Jonathan's Rant Archives - Page 16 of 21 - Jonathan's Blog From The Source

No Wonder Our Kids Listen to It

Posted on: 02/9/09 12:34 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Why are adults surprised that kids listen to raunchy music?

Kids are only following their example.

Last night the Grammys gave us a true glimpse of what adults value in this world. The Grammys has a long history of being THE music awards show. Unlike the Teen Choice Awards, or many of the MTV awards shows, The Grammys are chosen by adults. Then why was Lil Wayne nominated for more than anyone else, 8 Grammys?

Do these adults even know what this guy is singing about? (you can take a little peek at his content in this article) Maybe Lil Wayne should take this opportunity to ask their daughter on a date?

Maybe the same could be said about Kid Rock, Robert Plant and others at the show last night. But I think most adults are probably a little more comfortable with the messages coming from the albums of U2 and Coldplay than the young Mr. Wayne. Or maybe, in today’s world lyrical content just doesn’t matter. Because last night we awarded Wayne with trophies for the explicit album Tha Carter III, and three other songs, including the song Lollipop, an explicit song about oral sex.

“You’re a foul mouthed pervert. Here’s your trophy.” (pause) “But kids, you watch your mouths!”

David wrote about the blurring of the line between music for adults and teens last week in our Youth Culture Window article, The 2009 Grammys: Do Adults Like the Same Music as Teens?

Posted in Entertainment Media, Jonathan's Rant, Music, Sexuality, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

Subtle PG-13 Lies

Posted on: 02/7/09 2:21 PM | by Jonathan McKee

It’s always interesting to see what films draw teenagers. A year ago, Juno was the hottest thing. Last fall it was Twilight. So what film has their attention now?

Last Tuesday a film was released that I predict will be one of the next cult classics of this generation. The film is Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Like Juno and Twilight, the film has a PG-13 rating. But this is one PG-13 film that has me wondering what the MPAA is smoking.

Let me be clear. I’m not a big fan of the MPAA rating system anyway. I’ve never been one to let a secular rating system tell me which movies are “good” and “bad” for my kids. I’ve seen plenty of R-rated films that I have no problem with (The Passion, Saving Private Ryan, The Last Samurai…). And I’ve seen plenty of PG films that are full of subtle lies. That’s a sore spot for me. I don’t like it when the media lies to us, especially to our kids. It’s completely irresponsible to consistently show actions without consequences. That’s just not the way life works.

Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist is a clever movie with strong characters and creative dialogue… kids are loving it. But not only is it full of graphic sexual talk, hookups and crude humor, it’s also a distortion of reality. There are drastic consequences emotionally and physically to most of the casual behaviors portrayed in Nick & Norah. Are these destructive behaviors true to life? Yes. But they are most often linked to consequences, consequences that the people behind the story of Nick and Norah chose to ignore.

Yes, Cinderella might also be a distortion of reality. Mice and birds don’t make dresses. And maybe there is no Prince Charming for most girls. But I’ve never met a teenage girl who bought into the lie that a mouse named Gus-Gus would be her best friend and a guy on a horse would take her away into the sunset. On the contrary, I’ve worked with plenty of teenager girls that found out the hard way that the casual actions in Nick & Norah have devastating consequences.

Can’t we be real with our kids? Nick & Norah is a nice fairy tale, based on realistic characters and authentic feelings. But we’re fools if we don’t understand how influential this kind of media is on our kids. The imitatable behaviors in this film aren’t just entertainment, they are telling our kids how to live in the real world.

Don’t let your kids construct their ethics from films like this.

This week I devoted our entire Youth Culture Window article to the content behind Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. In that article I give you a glimpse of what our kids will be seeing in that film. I encourage you to take a peek at the article. Todd also posted a movie review on the film.

Posted in Entertainment Media, Jonathan's Rant, Sexuality, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

Super Bowl Commercials

Posted on: 02/3/09 9:02 AM | by Jonathan McKee

The Super Bowl is the one time a year that I actually watch commercials. When people are paying multi-millions for an ad… they’re usually pretty good.

Well… define good.

This year a few of them definitely drew a laugh from me: the poor executive who suggested that they stop buying Bud Light for their meetings (only to get thrown out of a window), the horse telling the story of his great grandfather first coming to the country (with his good and bad jobs), the Monster.com ad with the moose head on the wall, and yes, I even laughed at the slapstick humor of the Doritos ad with the Crystal ball- an ad that created some of the most Super Bowl commercial buzz (ironically, this ad was the first non-agency spot ever to do this- read more here).

But this year also revealed a trend toward the irresponsible and raunchy. Despites the claim of some that this year was mild and overly conservative, several ads made me look at my wife and say, “Oh no they didn’t!”

One of the most irresponsible ads was also from Doritos, showing a man crunching Doritos, and the crunch gave the man apparent superpowers, like a woman’s clothes being ripped off (revealing her in just lingerie). An ATM starts spitting out 20’s. Then he turns a police officer into a monkey.

It wasn’t the most raunchy ad, but it was definitely the ad that irked me the most. I can’t stand when the media lies to young people. Great message we’re communicating to our kids: sex and money is “where it’s at!” And cops are bad.

Nice.

Even though that particular Doritos “Crunch” ad ranked high, surprisingly, audiences seemed to agree overall that the raunchy ads weren’t the best ones. GoDaddy’s sexually charged ads (or as this article calls it, “breast focused raunchy Super Bowl ads”) received some of the lowest scores from postgame ad polls. USA Today’s Ad-meter (where you can see the top Super Bowl ads ranked and actually view them) ranks these GoDaddy ads way down in 41st and 45th place. But here’s the ironic part. Even though they weren’t rated as “the best” … they were among the most watched. According to this article, even though people didn’t give them high scores in the polls, they liked the ads enought for a second viewing.

Sex sells. It always has.

Posted in Entertainment Media, Jonathan's Rant, Sexuality, TV | | Leave A Comment

Hottest Virtual Hangout Growing Even Bigger

Posted on: 01/23/09 12:14 PM | by Jonathan McKee

IMVU.com is back in the news again, with $10 million of financing from Best Buy’s corporate venture-capital group. IMVU is the 3D virtual community (picture a virtual pickup bar, but filled with teenagers and adults all anonymously guised as perfect looking people) that has grown to more than 30 million users. It’s literally one of the largest of its kind.

Many of you remember an article that David and I wrote last June after diving into this virtual world and experiencing it firsthand. After two hours of navigating our newly created avatar through this world of cybersmut… we had seen enough. The site is nothing more than a virtual pick up place. Nobody is who they say they are, and morals are nowhere to be found. That’s probably why we titled our article:

The Hottest Virtual Teenage Hangout… A Little Too “Hot”
A Virtual Pick Up Joint Where Authenticity is Scarce

Check out that article, not only to see our research about the site, but for a detailed description of what we encountered personally.

Here it is six months later and the site has grown by another 10 million users and with 10 million more dollars to spend on development. I shudder at the possibilities.

Sigh.

(ht to Anastasia at YPulse for the new article)

Posted in Entertainment Media, Internet, Jonathan's Rant, Sexuality, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

Lyrics “Under the Radar” of Parents

Posted on: 01/20/09 9:47 AM | by Jonathan McKee

I’m so used to today’s music being blatantly raunchy and sexual, I’m almost surprised when musicians use sneaky tactics to slip messages under the radar of parents. But that’s exactly what Britney has done with this new song on her popular new album Circus… she’s dropping the “F bomb” without actually saying it.

The song is If You Seek Amy. It looks innocent enough when you read it… but go ahead and say it like she does in the album. Read this outloud: “But all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek amy.”

Whoops!

David does an incredible job unveiling this in this week’s Youth Culture Window article.

Update: According to this Aussie newspaper, Britney might be changing the name of the song for some radioplay.

Posted in Entertainment Media, Jonathan's Rant, Music, Sexuality, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

Girl Auctioning Her Virginity Offered Millions

Posted on: 01/14/09 8:17 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Last September I blogged about a young graduate from my local California State University in Sacramento who decided to auction off her virginity to pay for graduate studies.

Now she’ll be able to pay for a little more than school. Bids for a night with Natalie have just grown up to 3.7 million dollars. So far, 10,000 men have bid to have sex with her.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at her little venture. Isn’t that what our society is teaching our kids? Take your clothes off, and get paid! We encouraged Jennifer Anniston (and I quote, “I applaud her”) when she did it. Britney’s video goes number one when she does it. The message is clear. Skin pays!

I think the ironic part of this whole matter is the intent behind this whole endeavor. 22 year old Natalie wants to become a marriage and family counselor.

Maybe this will get men to become more interested in seeing a counselor.

“Sorry honey, I’m going to be late for dinner. I’m going to be seeing my therapist again.”

“Why are those bills so expensive dear?”

Natalie, with a degree in Women’s Studies (I’m not even going to make a comment about that one), insists that she’s not demeaning herself.

The last line of this particular article is classic. I gotta give Natalie points for getting this one thing right. Natalie concludes:

“It’s shocking that men will pay so much for someone’s virginity, which isn’t even prized so highly anymore.”

Posted in Entertainment Media, Jonathan's Rant, News, Sexuality, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

Struggling With “Jackass”

Posted on: 01/6/09 5:17 PM | by Jonathan McKee

If you’re looking for the “Jackass Blog” … it’s gone. This is in its place.

A Necessary Apology

I want to take a moment and apologize. I’m not proud of my reaction to criticism last week… I should have taken the high road. This response is five days late.

Many of you saw the “Jackass” blog last week. I don’t need to go into all the details, but basically I received some criticism for using the word “Jackass” several times at a big event I spoke at one week ago. I talked about the MTV show “Jackass,” criticizing it for it’s attitude of “no consequences.” I then segued to the Gospel (and over 200 kids were saved that week). I’m not going to rehash that issue. That’s not the point of this post. Enough has been said.

What I want to apologize for is my reaction to the criticism, specifically from the individual who emailed me initially. If I had the situation to do over again, I should have responded gracefully, thanking him for his feedback.

Although I’m sure that he and I don’t agree on the original issue, and may never agree, I should have responded in love regardless. Regrettably I chose the path of trying to convince this individual of my opinion and blogging about the incident. This didn’t result in healthy dialogue, it resulted in a lot of mudslinging.

The apostle Paul, in his Spirit-filled wisdom, points out that leaving “love” out of the picture results in a loud clanging sound. My response this past week probably sounded a lot like a clanging symbol.

This week God’s been tugging at my heart about this confrontation. This morning, after praying about it, I finally called the individual involved and personally apologized for my response to his criticism. He was really gracious and forgiving.

I want to take this opportunity to apologize to all of you as well for my response. In addition, I’m doing something I’ve never done before, I’m deleting a blogpost. I don’t think it was productive. So I’ll post this apology in its place.

Hindsight is 20/20. I should have responded gracefully to begin with.

Please accept my apology.

God Bless,

Jonathan McKee

NOTE: We will not be posting comments on this post.

Posted in Jonathan's Rant | | Leave A Comment

She Blew Her Nose and I Liked It

Posted on: 12/23/08 10:11 AM | by Jonathan McKee

I’m always amazed at the “perceived” value of things. Things like… a snot filled tissue.

Yeah, that’s right. Currently, a snot filled tissue is on Ebay selling for over $2,000. Not any snot filled tissue, mind you. This is the mucus from the snout of the one and only Scarlett Johansson. And the tissue was handed to her by Jay Leno on his show. She blew her nose… and the rest of history.

Check out whole story in this small USA Today article.

I wonder where the highest bidder will keep it? Will they buy a plexiglass case? What will they label the case?

Posted in Entertainment Media, Humor, Jonathan's Rant, News | | Leave A Comment

Using Popular Music to Springboard Discussions

Posted on: 12/22/08 9:05 AM | by Jonathan McKee

As I look back at the most popular music of 2008, I can’t say that I’m happy with the content that found its way into kids’ iPods. Most of it was highly sexualized and foul. Unfortunately, sex sells. This year’s Top 10 downloaded songs are, by majority, no exception.

In our last Youth Culture Window article of the year, David and I reviewed the Top 10 Downloaded Songs as charted by The Nielson Company. I find this list fascinating, not only because it reflects some of the most popular music of the year, but also the fact that downloaded songs offer explicit lyrics… and most parents have no idea what is on their kids’ iPods.

Do you know what’s on your kids’ iPods?

In this article we quickly review what kids have listened to in the last year and a little about each artist. Then we encourage parents and youth workers to dialogue with their kids about this music and this content.

Posted in Entertainment Media, Jonathan's Rant, Music, Sexuality, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

“Applauding” Jennifer Aniston?

Posted on: 12/12/08 9:46 AM | by Jonathan McKee

“I applaud her.”

That’s what CNN correspondent A.J. Hammer said about Jennifer Aniston’s new naked photos in GQ Magazine (I’ll just show you the cover photo, because that’s what you’ll see on the news tonight or while standing in line at the grocery store) where Jennifer poses wearing only a tie. Inside the magazine she is seen in a risque group shot, lying between several semi-nude male models… with only a few inches of her “real estate” not showing (the inches that would have made the layout a Penthouse layout, not a GQ layout).

Side bar: Why do our young girls base their self esteem on looks? Why would they be quick to discard modesty if the price was right?

Because that’s exactly what we have taught them! After all, in this CNN report, all three correspondents applaud Jen for doing this.

Their exact words:

“I applaud her speaking out like this. I think it shows a great deal of self confidence.” – A.J. Hammer, CNN correspondent

“It is brilliant on her part. She looks beautiful at 39, she looks like she’s 23. I applaud her for doing this and I pray that she does it more often.”-Carlos Diaz, correspondent for Extra.

“I think she wants to get out there and show that she looks amazing. She looks better than ever. She is in this relationship (John Mayer). She’s got a movie coming out. I think she should just go for it! If I was her, I’d be posing with a tie on… on the cover of every magazine out there. -Kim Serafin, Editor for In Touch Weekly Magazine.

Hmmmmm. Maybe our teenagers should all go do this… since adults applaud it.

Posted in Entertainment Media, Jonathan's Rant, News, Sexuality | | Leave A Comment