Of all the things I really, really, really . . . really do not like about blogging, probably my hugest, biggest pet-peeve is when commenters pick up some point that is not at issue and start to discuss it. Not just here. Anywhere. Even if the point addressed by the commenters is important, it just drives me nuts that people focus on non-essentials, trivialities, side-issues, what have you - and start discussing something that is not the point.
Yesterday, for example, I thought I'd run with something that would provoke a response. It did, but the discussion was on a side issue. Indeed, a side issue that was denied any serious reality by the author quoted at length in the piece, Jessica Valenti.
Simply put - I agreed with Ms. Valenti that conservative ballyhooing of non-existent "hookup culture" and its concomitants, including inappropriate clothing for younger girls, was nothing more or less than more of the same, viz., blaming all those horrible female types for our moral lapses. All women are Eve redevivus, and we even get them started by tarting them up as pre-teens! Except, of course, we don't.
I made the even more outrageous claim that the antics of young adults attempting to attract one another for an evening of carnal togetherness was really nothing to get all worried about. I made the even even more outrageous claim that, as a Christian, I really don't worry about it all that much. Christianity isn't about being a moral scold; being a Christian isn't about telling people how to live their lives; being a Christian isn't about sex, really, at all. We have bigger fish to fry than fretting over young people behaving as young people usually do.
None of that attracted attention. Even the fact that, as a parent of two girls, including an alleged target of all this hooker-like clothing, I've yet to actually encounter it, either in the clothes she wears, her friends and classmates wear, or in the young people in general who attend our church, our local schools, or whatnot. Call me crazy, but this is something I have actual experience with!
More to the point, the issue isn't clothing for teens and even pre-teens that would make Pamela Anderson blush. The point is that carrying on about this is part of a broader campaign aimed at stripping women of their full humanity, including their sexuality. There is no such thing as hookup culture; there is no nefarious design plot to tart up our young ladies. The entire thing is a crock. Focusing on one aspect - also a crock - detracts from the main issue.
Focus, people!
