This past week I was subjected to watching hundreds of teenage girls getting homecoming pictures made. As my wife and I sat watching them take selfies and their parents proudly taking pictures, it occurred to me just how much the sexualization of America’s youth has progressed.
I recognize this is likely to upset a lot of people, and frankly I don’t care. In my opinion, it needs to be said. Many will call me a prude or just an old fogey who is out of touch with the times. I can accept that. What I can’t accept is an apathetic stance towards the oversexualization of children.
When I came up through Evans High School in 1996-2000, there was a dress code. The code required dresses to be a certain length and prohibited spaghetti straps or halter tops. Kids pushed the boundaries and rebelled. They tested the limits of what was allowed but now parents are accepting and celebrating their children wearing what can only be described as ‘HO’ wear.
When I was a teen, most would have assumed girls dressed in such get-ups were prostitutes. Are parents really OK with their 14-18 year girls dressing in such a way?
I thought Georgia, the buckle on the Bible belt, was supposed to be conservative in its viewpoints. Sadly, the Christian church seems to have given up the fight on this issue.
Splattered all over my Facebook feed were pictures from the photo shoot. Obviously, I don’t follow a bunch of 14-18 year old girls on Facebook; these pictures were from parents, many of whom profess to be Christians.
I don’t say this to shame them but rather to make them think about why they are OK with it. Why have they embraced and promoted the sexualization of their young girls? It is not just a matter of them taking what they view as a “cute” picture of their daughter. These outfits far exceed what is appropriate in any setting a 14-18 year old child would find themselves in.
The simple answer is that the church is allowing the culture to dictate morality. The church pulpits are largely silent out of fear of losing members and a few casual dollars being thrown in the collection plate.
Perhaps, I am a little too sensitive right now. After all, I learned this past week about two families that I previously went to church just had teenagers have babies out of wedlock. The two families are not related. I know both of the new grandfathers and assure you that if they could go back and adjust the ethics they instilled in their children or recalibrate what their family prioritized, they would.
Just because girls wear ‘HO’ wear to the homecoming dance doesn’t mean they will get pregnant. But it doesn’t reduce the odds that they will be sexually active.
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the “U.S. teen birth rate is substantially higher than in other western industrialized nations.”
It is clear that the trend of teenagers engaging in sexual activity is on the rise. This is a statistical fact based on a 2020 study conducted by the CDC related to sexually transmitted diseases.
That 2020 report indicated that since 2016, there has been a 45% increase in gonorrhea, 52% in syphilis and 235% in congenital syphilis. Young people aged 15-24 accounted for 53% of the increase.
The sexualization of Americas youth is in its full blown state. Children are exposed to sex at younger ages, transgenderism and homosexuality are daily topics of conversation and pornography use is at an all time high. In fact child pornography is on the rise, exploitation of children and trafficking continue to increase annually.
I truly do fear for the youth of this country, and I am very thankful that I was born in a previous generation. I also stress about the quality of the mates my children will find, given what I see in today’s youths. It is slim pickens.
All problems have solutions.
In this case, the government providing more sex education and contraceptives is not going to solve the problem. The only solution is parents taking responsibility for how their children are raised, and one easy adjustment is to change how they dress.
Teenage boys are always going to be focused on one thing, and we all know what it is. Teenage girls might not be focused on the same thing as boys, but clearly they crave attention. Part of a parent’s job is to protect their daughters from the wrong type of attention. Encouraging your daughters to dress provocatively will have the opposite effect of protecting them. It also sends the message to teenage boys, whether intentional or not, that the girl is cheap or easy.
The blame is with the parents. As for my wife and I, we will continue to regulate how our three daughters dress and teach them modesty and chasteness. I pray other parents would start to do the same.
