Annie Liebowitz, isn't that hte woman that takes those creepy pictures of babies dressed as tulips and insects?  Well no (but close enough I say), but the point is that the Miley spread felt more like those delicate human flower things than anything remotely sexual.  (Today comes on in teh gym.  I've yet to see the point of it, which I don't think would be revealed with the sound on.)  Like you said, it's been pretty obviously supervised and reviewed by her family/managers.  If it comes to bite anyone, I'd rather it see it be the guy who inflicted Achy Breaky Heart on the world, but it won't amount to anything.  This is just some transitional marketing between kid star Miley Cyrus to grownup star Miley Cyrus, and unlike getting knocked up or drugged out, this one isn't too controversial.  It'll be interesting to see if one of the Disney groomed stars finally makes it over the gap.

The last bunch of tween flameouts (Lindsay, Mary-Kate, Ashley [but not Britney: her role, at least when she was popular, was more to tempt the Humberts than to get the tykes to buy Barbies {also, is there not a single one of these kiddie queens that doesn't have the diminutive -ie, -y, or -ey in their names?}]) had no personal feel to them.  My kids may have caught that adorable redhead in some rerun of The Parent Trap, but there was no idolatry in their precious little hearts as she charmed the grownups.  Miley (not really) and Jamie-Lynn (really) are another matter.  There's definitely a little bit of malice in my heart (call it revenge for inflicting me with their drivel for these formative years), but I also feel bad (pawns in the game of life and all), and I also hate having to explain J-L's pregnancy to my ten year old (but that stuff is part of my job anyway).

The media in general promote pedophilia, they just do it in a "we're so disgusted by this, we almost wish we didn't have to spend hours talking about it" sort of fashion.

I was blissfully unaware of anyone named Mindy McCready until the news broke that Roger Clemens was "very close" with her when she was 15. (12-13 years ago) I'd never heard of her or her music. But open up the "old man/little girl" scenario and the press is on it like Roger Clemens on a 15 year old.

Think of a famous child-abduction and murder. Any of them (okay the only one)

Would we have heard countless hours of coverage, spanning years, if they didn't have the pictures of little JonBenet in her pageant gear and grown up girl make-up to run on the big screen behind the anchor creature? 

Speaking of dumbass parents, can we just launch all of the Little Miss Sunshine parents into space, ?

I have never used "teh" ironically at all, I just have poor coordination.  I've never quite figured out the netiquette of its intentional use (and I suspect that it's really dumb anyway).

Agreed on Nancy Grace.  Pure evil.  Also think I'll agree with you when you arrive at your clarity.  The fall of former tweens seems to be inversely proportional to their prepubescent star level (and also how attractive they turned out as adults).  Someone needs to draw some charts, and maybe a Venn diagram, with Disney and stage parents included.

Hi Dawn~

If I recall, I think that was an SNL bit on CNN .

And just when I thought it was over, came a few months of coverage of John Mark Fucking Carr and his bogus claim of having committed the JonBenet crime.(Let's go to our massive archive of JonBenet pictures while we discuss this bottom-feeding scumbag.)

That's a discussion for another day, but I'll just say that people who take "credit"  for crimes they didn't commit should be launched into space as well.

Link

Ha!

Obviously, I should have read BOTF before I commented, though I'm not sure what justoffal is trying to say, beyond, "Those clever Chinese!" and "Yay, kiddie porn!"

Well, there's Macaulay Culkin.  I remember in his day, people were wondering why there were no creepy little girl wunderkinden.  Well, that changed.  I guess.  How did Little Mac turn out anyway? 

(Actually, he's sort of resurrected a career, but you know what I mean.)

It's not that they're victims so much as they're objects. When the virgin/whore dichotomy is the underlying construct, it's all about women as commodities. It's what jo is doing in his post, isn't it - the binary of chastity vs. obscenity, and his/men's/our entitlement to view women as either chaste or defiled? Or in Britney's case, both (and she's doing so well with all of it, too).

I read Deej's comment in the XX Factor fray: Assuming there is rampant sexism amongst males because of this example is hasty, and while some have posted here that most men are attracted to  women (true) and want to have sex with them (true, but in a general sense rather than involving any specific planning, in most cases), to generalize that men look down upon women is simply wrong, assuming we are referring to North American society.

I didn't really know how to respond. It's hard to explain, because it's not about individual men and women, it's like cultural background noise. It's like gravity. Who notices gravity?

It's the same thing with language: skank = object, and you know what we do with objects: we use them to whatever ends they can best be used.

[I think you've got it wrong, Schmutzie: we're not all prey; when we consume the objects the media holds up to us, we're all predators.]

You're right, and that's the language I should have used. Objects.

And that's what I meant at the end when I said I pray the percentages are as small as I pray they are.

I hope, and I do suspect, the vast majority of men don't see women/girls as pieces of meat. How vast the majority? I don't know sometimes.  Most , meaning all, the guys I know, i.e...let into my life as golf friends, drinking buds, etc.....don't see women as a objects at all Dawn. Now that's my choice of friends...

I have met guys who breathe through their mouths as well. They're obvious by contrast. Rare in my experience.

I also agree, that those that snatch at the media offerings are predators as well, or at least they think they are. That's the target market. That was my point in the fray post.

Who's the predator? Who's the prey?

The little girl?  Predator? No. But she's the bait isn't she? She's the object.

The prevert? Of course.

MSNBC? Them too.

The people who are devoring the kill? The target market?

I don't know. And that's a whole new discussion. Predator v Scavenger.

Is the voyeur sitting at home, thanking his lucky fucking stars that he didn't act out his internet underage fantasy as he watches what could be himself get stung, a predator or a scavenger? Probably thinks he's a predator, but MSNBC sees him as their prey as much as Chris Hansen sees Mr Perv as his.

And you must have known different 15 year old girls than I did. Absolutelty it's the beginning of the beginning of that wonderful experience. And believe me, I was more than willing. No frickin' takers for 3 more long, long, long, long, long ,long, years. (and by long, I mean in terms of time rather than endowment. I'm Irish. We have big feet.)

My new high speed internet connection went down for the first time last week.

(I've had it for 2 months. God what I was missing at 56K dial-up)

"Hi my name's Michael Kenney. Just like on last week's South Park, I don't have any internet. I feel lost. Help."

"Are you using a router?"

"A what?"

(Don't forget to pick up where you left off on that retrospective of your formative years....please.)