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By CLEMENTINE FORD
May 30, 2009 11:30pm
ONCE upon a time, there was a magical land in which children (who were sent to bed before 8.30 whether they liked it or not) lived in anticipation of the day they would come of age and be allowed to do Grown-Up Things.
The Grown-Ups that these children so longed to be appeared to have glamorous night-time lives of excitement and adventure; with practically no bedtime to speak of, they were free to watch as much M-rated TV as they liked, imbibe liquor to their hearts' content and mutter all the rude words their adult minds could devise.
The especially precocious among the children might demand to know exactly why THEY weren't allowed to do all these things too – especially when their older siblings were flaunting their newly-won rights all over the house.
To their intense (and constant) disappointment, the only answer they were ever given was "because you're not old enough".
"That's NOT fair!" they might cry.
"Life's not fair, bucko," the Grown-Ups would reply. "Get used to it." And that would be that.
Sadly, the inventions of political correctness and modern Christian family "associations" have seen such a magical land relegated to the annals of mythology.
Could it possibly have been so? we whisper. Might there have once been a time when children were encouraged to be children, but (more importantly) grown-ups were allowed to be Grown-Ups?
Children have somehow become the arbiters of what is and isn't acceptable for adults to enjoy.
Consider the parents who complain about evening TV; worried their children might be exposed to the "seedy" side of real life (lesbians kissing! on free-to-air!), some parents expend 80 per cent of their energy whingeing on talkback radio or writing letters to the editor demanding SOMETHING be done.
Perhaps I'm being too harsh. After all, how can they rely on the TV to babysit for them if scandalous images of unnatural sex addictions keep popping up before the watershed?
Earlier this week, US pop sensation Pink played to a sold-out crowd at the Entertainment Centre. A lass who's particularly popular among the aforementioned lesbians (don't worry, it's not contagious), Pink performed a raunchy version of the Divinyls' I Touch Myself while tucked into a sequinned brassiere and a pair of slashed leggings. It was a va-va-voomish display that was not at odds with the cheeky, sexually powerful and highly politicised nature of both Pink and her music.
Yet according to several comments on the AdelaideNow website, parents were "disgusted" at the "pornographic" nature of the show. One mother reported her daughter had cried all the way home – an irrational reaction that can only be due to the fact she was TOO YOUNG to go in the first place.
Tell us what you think below
Pink and others of her ilk are not children's entertainers. Culture shouldn't be blanketly screened and regulated based on what is and isn't appropriate for children.
There will come a day when your children are old enough to decide for themselves, but until then, can we not get back to sending the kids to bed before 8.30 and letting the Grown-Ups have some fun for a change?
Source:
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,,25555869-5015644,00.html
