 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
When Lavigne's catchy power-pop hit, "Complicated," comes on the car radio, I turn it up and we all sing (including the boys, ages six and three), "Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated...acting like you're somebody else makes me frustrated...." Avril sings about teenage girls and their age-old problem: teenage boys. Unlike her chart rivals however, her songs aren't music to strip by.
This 18-year-old hockey-playing Canadian tomboy is a refreshing change from the pop-princesses-and-Mouseketeers-gone-bad — Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears — who are selling records the old-fashioned way — by pulling down their pants. Aguilera's new album is called Stripped, and her latest video is called "Dirrty." In the video, Aguilera bumps and grinds a lot, mud wrestles, and wears jeans with the seat cut out. Nothing new, really. Madonna's done it all before, Cher showed off her tattoo-ed behind in a video. But to my daughter, Cher and Madonna are elderly housewives she's never even heard of. I saw something about the making of the "Dirrty" video in which Aguilera declares that she's glad she's finally expressing herself and showing people the side she wants them to see. Apparently, the side she wants people to see is her backside. I watched the video. I was alone and I was still embarrassed. Aguilera is boldly eviscerating her clean, cutesy image in the same original manner that rival pop-tart Britney Spears boldly eviscerated her clean, cutesy image in her look-at-me-I'm-a-big-girl-now writhing/sweating video, "I'm a Slave 4 U." Being all grown up apparently means lifting up your skirt in public. Between these heavily played videos (and a thousand others exactly like them) and the release of the movie, Jackass, (vomiting and self-mutilation as entertainment) we may have lost teenage boys forever. But there's still hope for young girls and often, where young girls go, young boys tend to follow. Avril Lavigne has yet to writhe and sweat. She jumps up and down and plays the guitar. She sings songs about being real and skater boys ("Sk8er Boi"). She refuses to bare her body parts in "fashions" she describes as "skanky." She prefers muscle-man undershirts, army pants, and neckties. She's got taste and talent. Okay, she does exuberantly smash a car windshield with her guitar in a recent video — not something I want my little girl to emulate (she's not allowed to watch MTV anyway). But it is only rock and roll. At least Lavigne keeps her pants on. Could nice (or at least nicer) girls be gaining a prominent position in the pop culture map? We're not talking saints, just young women who are real — not teenage fantasy bachelor party entertainers. Is it an amazing coincidence (or a hopeful trend) that Miss America 2003, Erika Harold, announced she wanted to discuss and advocate teen sexual chastity during her reign? Pageant officials made a big stink about it but Harold prevailed. Now she not only gets to promote abstinence — everybody knows it. Last year, for Christmas my daughter wanted a My Twinn doll (a scary doll designed to look eerily like the child who receives it) and an Easy Bake Oven. This year, she's already decided she's asking Santa for an Avril Lavigne CD. She has arrived at the precipice that separates childhood and pre-adolescence. She is becoming the consumer that the music, clothing, and fast food industries want. It's nice that so far I don't have to object to the artists she is interested in. It would be nice if that continued. So we can keep turning up the radio and singing together. — Susan Konig, author of the book Why Animals Sleep So Close to the Road and other lies I tell my children, is an NRO contributor. |
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
<% dim printurl
printurl = Request.ServerVariables("URL")%>
