Dear Friend and Reader,<\/p>\n
I\u0412\u00a0WANT TO\u0412\u00a0start this with a little cartoon from Scott Bateman<\/a> at Salon.com. The audio was taken from the actual commentary at CBS’ Early Show.\u0412\u00a0Since\u0412\u00a01998 it seems serious TV journalism left the building and was replaced with the obsession\u0412\u00a0for\u0412\u00a0gossip as news. Now most folks are addicted to news as junk.\u0412\u00a0 As you can see in the cartoon above, even morning news talk shows are no exception.<\/p>\n In the days passing the election, we find no let up with\u0412\u00a0the latest media obsession: the Obama daughters Sasha and Malia. To be honest, as\u0412\u00a0compelling as it is because those kids are cute, the media thrall with\u0412\u00a0the two little girls\u0412\u00a0soon to occupy the White House creeps me out.<\/p>\n Hoping to cash in the national focus on this historic election and candidate, Disney Channel’s “Hannah Montana Show” — a favorite show of the Obama girls, offered them a cameo spot in a new “Hannah” episode. In turning down\u0412\u00a0Disney’s\u0412\u00a0offer, President-elect Obama said, “Generally, what makes them so charming is the fact that they’re not spending a lot of time worrying about TV cameras or politics, and we want to keep it that way.”<\/p>\n Now\u0412\u00a0for those who believe that the\u0412\u00a0media focus on the Obama children\u0412\u00a0is the price for the Senator’s\u0412\u00a0choice to run, I have this to say:\u0412\u00a0Amy Carter did not have as relentless a media\u0412\u00a0lens on her as Chelsea Clinton did (nor for that matter the rude and insulting remarks from the conservative right). Jenna and\u0412\u00a0Barbara Bush were ushered out of the media spotlight whenever possible. The choice was and is their family’s, and it appears the Obama family\u0412\u00a0are having none of the silly parade. In keeping with the serious nature of the times, as Batemen says, mindless chattering about the Obama girls in the middle of an economic crisis is just not appropriate.<\/p>\n The life of a public figure is not\u0412\u00a0their\u0412\u00a0own and in this age of You Tube, that aspect is amplified by millions of clicks per day, particularly for America’s first African-American and web-savvy President. The Obama girls are perfect junk-news\u0412\u00a0fodder on a slow-news day\u0412\u00a0as witnessed in the Salon cartoon. Its going to take every hand on deck to provide these kids, as Barack and Michelle put it Sunday on 60 Minutes, a sense of “normalcy” in their soon to be fishbowl lives.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When President-Elect Obama\u0412\u00a0begins office\u0412\u00a0next year\u0412\u00a0Malia and Sasha\u0412\u00a0will be turning eleven and eight, respectively. At eleven, a young girl’s sense of self accelerates and transforms. As discussed about Mary Pipher’s book\u0412\u00a0“Reviving Ophelia”:<\/p>\n …(Think of) adolescent girls as fragile young trees swaying in the onslaught of an ominous storm or hurricane…The storm threatening the girls represents the weight of popular culture as it tries to force them to become less than their true selves. The girls’ families are the root systems that will either hold the girls steady or contribute to their decay. Parents represent the girls’ shelter from the storm.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In spite of what their parents will do and be, these girls will not only observe but also be\u0412\u00a0part of popular culture, whether they choose to participate in one media aspect of it or another. Michelle Obama as First Lady and “Mom-in-Chief” is going to have her hands full. I have no doubt she\u0412\u00a0will be quite up to the task of protecting the personhood\u0412\u00a0of her two daughters, and hopefully model this not only for her family but for others.\u0412\u00a0\u0412\u00a0Her upbringing as a member of a struggling, close-knit black family in the south side of Chicago is a formidable grounding force. Michelle’s own mother Marion Robinson will be helping to share in the child-raising, more than likely living at the White House.\u0412\u00a0Given what\u0412\u00a0the President-elect will\u0412\u00a0have to do and the immense pressure he’ll be under, they’re all going to need each other. Our Shanna Philipson puts it this way:<\/p>\n What makes Michelle perfect for this role (of First Lady)\u0412\u00a0is that Capricorns are typically measured about their actions and well aware of the public’s perception of them, so she’ll really grok the role of her girls as ambassadors of America’s youth. She will expect much from them, but I think there’s real warmth in there, too. Saturn suggests the primary lesson of a successful adulthood; it’s a threshold to the grand lessons of life. Saturn in her second house suggests she may have not had much growing up, materially, but she certainly knows the value of what’s enduring now…She may not give a lot emotionally, but what she gives ain’t junk.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Though intensified by the significance and demands of his new office,\u0412\u00a0the Obamas’ concern\u0412\u00a0to retain the wholesomeness of their\u0412\u00a0daughters is the\u0412\u00a0same for most parents everywhere: Popular culture, marketing and media all play a hand in how we regard women of all ages.\u0412\u00a0Little girls are barraged on a daily basis\u0412\u00a0with messages to grow up fast,\u0412\u00a0act spoiled, silly and unreal like the Disney character Miley Cyrus portrays, are\u0412\u00a0weighted down by the overemphasis on the physical ideal,\u0412\u00a0and often sexualized in appearance\u0412\u00a0before their time.\u0412\u00a0What is taught to our little girls about being\u0412\u00a0their own person?\u0412\u00a0How are we encouraging\u0412\u00a0our young girls\u0412\u00a0to explore and revel in their own personhood without some need to please someone, act inauthentically or feel shame?<\/p>\n I ask\u0412\u00a0those of us here\u0412\u00a0who are parents about the difficulties faced in\u0412\u00a0keeping the souls and selves of our daughters intact.\u0412\u00a0What are\/were your pressures as parents; what hurt your efforts; what helps; what needs to change? In these thoughts, we capture not only the dilemma that the Obamas, another American family, faces with their children. We’re\u0412\u00a0facing how\u0412\u00a0to unravel ourselves\u0412\u00a0from concepts and influences\u0412\u00a0that trivialize and subjugate our young girls and boys\u0412\u00a0before their minds and spirits\u0412\u00a0have a chance to even discern what’s happening to them. Maybe when Pluto enters Capricorn, some sobriety can re-enter the national dialogue and we won’t be assaulted, at least\u0412\u00a0on that front\u0412\u00a0by the media parade of mindlessness that passes for news, information\u0412\u00a0or entertainment.\u0412\u00a0<\/p>\n We have a lot to do.<\/p>\n Yours and truly,<\/p>\n Fe Bongolan from San Francisco<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Friend and Reader, I\u0412\u00a0WANT TO\u0412\u00a0start this with a little cartoon from Scott Bateman at Salon.com. The audio was taken from the actual commentary at CBS’ Early Show.\u0412\u00a0Since\u0412\u00a01998 it seems serious TV journalism left the building and was replaced with the obsession\u0412\u00a0for\u0412\u00a0gossip as news. Now most folks are addicted to news as junk.\u0412\u00a0 As you … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1,601],"tags":[36,297,1788,598,52,600,599],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}