Sexuality and sexual activity is something to be enjoyed and embraced. A bonding experience. A fun activity or a loving way of growing closer to the one you love. More importantly, sexuilization and “raunchiness” is something that is no ones buisness but your own as long as it is safe sane and consensual.(and legal of course) If you don’t like it, don’t look. If you don’t want your children to see it, don’t let them look. Sex is a natural and beutifull thing. I find hate, materialism, bigotry and violence much more offensive, they should focus on some of these things.

Sure, sex is a natural thing, but I’m not so sure it is always beautiful, and I think that’s the point of this post. It can be a beautiful thing, but, like many things in our lives, it can lead to problems and have negative consequences. I’m all for protecting girls and boys from exploitative sexual messages and images. And as a father of a young girl, I’m particularly worried about her deriving too much of her sense of self-worth from her appearance and ability to be sexually attractive to others.

I believe it is far too simple to say sex is natural and beautiful. By that selective logic, I can argue that materialism is natural and beautiful; afterall, we all need material goods to eat, wear, use as tools, etc. Wonderful parts of being human. I assume you mean that, taken too far, reliance on and striving for material goods is bad. And likewise over-stressing sex, as our society does, is not psychologically healthy, in my view.

I think it’s just so hard to put the jack back in the box – now that the “raunch” is out there and there’s so much saturation, I just can’t believe that people, generally, are going to voluntarily scale it back for the good of kids or otherwise. So no matter how I feel about it, I think the only things I can do are going to be careful discussion and criticism and building media literacy in my children, both personally, and in encouraging and supporting similar efforts on the part of educators.

I like what Tina Fey said in Vogue awhile ago: “I am a post-baby boomer who has been handed a sort of Spice Girls’ version of feminism. We’re supposed to be wearing half-shirts and jumping around. And, you know, maybe that’s not panning out.”
I have always been puzzled by women who make a big deal about their sexuality and “sexiness” as if it is somehow empowering (Madonna, Britney, etc.) Sex and sensuality is by nature intimate, and young girls gain nothing by making themselves a public sexual spectacle. I personally think overly sexy girls and women appear to be compensating for something.
I think maintaining your mystery in public and satisfying that special someone is far more empowering, and that is what I will teach my daughters.

Raunch is completely undermining the value of women. I think that it’s about time feminists join with conservatives to change the way that young girls view themselves and sex. Why do we need to have porn, raunchy magazine ads, and tv shows everywhere? We don’t. We can get that stuff on our own and it doesn’t need to be out in society where any 8 year old is exposed to it.

The solution: dilligent adherence to standards. If YOU don’t except raunch in YOUR house, and I don’t except raunch in MY house we are on our way to changing the culture. There have been periods in history with looser morals than we currently have, and there have been times with more restrictive morals. One must then conclude, this is not a one way street (although I sympathize with you that it can feel that way). Expect better of your children, yourselves, and society at large.