What's Up With Justin Bieber?

I am not a fan of Justin Bieber. I am a couple of generations too late for Bieber fan-dom (or is that beliebers?). Now, that said, young Will is a big fan. Whenever Justin Bieber's song "Baby" comes on the TV or the radio or even over the loud speaker system at the mall, he drops everything he is doing and starts bopping away. Is bopping away what almost two-year-olds do?

Anyways, I have noticed that young Mr. Bieber's dance moves have taken on that Michael Jackson-esque crotch-grabbing routine. The photographic evidence would seem to prove that he has a rather frequent need to check that the goods are still there, his boxers are not sitting right, or he has a nasty little "itch" that needs some pretty frequent scratching.

The sad part is that Bieber is still a boy and a role-model of sorts. I am not sure how much of a role model he is to Will, but judging by the number of fans he has, and assuming that they are not all young girls, then there are a few young boys out there that are fans too. So, is the constant crotch-grabbing an image that he needs to promote?

On a slightly different tack. The Justin Bieber story is a real lesson on how to cultivate world-wide appeal and stardom by taking a most unorthodox, at least in my view, through the use of modern technology and social networking. In that sense it is all kudos to the young man and his team of handlers.

I wonder if the crotch-grabbing thing is that Miley Cyrus / Taylor Momsen thing of being a child and trying to cultivate a more adult contemporary image?

Ho hum...

The Birds & The Bees...

Life used to be so much more simple when the conversation was really only about when to have that "talk". You know, the one about the birds and the bees. However, the conversation is no longer a conversation hut a fully-fledged debate, and perhaps rightly so. There has been an increasing trend, courtesy of the internet, for our children and their youth to be tested by the bounds of what is 'right'.

Some of the more interesting debate centres on child stars as they grow into adulthood and begin testing the waters with respect to finding themselves, finding an identity that they are comfortable with, and moving from the relative safety to the less safe world of being an adult. This is exacerbated by the youngsters themselves when they avail themselves of the technology at their disposal and post pictures of themselves. Miley Cyrus as the childhood sweetheart of the Hannah Montana series is a prime example of this need to adult-me-up crossover from childhood star to wanna-be taken seriously adult.

Another 17-year-old looking to have a much more adult image of late is Taylor Momsen.  Her recent appearance on the cover of Revolver magazine is tribute to that desire to ratchet-up to the next level the desire to be an adult.

As I was looking for some images that were tame enough to attach to this post, it struck me that once an image is posted to the internet then it forever remains "out there".

I guess the point of this post is really to ponder why there is a need to sexualise our children through the media, how we should deal with it as a community when these youngsters bring it on themselves by posting pictures of themselves, and should this topic be addressed in schools as a means of trying to prevent the most negative outcomes of what seems to be out of control at the moment?

Miley Cyrus + Hannah Montana

The controversy surrounding the photographing of teenagers in provocative poses has raised its ugly head again in relation to pictures of Miley Cyrus of Hannah Montana fame. By all accounts the shots in question are part of a shoot conducted by Annie Liebowitz and involved the whole Cyrus family. The head of the Cyrus family being one Billy Ray, the once famous Achy Breaky Heart guy!

By all accounts the whole process was warm and fuzzy and presumably nothing out of the ordinary occurred. The fact that the photos are to be (or already have been) published in Vanity Fair suggests that the Cyrus family is happy with the shots and happy for them to be published. Any one who knows anything about Vanity Fair knows that it is no stranger to controversy or provocative covers and photos.

The photo above is from the series of shots taken by Liebowitz. My personal opinion is that it is not provocative and knowing that she is 15 does not change my mind on that. I really do not like the photo because of the composition of it. Let's face it most people would look at this photo and their first thoughts before any consideration of provocativeness is that the subject of the photo looks a little washed out, an almost deathly paleness about her.

Yet, my take is that if her parents are happy for her to be portrayed in this way then so be it. The photograph is not pornographic and it is not sexually explicit! Is it exploitative? Perhaps it is but perhaps this was a conscious decision on the part of the Cyrus family and was about "growing up" her image. Whether this is the right image to portray is a different debate.

Nevertheless, the images have proven to be provocative as they have provoked much debate about the pros and cons of such photographs.