Let's Talk About it....

Sex sells. Most of us Christian mamas try to butt up against this, and do our best to not let our children fall for this value in our society...we hide our kids from magazine covers, dvr "wholesome" shows and skip commercials, try our best to instill modesty and purity.

Actually, it is something I have battled for my boys for a while. Not hiding what it is, but rebuking what society has crafted it to become. It's crucial for my young soon-to-be men to learn how to set up a discretionary guard in their minds against false perversions that will cause them to stumble later on.

While sex sells, sex is also powerful when used for the right reasons AND the wrong. Song of Solomon in the Bible is a great illustration of God's beautiful plan for sex in marriage. It's not dirty, but a gift for a man and a wife. It's pleasure in its purest form. And it's a big dose of power for the marriage relationship. But, somewhere along the path of humanity...and I am talking about way, way, way toward the beginning (think of Abraham, David...) the gift became a weapon.

I always thought discarding the weapon facade as a game of peek-a-boo, keeping my children's eyes covered to preserve their innocence of society's corrupt view. And in a way, it still is. But now that I have a daughter, I realize that it's not just preserving innocence, but it's a matter of shaping my children's self-image, too.

So, I will confess, I think the movie Pitch Perfect is pretty fun! Yeah, at first I was a little stunned by the raunchiness at parts, but really, the music and the idea of singing competition is right up my alley. LOVE to watch the performances! My boys love that kind of stuff too, so I scene-selected the guys' performance at the end. It is catchy, well-done, and pretty much rated, "PG". When my boys asked to see the girls' performance, I hesitated. I thought back on the performance...which really is my favorite part...and realized there is NO WAY I could let them watch it. These are boys who've already noticed women dressed inappropriately, who've already begun to form opinions of women as creatures of beauty and worth, NOT objects and inferiors. I turned off the DVD player and walked away with a whole new perspective, though.

Sex sells...for women. In a culture screaming women's lib, is the power behind today's woman, sex? Seriously, the guys' clean performance was GREAT, but the women's performance was the winner...and it dripped with suggestiveness. I have been processing all this in my mind, and realize that not only do we have to protect our children from the images, but our children will find the messages will contort their very self-worth.

Our boys will think of women as objects if women think what they do with their bodies is power.
And our girls, oh our girls, they will buy into "sex sells", and think they must flaunt it, give it away, and use it to gain control. When really, they are losing control of what matters most...their true worth.

It's not just men who are treating women as sex objects, but women have bought into it as well, and have subjected themselves to embracing the weapon as their own.

The only way I know how to reject this notion creeping into the hearts of my children, is to continue to pour in the Truth, continue to teach them how to treat others and themselves, and to remind them that power is only found in One place, through One Perfect Son who cares nothing for the world's show, but only about their hearts' performance.