Savoring my Dutch Brothers coffee this morning I begun to cogitate about what direction our great nation is proceeding in. Clearly one would assume that the current economy is what is being referenced here, sadly it is not. If it was a simple fiscal policy that would over time ameliorate, I could proximate my concerns to an element that is controlled by supply and demand. This is not a concern over monetary policy, yet it the ethical component of the involvement of man aspiring to obtain pecuniary gain with complete disregard of punctiliousness .
As the end of the week was advancing I began inquiring social events hosted by establishments in the vicinity of Mill Avenue, in Tempe, A.Z. Using the Social Network Facebook, I clicked on an events page bearing the title of Mill Ave which I had previously connected my profile to. I was disconcerted when the image of a young women, no older then 21 emerged as the page loaded. Sitting with her legs ajar the only thing cloaking her genitalia being a birthday bow an children sized birthday hats covering each breast. Requesting the responsible administrator to provide an explanation on why such a image was published to the page, the administrator answered that it had no involvement from the Mill Avenue promotion page.
Clicking on the link provided next to the image I was taken to an "ABC Party"(for those of you who do not know what ABC stands for it means Anything But Cloths) event page hosted by one of the local after hours club. I immediately determined to share my antipathy towards the use of such imagery on a social network that has users as young as 13 years old. One of the event organizers made the response that the picture was not pornographic in nature. I continued to disagree with the event organizer and become disheartened at the clear deficiency of moral fiber as he began to attempt to deprecate my concern of possible exposure of the image to minors.
As the day came to a end and I began to read my study material for the next day, I received an email from one of the administrators proclaiming I had reported their event in attempts to sabotage the after hours club. I kindly explained that it was most likely other viewers whom had made a report and that I personally had no intention of alienating the event. Innumerable words where exchanged, inability ending in harsh name calling from a man whom later was found of to be 28 years old with two little girls of his own.
This is where my disquiet arises. A physically mature business man with two underage daughters is willing to put the psychological welfare of his daughters at risk by continuing the objectification of women in advertising for a after hours club on a social network that will at some point in the near future become available to them. Research has show there is a strong correlation between repeated exposure to images of women being objectified causes self- consciousness, increased body anxiety, heightened mental health threats and increased body shame.
Noting that I am no spring chick and that I am under no false assumption that teenagers these days are not exposed to such images, I have to ask this question; when does society say enough is enough and stands up for the protection of our children. While it is clear that we as adults are not going to be able to stop every questionable moment that could potentially happen, should we really turn a blind eye to something we can prevent by simply asking ourselves the question of does this go to far. Clearly this man in particular did not think so, he re-posted the picture on several other sites even after being confronted with this argument, his daughters body image was up for sale.
(Hope you enjoyed my first blog an leave a comment)
