Victoria’s Secret Pink Line. Harmless? Yeah right.
I regularly monitor Victoria’s Secret window displays. Naively I had always felt a sense of relief when VS displayed their so called ‘pink line’ rather than their regular fare - cleavage in your face. Naive was the word but no longer. I was giving Victoria’s Secret the benefit of the doubt…. “… The holiday Victoria’s Secret catalogue arrived the other day because nothing quite says Christmas like a Very Sexy¬¨√Ü Infinity Edge‚Äö√묢 Snow Leopard convertible push-up bra with Gel-Curve‚Äö√묢. How do we know it’s Very Sexy¬¨√Ü? Because it’s written all over the bra, subtlety being anathema to the company. A colleague immediately hid the catalogue of supermodels busting out all over, not so much from his 16-year-old son as his 13-year-old daughter. A quick perusal through the 188-page doorstopper reveals marketing no longer directed at his wife but teen girls, if not tweens, contributing to what my colleague labels the continuing ‘slutification of America.’
Well, I would certainly never deny a parent their inalienable right to begin frothing at the mouth over lingerie, but this seems like much ado about nothing. In a day and age when just-short-of-graphic sex can be seen on network television and lesbian (and gay) sex is frequent fare on cable television (Hello? Ever seen “Six Feet Under”??), a line of racy lingerie almost seems like yesterday’s news.
What I truly enjoy, though, are the holier-than-thou types who get themselves all lathered up about Madison Avenue turning their little Jenny into a harlot…as if they have no control over their children. Never mind that parents can and should control the sorts of influences their children are exposed to. Yes, sex and sexuality is an increasingly prevalent feature of modern society, but that doesn’t mean that parents can’t exercise some initiative and control if they truly want to shield their children and “protect their innocence.”
It really is quite enjoyable watching the 24-karat trolls at the American Decency Association get themselves all hot and bothered over…well, just about anything, really. Whether it’s sex, drugs, rock and roll, or Godless Libruls, there seems to be no shortage of things that the uber-righteous and holier-than-thou can cite to convince themselves that truly the Apocalypse is upon us. Yeah, right. Whatever….
