Category: Youth Culture

Did you notice it this Halloween and the weeks prior? From the magazine ads and display windows of stores at the mall, to the costume parties across the nation. Halloween has become an excuse for girls to dress slutty.

I think Elizabeth Durand summarized this mindset well in the opening line of her article, Slutty Halloween Costumes for Nice Girls. She said:

“Every hot-blooded American girl knows Halloween is really just an excuse to dress like a tramp without being judged. Duh.”

Today’s sit coms seem to echo this mindset. In the hit show Big Bang Theory (3^rd most popular show last week), Penny wore a particularly trampy police-girl outfit. Her friend asks her, “Slutty cop?” Penny replied, “No, this is sexy copy. Slutty cop only came with a skirt and two badges.”

In the brand new show Ben and Kate, Kate’s friend BJ discusses hooking up with a guy during Halloween, assuring Kate that this holiday is the one time a year it’s okay to dress like a whore.

It’s sexualization at it’s finest, and sadly, teenager girls are gobbling it up.

If you don’t believe me, just jump on Party City’s most popular costume section on their website, something I’ve blogged about in years past. Look at some of these popular teen costumes this year:

Seriously? “Snow Bunny”? She’ll freeze!

“Unicorn”? It’s just a slutty teenager with a horn on her head!

“Sassy Sailor”? Really? Sigh…

Girls are learning young Continue reading “An Excuse to Be Slutty”

Fox’s new The Mindy Project began with good intentions, but that objective was quickly soiled with the typical inappropriate elements that contemporary television programming can’t seem to part with: crude humor, and poor role models who reek of imitatable negative behaviors.

We can only hope young people won’t be gleaning “wisdom” from Mindy this fall. Sadly, the show, premiering Tuesday, September 25^th, is already creating a lot of buzz.

The show’s biggest momentum is probably from the popularity of Emmy Award nominated author/actress Mindy Kaling who both writes and stars in NBC’s The Office (Mindy plays Kelly). The Mindy Project is… well… Mindy’s new project where she plays a young woman named Mindy (yes, Mindy is playing a woman named Mindy) who, despite her successful career, is unlucky in her love efforts.

I can’t help but respect the producers’ intent, striving to provide a realistic lead character who young women can actually identify with. In an interview about the show, she confessed Continue reading “Skipping “The Mindy Project””