From Seattle writer and consultant Matt Rosenberg...: Dems: Here's a "Moral Values" Issue For Ya

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Dems: Here's a "Moral Values" Issue For Ya

December 22, 2004

Regular SF Chron guest op-ed columnist Jennifer Nelson is one of my favorite Blue City conservatives, that special breed who opine to a generally unsympathetic populace, which badly needs to hear another perspective. Nelson writes about a topic on which right-leaning commentators seem to have taken the lead: overly sexualized commercial culture aimed at kids and tweens. The Left forfeits leadership on such issues due to innate and crippling moral relativism, but as Nelson observes, liberals should be able to find common cause with conservatives here. Especially, I'd add, given the role of socially-irresponsible corporations, a favorite liberal target.

Nelson thinks when 12-year-old boys are instructed by their female classmates to buy thong underwear for the girls as Christmas gifts, that, yes, there's actually a problem.

Of course, with retailers like Abercrombie and Fitch around, why wouldn't young people think exchanging underwear for the holidays is normal? Marketing professionals and authors Kevin Clancy and Peter Klieg appropriately have nominated Abercrombie and Fitch for their marketing 2004 Hall of Shame award.
Over the years, Abercrombie and Fitch has angered parent groups with their racy quarterly "Field Guide" catalogue. The 2003 Christmas edition featured the headline "Group sex and more!" and included dozens of pictures of naked young men and women in various sexual poses. The retailer eventually bowed to public pressure and stopped selling the magazine early in the holiday season.

The company earned the Hall of Shame nomination not only because of its provocative circular but also due to other controversial marketing efforts, such as parading teen models in underwear to promote the opening of a new store in Boston and stocking little-girl-size thong underwear labeled with provocative slogans. You have to wonder about the thought process of corporate executives who gave the green light to selling skimpy underwear aimed at children.

....It's tough for parents, especially families in which both parents work full time, to stay on top of who their kids are hanging around with and what they are doing, as well as monitoring what they see and hear on the radio, television and computer.

...One of the problems with modern-day families, (...David, chair of Tufts University's Department of Child Development and author of "The Hurried Child,") Elkind adds, is that parents overschedule their kids. Our kids become a reflection of our competency -- of course they can play soccer, take flute lessons, practice karate, join a book club and learn Spanish, all at the same time! Elkind, believing that a little boredom can help kids develop healthy imaginations and reduce stress in their lives, advocates for fewer programmed activities in children's lives. I'll be interested to pick up his new book, "No Time for Play: The Over-Programmed Child," when it is released in 2005.

....kids today spend an average of 47 hours a week viewing media, compared to 17 hours a week spent with their parents.

...the concern...transcends political ideology. Advocating new social behaviors, a change in mass media aimed at kids and encouraging more family time sounds dangerously like the mind-set of a red-state voter. The reality is these issues, however, can be addressed while protecting political speech and individual freedoms, common concerns for people left of center. In fact, this issue may be the common ground by which to unite red-state and blue-state people.

...American kids may not have books, puzzles and wooden blocks on the top of their wish lists, but, by purchasing such presents, parents can help them discover their imagination and an ability to entertain themselves without any media influence.

I am now in a house full of parents and young children in Potomac, MD. With the exception of the odd Monty Python video (both meanings intended) the kids are watching no TV and spending no time on the computer (one blogging Dad is, however). There is not a handheld video game in the house. The kids are filling up coloring books, playing Battleship, listening to stories on CD, and running around making up their own games. There has been no special campaign to get them to engage in old-fashioned play. This is just what's going on. I'm betting the X-Mas presents will include a lot of books for the kids.