Teen Vogue

What sort of propaganda digital fish wrapper is Teen Vogue? Just google any topic on race or income, throw in the term "Teen Vogue" and you'll find the most ridiculous anti-American, anti-White, condescending toward blacks drivel you can imagine in woke rich white kid reading material. "Confront other white people," "Lecture your parents about. . . " "SAT is mired in racism," "Racism and patriotism go together," "Patriotic anthems are racist," and "How beauty brands profit off racism." Oh please. I'm surprised the editors aren't calling blacks darkies and colored. Who owns this racialist propaganda mill that's preparing teeny-boppers for college?

So I looked it up. The print edition died with December 2017 and Hillary Clinton was on the cover! Now there's a shocker. It's published by Conde Nast, but is now only on-line. Advance Publications owned by the Newhouse family owns Conde Nast, which used to be known for its classy publications but is now just one more media SJW.

Oh yes, it will also tell your teen how to get an abortion.

Wildhood

I am offered a lot of books to review, and occasionally I accept. If you've been baffled by adolescent behavior--your pupils, your kids, your grandchildren, or even your own if you can remember that far back, this is the book that explains it, and why it's probably necessary. "Wildhood; the epic journey from adolescence to adulthood in humans and other animals," by Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers (Scribner, 2019). I'm assuming that Barbara is the scientist and Kathryn the word magician, because it's both very learned, and easy to read.

Using the lives of four animals, Ursula the penguin, Shrink the hyena, Salt a humpback whale, and Slavc a wolf (plus dozens of examples of other animal species--salmon, bats, gazelles, seals, etc.) they provide a look at everything you see in teenagers from status, to anxiety, to bullying, to risk taking, to privilege to sexual coercion. Is your son living in your basement? If animal parents were that protective, the species wouldn't survive.

"Animals will suffer pain, forgo food, give up sex, and betray others just to ensure they've not left out or driven from a group. You might say that for social animals, status is like gravity. It's powerful and inescapable. It's invisible. It exerts an omnipresent force, and it molds how a creature moves through the world and behaves around others." p. 97

Now, doesn't that sound just like junior high school?

3865

Are you serving alcohol to underage drinkers?

About a month ago there was a big hoop-la in our community because a limousine driver reported to school officials that his passengers on the way to the Upper Arlington prom in the Arena District had alcohol. About 10 other limos were searched and 125 kids didn't get into the prom that night, even those who didn't know there was alcohol in the vehicles. Some parents were furious; some kids were heart broken.

And where are you on this? Are you serving alcohol to kids? The parents of the guilty, or older friends of the teens, obviously purchased it. If you own stock in any alcohol related industries, you too are serving children. An article published in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine (2006;160:473-478) reports that the short-term cash value of underage drinking to the alcohol industry was $22.5 billion in 2001--17.5% of total consumer expenditures for alcohol. Well-designed public service announcements about "responsible" drinking are a drop in the ocean of booz. But the study didn't stop with that. It went on to figure the consumer expenditures for underage drinkers to maintain their consumption as adult drinkers with abuse and dependency, which equaled at least $25.8 billion in 2001. Teen age brains are still forming and alcohol and cigarettes consumed before adulthood have much more serious consequences for addictions and health. If you can get to 21 without starting, you probably won't have a problem and will be responsible.

So, the combined value of illegal underage drinking and adult pathological drinking to the industry was at least $48.3 billion, or 37.5% of consumer expenditures for alcolhol in 2001. Some estimates mentioned in the study place it even higher than that, at $62.9 billion and 48.8% of consumer expenditures.

If any business were to lose over 17% of its consumers' purchases, it would be hurting. But how much are they, and stockholders, hurting us? The alcohol industry needs to cultivate the underage drinker in order to be profitable, and no amount of chit-chat or sweet talk about "responsibility" is going to change that. But you don't have to participate in this fairy tale--just get it out of your portfolio. Just say No to alcohol profits.

The abstract of this article appeared in JAMA, July 26, 2006, Vol. 296, no. 4, p. 373.

3300 Hannah Montana

Until I read someone's Thursday Thirteen yesterday whose daughter wanted a Hannah Montana (doll?) I'd never heard of this Disney character. Sort of out of my range of interests. But today the WSJ mentioned that the album for this 14 year old sold 1.6 million copies in 2 months. It is marketed to 8-12 year olds.
The Disney plot: a young teen moves from Tennessee to Malibu and moonlights as a rock star (undercover, I think) managed by her dad. In real life Miley Cyrus, who plays Hannah, and her TV dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, are in fact, father and daughter. Why would any dad in his right mind want his 14 year old dressing like a hooker--and encouraging your 8 year old to want those clothes?

Hannah Montana
teen fashion
Billy Ray Cyrus