government spending to pre 1970’s levels. ”
Good first step on that is to pack up fast and come home from Iraq and Afghanand the entire Gulf, Korea and Europe,
Kill the entire remaining C-17 procurement.
Kill whatever the latest hot-rod fighter/attack plane is.
Dump that Marine plane with the pivoting wing (if it is still getting monies, I haven’t heard anything of it for a couple years).
Do all that and then talk about cutting taxes.
> Good first step on that is to pack up fast and come home from Iraq and Afghanand the entire Gulf, Korea and Europe,
Ok, but then you ignore the moral (and philosophical) argument that the United States created the instability in Iraq and Afghanistan. Granted most liberal leaning Americans dislike the war in Iraq and didn’t support it, but a clear majority of those in Congress (and Americans) *did* support war in Afghanistan. And so here we are.
Our military leaders (unless they are lying and they have thus fooled Obama and his cabinet) tell us that Afghanistan needs American troops. So, if we leave, haven’t we failed in our obligation to the Afghani citizens? Although oppressive, the Taliban provided stability. Without American troops, I think it is without argument that instability would certainly arise.
Honestly, I’d like to hear your argument against staying in Afghanistan, knowing that Afghani’s will likely be subjected to the rule of the Taliban within the next 10 years. Maybe you don’t care…and if not, you might not be a Democrat and actually a Libertarian…
> Good first step on that is to pack up fast and come home from Iraq and Afghanand the entire Gulf, Korea and Europe,
Also, I used to live in Korea. The ROK soldiers (those are South Korean soldiers) were initially trained by the American military. We are currently in Korea at their invitation…at anytime they can send us packing. Although there has been occasional outcry that Americans should leave (mainly from the young Koreans — not from the older generation and those that fought alongside the American’s during the forgotten Korean war) we have always served at the pleasure of the Korean citizens.
The US can’t pull troops out of Korea because we are technically still in a state of war with North Korea.
MIE,
No, actually, I meant Pope PAUL VI but thanks anyway.
Your comment is strange to say the least. One too many runs around the labyrinth?
Peggy: Not really. I am very comfortable with the HRC as an institution but not so much with some of our church leaders. I’m glad the Holy Spirit works from the bottom up these days.