sex and the media

It’s bathing suit season, and according to the new TV commercials for Schick Quattro TrimStyle, it’s the time when millions of women trim the hedges and mow the lawn. Their new product which combines a razor on one end and a pubic hair trimmer on the other has been the talk of the advertising world, because of the ad’s clever use of bushes. It takes a few seconds for most people to see the connection to pubic hair, but when you get it, it’s bound to evoke either a laugh, some degree of shock, or even anger if you find it sexist. You can use these ads to talk with your partner about your grooming preferences. Millions of women prefer to go au naturale, and that’s totally fine. Don’t be pressured to wax it all off a la the characters from Sex and the City… and porn… and the creepy hairless pussy cat at the end of the “Mow the Lawn” commercial below. Many people prefer tidy or creative pubic hair styles, even if you can’t get it quite as perfect as the Edward Scissorhands hedges in these ads.  It’s your personal choice, and a decision you can make with your partner. Watch the ads together to talk about how you like your bushes. 

In several recent articles about Michael Jackson, it has been said that he had no sex appeal; or he was asexual; or people all thought he was gay; or his fans never found him sexy. Well, that’s not so. In 1992, I conducted a survey asking people which celebrities they would most want to have sex with. Michael Jackson was at the top of the list!

Michael Jackson certainly had sex appeal, but only for a limited time. Not in the Jackson Five days,  and not after the child molestation charges. During the years in between he had fans who found him very sexy. When I conducted my survey, the Dangerous album was red hot, including “Black or White” — one year before the first child sexual molestation charges. What made MJ sexy? I doubt it was his signature crotch grab or shirtless Herb Ritts photos. Rather it was his dance moves, rhythm, dedication, and creativity. All very sexy qualities. Surely as his life progressed (and his face morphed, his relationships were presented as more unusual, and he revealed that he slept in bed with other people’s children) any trace of his sexiness faded.  However, as we’ve seen over the past few days, there are still millions of people who remember – and love – the sexy Michael of years past.

Last week on CNN HLN with Mike Galanos, I discussed Carlie Beck, the 20 year old cheerleading coach who was fired from Casa Roble High School in Orangevale, California, after it was revealed that she posed nude for Playboy’s website as a “Playboy Cyber Girl of the Week.” Well, now she’s moving up. It was just announced that she will be “Playboy Cyber Girl of the Month for June.”

On CNN HLN, I discussed both sides of the issue of her firing. Carlie has every right to pose nude, if that’s what she wants to do. She seemingly tried to separate her high school coaching from her nude modeling, since she used a different last name to pose — Carlie Christine — and the nude pictures are only available with a credit card. On the other hand, teens must be taught to not pose for risqué or nude photos, and that anything they put online can have serious consequences. So, their cheerleading coach obviously was sending the wrong message to her cheerleaders. Also, since one of the cheerleaders knew about the pictures and told the principal, then Carlie must have told that cheerleader about it. It is highly unlike that one of her students would have just happened onto the photos, because they were posted on an interior page of the site amid dozens of 1 inch square images of other nude women.  So if Carlie told the students where to look that would have been inappropriate.  

The moral of the story, however, is not about whether her firing was right or wrong. It’s that the firing made her “famous.” Instead of illustrating how nude pictures can hurt someone’s life, now Carlie gets exactly what she wants. She wanted to be a well-known model, which is why she posed nude. If she hadn’t been fired, then no one would have noticed her nude pictures in the sea of other pictorials of attractive nude 20 year olds. Now she’ll be the girl of the month, instead of just the girl of the week. All her dreams are coming true, thanks to the scorned cheerleader who precipitated her firing.  If she gets her way, then by next year, she may even get into the actual Playboy magazine! Maybe she’ll aim even higher and strive to be the next “Girl Next Door,” and move in with Hef. Wonder what message that would give the girls she used to coach.

I co-hosted an episode of the nationally syndicated TV show THE DOCTORS with three other women: the hilarious comedienne Margaret Cho, Dr. Jennifer Berman, and Dr. Lisa Masterson (the show’s regular co-host). The topic of the show is The Vagina. This goofy promo for “The Vagina Show” is on You Tube, and an excerpt of the promo was even on E!’s The Soup and on the Style channel’s The Dish. However, the show has not yet aired. I’ve been getting e-mails asking me if I know when it will air, since it did not air as scheduled… Sorry, but I have no news about it. I’ll keep you posted if I find out the airdate.  

(Note: To give you the context for my line in the You Tube clip: What I had actually said on the show was that a study from New Zealand found that women prefer uncircumcised penises, but here in the US most women prefer them circumcised.) 

There’s another story in the news about teens’ sexting nude pictures. This time, however, the teens are being charged with child porn! Read about it here. (For more on sexting, read my December 4th, 6th, 10th, 12th blog posts.) I talked about the story today in my usual spot with Mike Galanos on CNN Headline News. The other guest was former sex crimes prosecutor Wendy Murphy, who was great. A caller told us that she thinks the reason why teen girls send teen nude pictures is because of our oversexed media culture. Her example: Bikini Girl from last night’s American Idol audition. The media is only a part of the story, as I have previously discussed in this blog. Of course, I couldn’t resist going off-topic to address Bikini Girl, and to say: Why didn’t Paula or Kara admonish her, and let her know that it is completely inappropriate to wear a bathing suit to an audition?! Wendy Murphy agreed, and added that it wasn’t only the female judges’ responsibility, Simon and Randy should have chimed in, too.