Jessica Simpson’s recent Elle Magazine cover hasn’t drawn near the outrage its more famous predecessor did. In 1991 actress Demi Moore posed for the cover of Vanity Fair naked – and pregnant – creating a hailstorm of controversy, with some retailers refusing to sell the issue or selling it in a brown paper bag.
Jessica Simpson posed the EXACT same way…yet there has been hardly the same amount of outrage that Vanity Fair, Moore and photographer, Annie Leibovitz, faced twenty years ago.
No one is blinking an eye about Simpson’s cover. Rather, people are “celebrating” her “brave decision” to pose pregnant and nude.
Um, what?
What exactly does that say about society? Have we grown more tolerant? Or, have we simply grown immune to anything shocking?
When Moore posed, she was married to actor Bruce Willis, and expecting her second child. Simpson is unmarried, though engaged, after a very public breakup with husband and Newlyweds costar Nick Lachey.
I’m by no means advocating for pitchforks and boycotting. All I’m saying is that, as a society, maybe we should be more careful of who we’re celebrating as role models for young women, regardless of how famous a celebrity is.
With recent epidemics of unmarried mothers having babies and the popularity of shows like 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom, it’s probably not the best plan to commend Jessica Simpson for her choices. It sets a bad precedent, and coupled with Teen Mom, it sends the wrong message to young girls.
How do I know this? Girls are trying to get pregnant just so they can be on MTV.
And then there’s Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi.
The star of MTV’s Jersey Shore recently announced her pregnancy. Her reaction?
“I’m only 24 so it happened kind of quick, but it’s better because now I can be a MILF.”
Another gem?
“Pregnancy sickness is just like you’re hungover.”
Besides Snooki’s words of wisdom on pregnancy, the world has also reacted, but probably not like one would imagine. Instead of concern for a child being brought into the world, the public is more anxious to know what her pregnancy means for Jersey Shore.
But perhaps the strangest reactions to Snooki’s pregnancy were found on Twitter. Buzzfeed compiled a list of the best ones. My personal favorite?
You can’t make this stuff up.
I’m not trying to set women back to the barefoot and pregnant days, but there needs to be a happy medium. Children should be blessings and we should encourage responsible parenthood.
When Snooki claims she’s excited about being a mother so she can be a “MILF,” it screams she is not ready to be a parent. When young people are tweeting at her about what a fantastic mother she’s going to make, you have to wonder what young people actually understand about parenthood.
Maybe we are just immune to shock value. When a magazine cover that twenty years ago would have been sold in a brown paper bag is now being celebrated as a “brave move” and when a girl famous for a drunk and disorderly conduct arrest is being told she’s going to be the most amazing mother EVER, we’ve become a society where there are very few taboos and very few lines that shouldn’t be crossed. I don’t know how productive that is and what kind of message that sends to young people.
“Conservative” has become a dirty word and we’re told progressive values are those that are now admired. We all remember how Carrie Prejean was attacked viciously by the Left after asserting her traditional views on marriage. We shouldn’t be afraid to say something is wrong if it is wrong and we shouldn’t feel that we’ll be attacked for being traditional and having conservative values.
