Monday, April 12, 2010

Anyone besides me think this is icky? Or just hypocritical?

I've been seeing the name Justin Bieber all over the place recently. Finally, another insipid teenager to supplant the ever-present Taylor Swift in the American psyche. Apparently this kid is 16 and was on Saturday Night Live this weekend in a skit with Tina Fey in which she's a schoolteacher and she's fantasizing about the adorable boy in her class, the excuse being that she's sad, boring and lonely and he's just so adorable and cute.


"I don't know if I want to marry you, or push you around in a stroller."


I think if the teacher in the skit had been male and the student female, it would have been an outrage-- am I right about that? Remember the whole Mary Kay LeTourneau thing? Who is actually warped, here? Or is this actually funny because the opposite sterotype (Lolita type scenario) is such a hackneyed cliche? Or is this just using humour to work out an idea that is awkward and still very much present though unspoken?

I just think in a sauce-for-the-goose world, then if it's not funny in one context, it's not funny in another. Also, in an age in which we've seen another overly-sexualized teen (thank you, Britney) come to adulthood to crash&burn rather publicly, isn't it a little grotesque to play out a tableau in which the child is the sexual agressor?

Or, if you are a flaming liberal, then it's okay for you to invoke the unmentionable. Throw in a literary reference and it's all okay, just like that old man in that famous book by Nabokov.

Come to think of it, don't stand so close to me.

15 comments:

Roscoe said...

I watched the whole SNL episode. The creepy 30-something woman/boy theme was repeated several times throughout the episode.

I definitely think that they were finding humor in a disturbing, unspoken trend. Several single Gen-X/Y women I know seem to have an unhealthy interest in underage males, and an ex-SO confessed to losing her virginity at 21 to a 15 year-old boy.

(And she couldn't deal with *my* fairly vanilla kinks.)

Of course, I live in Tampa, which seems to be a hotbed (no pun intended) for this kind of thing. Our State Attorney is a "tough on crime" guy ... unless you're a pretty, female child molester (let's call it what it is) with family money for the best attorneys in town.

Roscoe said...

BTW, Mrs. Roscoe and I both think Tina Fey is a closeted conservative and McCain/Palin voter.

Jon said...

Definitely a double standard. I guess young men are supposed to accept predators, since they're supposed to like sex with anything that is slower than their right hand.

Kris, in New England said...

Came here thru Buck at Exile in Portales. Great site! :-)

And I agree - it's a very dangerous double standard being applied. It's grotesque in either depiction.

Old NFO said...

Double standard at best... the other comments I won't make here, cause I'd use too many 4 letter words...

Glenn Mark Cassel said...

AS Old NFO says. And he is seldom wrong about things.
Got here from your comments at Buck's, like Kris, in New England.
Good read on this one.

Gordon Scott said...

Remember the Pepsi commercial featuring Britney Spears dancing and singing, and ending with Bob Dole telling his dog to calm down?

Christina RN LMT said...

Definitely a double standard, Phlegm. A disgusting one.

SordidPanda said...

HumbertHumbert knew what would happen to him if his relationship with Lolita was found out.

He knew it was wrong, knew that HE was wrong, but went ahead and did what he did anywyas.

Nothing funny about it.

ZerCool said...

I'll draw the obvious connection... which news story are you hearing more of, the 20- or 30-something female teacher bedding a high school boy (or even junior high in a few cases), or the male teacher molesting a female student?

And why is the female simply "sleeping with" while the male is "molesting"?

Yes, it's a hideous double standard.

Timmeehh said...

Yes, it's a double standard, but guess what? Most things to do with sex are.

Jon said :
"they're supposed to like sex with anything that is slower than their right hand."

Well I remember being a 15 year old boy and I can state that for me, Jon's statement is 100% true. I would have loved to have been molested by one of my fairly attractive HS teachers.

In fact this was a subject of much discussion between me and my friends, and we all agreed that it would have been great.

People who think a teenage boy can be "raped" by a woman, just don't have a clue about teenage boys. Its probably the ultimate boys' fantasy!

Of course its a well known fact that Americans are more puritanical and sexually repressed than us godless Kanuckis. ;)

Fudgie Ghost said...

"Come to think of it, don't stand so close to me."

Phlegm: With every breath you take, I can see what you did there.

Jay H said...

Yes, it is a double standard. It is there because boys and girls are different.

phlegmfatale said...

Roscoe - Maybe the question is what an older person finds enchanting about intimacy with someone so much their junior. Maybe they're just pretty. Maybe there's the blush of the promise of life yet to be lived. Maybe some women find them less threatening than a fully realized man...? In any case, not my cup of teen. Interesting idea about Tina Fey, but it's hard for me to believe...

Jon - well... that theory has been bandied about...

Kris - Thanks!

Old NFO - you can tell me in person next time we meet

Old Retired Petty Officer - I know him to be spot-on. I'm honored you stopped by, Sir.

Gordon - No - didnt' see that one, but I'm creeped out by the thought of that, too. Ew.

Christina - If the boy were my son, I'd be breaking my foot off in that teacher's arse.

AM - Nope - not funny.

ZerCool - Good points, clearly. People need to control themselves.

Timmeehh - I didn't say it was rape, and I also didn't say that teenagers are non-sexual. I did say that represented in adult situations in which they are overly-sexualized is icky. It's one thing for kids to get up to mischief together, but for adults to participate in such shenanigans is disturbing, actually. Children in a classroom are not there for the sexual edification of the teachers any more than interns are in the White House to be used as one would a Kleenex.

Paul - Hyuk. You're onto me.

Shannon said...

Icky...yes. Any woman that is a mother should see every young boy as she sees her son - impressionable. I am in the process of watching my older boy go through 'the change' - ogling women's bodies, trying to catch a glimpse of any boob possible on TV...to think that an older woman might somehow take advantage of that natural curiosity in order to satisfy herself just pisses me off. Of course the young man is going to be thrilled - they are sexually driven...that doesn't make it right though. My husband dated a 26 year old woman when he was 13 - he's proud of it...and I suppose he has reason to be..but me, all I can wonder is what the hell was wrong with her??