One confused muddle

My mother-in-law got me a series of magazine subscriptions for Christmas:  like nine of them in all.  Most are cooking magazines, which I love to get, because they're like monthly inspiration for a mama whose brain has lots of priorities.  There's Woman's Day and Better Homes and Gardens, and then Redbook came.  That one I don't particularly like at all.

The first issue--front to back--was like Cosmo for married women.  I guess.  I was not impressed.  So imagine my befuddlement to find this article buried between crap like "Sex Tips" and "Foreplay Suggestions".  Do these people (editors, writers, readers) have no ability to reflect at all?

Now it's true that our young girls have been sexualized for a while, but now that it's reaching market status, I guess we should all be worried.  It was a great celebration of liberty and equality for women (and girls) to become utterly subject to male sexual proclivities (promiscuity, visual provocation, transgressing boundaries, etc).  As long as women (and girls) were "free" to "express" their sexuality with no consequences, the world was becoming a better place (I know I can see it).

Within this context, I guess I have a hard time understanding what the fuss is all about.  Of course I think it's sick that little girls are encouraged to dress like tramps and act shamelessly provocative, but that's a sickness that goes way beyond simple "outrage" at toddler pedicures and Disney makeovers.

My favorite part of the article comes at the end, when the author suggests that our girls should be encouraged to embrace a positive sexuality when they are ready.  But what can this culture say about either:  the limits of sexual activity or a positive sexuality?  Again, all you have to do is poke through this very magazine (or their website):  sex is paramount, and it's a no-holds-barred kind of sexuality that this magazine affirms.

With that being the reigning attitude toward sex in this culture, how can we be surprised that young people are becoming sexualized?  Why would we be shocked that young people, seeing our own total preoccupation with our sexual appeal, appetites and preferences, behaviors and problems everywhere around them--why wouldn't they jump right on it, too?  This culture is rooted in self-seeking, selfish, appetitive consumption.  A market economy for a freedom-loving people--we're right where we should be.  How would it be otherwise?  In my mind, greed + autonomy = crazy degenerates.  God bless the USA.

All you women out there who have seen through the allures and deception of this crazy culture:  keep fast to the order that our good God provided for us.  In this matter especially, it is so easy to see the disease, death and destruction that comes from the way of the world.  It is so easy to see the fruits of modesty, chastity, and a properly-ordered sexuality:  happy families, children, respect and dignity between the sexes.  When I look around, all the time I give thanks that he sent me the grace to be converted and to embrace his vision of sexuality.  May he bring all of our hearts to conversion!