Just one of the popular college t-shirts that Abercrombie and Fitch is trying to sell, or is selling to your college daughters.
I’m not as surprised by these stories as I am by the fact that these topics are coming up at the same time, and more and more people are talking about them.
Just this last week I was asked my thoughts regarding the UCSD student porn movie, of which I responded at lenght on Friday, November 4th.
But within a day and half I come across this article which is quite disturbing.
Sex at School Increasing, Some Educators Say
The most telling quotes from this article:
this….
Perhaps the most shocking thing about students having sex in a high school auditorium was that other students didn’t find it very shocking at all.
and this….
A 16-year-old who said she is friends with one of the girls at Osbourn who was suspended said the episode wasn’t surprising. “It wasn’t that big of a deal,” she said.
and this….
Miller, the T.C. Williams graduate, said she didn’t understand why adults were so shocked. “Our parents are the ones who had the sexual revolution, so why are they surprised?”
Then I came across this story which doesn’t seem to give parents very many rights when it comes to their children’s exposure to sex-ed.
‘Sex Survey’ Superintendent Criticizes Parents’ Motives
And then I came across this article Student ‘girlcott’ protests Abercrombie t-shirts,which seems that some girls are actually wanting to make a difference about what is going on. Either parents are totally unaware of what type of t-shirts some of their kids are buying, or they are totally cool with the message that is being sent. If you are a parent, do you think that the t-shirt below is a good message for your daughter to be wearing? And if you are a girl wearing this shirt, then I don’t know what to say, because you obviously have a certain message and image that you are wanting to portray. It’s a good example of the casualness of sex in popular pop culture. Where in the past, a girl would pack on 15 pounds during her freshman year, instead she is apparently sleeping with just as many partners.
Abercrombie and Fitch’s “Freshman 15” college t-shirt for girls
There is enough stuff here to probably end up thinking the world is falling apart. And so next week, I am going to spend my week writing about all the amazing stuff college students are doing, because I work with amazing students all the time, and they are going to be the ones that I believe will some day change the world in amazing ways. I love working with college students, and there is no other group I would love to work with more than them.
But if you are a parent, and you aren’t aware of what is going on, and you haven’t talked to your student about some of these tough issues, then I think now might be a good time. I’m not a parent yet, so I have no great wisdom on this issue, but I do deal with students everyday who come to me with questions and thoughts and situations that were never addressed at home. And I end up finding out that a lot of stuff might have been prevented if a tough topic could have been talked about in the home. But instead, a lot of students are having to get answers in a culture and environment that is probably going to answer them in many ways that you would not like as their parent.
