Jezebel 
Enter your username and password.
New York, 10:37 AM
Thu Nov 26
64 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@jezebel.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Anna Holmes
Email | Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Dodai Stewart
Email | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor:
Tracie Egan
Email | Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Anna North
Email | Twitter
Sadie Stein
Email | Twitter
Reporter:
Irin Carmon
Email | Twitter
Editorial Assistant:
Margaret Hartmann
Email | Twitter
Contributors:
Rich Juzwiak
Email | Twitter
Latoya Peterson
Email
Jenna Sauers
Email
Lizzie Skurnick
Email
Interns:
Katy Kelleher
Twitter
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
08/10/09
If we send young girls a message of "be sexy" and they follow it, more men are going to want to have sex with them. So don't we also need to teach them then how to deal with the increased demand? Or are we supposed to tell young men DON'T be attracted to young girls who are running around with fewer and fewer clothes on? Because that ain't gonna work...
08/10/09
Think about Britney Spears' image when she first got big, pre "I'm a Slave for You" and the Madonna-kiss-shenanigans. Her circus-ring of producers, managers, and executives carefully constructed her image as a wholesome, virginal teenage girl, yet found it necessary to always dress her in suggestive and revealing clothing.
The naughty schoolgirl outfit, anyone? This image, though her music and appeal mainly belonged to prepubescent girls, was directed towards the male fantasy. She was a virginal sex-symbol, giving her perhaps the most confusing role for a young woman to play. Why couldn't she perform in a cardigan and cargo pants (or whatever age-appropriate ensemble you can think of)? Is it a coincidence then that her male-dominated production team conjured her "sexy and abstinent" image for girls to imitate and boys to lust over? But then Britney grew up, and when execs realized there was no way to hide her sexuality behind supposed chastity and a belly shirt, they turned a confused young woman into a sexpot almost overnight. There might be arguments that that was her way of breaking out of the shell, but I disagree. By that time she had become so much more than a singer: she was a brand. And people wonder why she had her meltdown. I wonder how it didn't happen sooner.
The same can be said for Christina, Mandy, and all of those sugar-coated, bubblegum poptarts of the late 90s. They've all matured in different ways, but their initial appeal was synonymous with the message of the Candie's Foundation: good-girl virgins looking like seductresses. As a girl looking back on hitting puberty in 2000, I remember how hard it was trying to relate to that image. What angers me now is that the image had very little to do with me as a growing girl, and very much to do with one occupation: attracting boys. While that is a fairly normal distraction for a twelve year-old girl, it's distressing to remember how much I wanted to be sexy, without really knowing what that meant.
I fear it's only gotten worse, and the Candie's campaign makes it clear that there is no clarity in ingesting the message they are trying to provide. I mean, look at some of the examples of celebrities endorsing it. Jenny Mcarthy? Tara Reid? Alas, I 100% believe it's possible to be sexy and not have sex. But to directly suggest girls to use their sexuality as a means to attract the opposite sex, then say it's not ok to actually consumate, is a mixed-message if I ever heard one. And as far as reducing teen pregnancy goes, us girls have known the Candie's image for years, albeit perhaps unconsciously. Sex is going to be had no matter what. The best way to prevent pregnancy is by educating girls about their options. No one can define when the "right" time is to become sexually active. It's different for every woman and man. A good education of the risks, and how to avoid them, is the safest and healthiest approach to teenage sexuality.
08/09/09
08/09/09
Umm...I may have been overanalyzing a bit, but wouldn't "Get it" be better than telling people to just give their consent? They might as well have said "Just Do It."
08/09/09
08/09/09
I'm going to order one of these shirts, take a photo, and upload it.
I think we should retaliate against this stupidity by attempting to make make an internet meme out of it.
Someone orders the shirt, and takes a photograph of it in the most ridiculous staging imaginable.
On men, old people, dogs, EVERYTHING except a a "sexy" girl.
08/10/09
08/09/09
[www.candiesfoundation.org]
08/09/09
08/09/09
here's an excerpt of mine:
"My gripe here is - if a guy wants to buy a pair of snazzy shoes to wear to the club, he doesn't have to go through a bombardment of pressures by a thousand different companies' ads to question just how sexy he must look to be worth anything - and then also receive moral messaging 5 seconds later that, though he's looking dapper, he shouldn't engage in sex, because looking sexy is juuust enough."
08/09/09
08/09/09
08/09/09
08/09/09
We indoctrinate girls into being 'sexy' in the mould of male fantasy, but condemn them if they express their own sexuality.
08/09/09
08/09/09
08/09/09
08/09/09
08/09/09
08/09/09