Yes, so that parents who don't pay enough attention to their children can suffer as they see their kids take after dodgy celebs.

What do you know you know about 17year olds?

...and she models. Tons of people are famous for being famous or having money. Sure it may be sad, but at least she's not a drug addict or alcoholic who everyone else has to work with - something which happens so often in our industry.

Have you ever watched that stupid TV show? Maybe giving her celebrity status is the media's own way of promoting school, because I don't knwo of anyone who'd want to be THAT doff.

They forget about morals. Parents teach your bloody child the right thing

No, we don't think so. But there are those who don't care about what we think at all. They think we're a fundamentalist pressure group, and they call us uptight and tell us to get a life. Of the Paris Hilton kind, presumably. They're the ones who put Paris in Seventeen, because money makes the world go round and if there's one thing they DO know about, it's what to put on the cover for money's sake. If Paris in on Seventeen's cover, you can be sure that she's super cool in the circles she's aimed at (Example: post by Ugly(D)).

But here's an interesting thing: Some girls don't think Paris is that cool at all. Some girls don't even read Seventeen magazine. Almost always, these are girls with their own minds, who respect themselves, think for themselves, and question dogma, including the dictates of fashion and coolth. Objective observation seems to point to something ridiculously obvious - it's all about how kids are raised. Despite popular opinion, it is in fact possible and advisable to shield children from certain influences while they are in the critical first seven to twelve years. No matter what anyone says about children needing to learn about the harsh world which they will have to live in, I believe that a child healthy in mind and body will go on to become an adult capable of knowing, for example, Paris Hilton for what she is (Example: post by nineTEEN year old). Will be able to sift through the mountains of garbage masquerading as information, and draw on her own strength of character in the interpretation of what life really is and what's really important in it.

Girls who grow up with fashion-victim, celebrity-struck, sex-obsessed and eating-disordered mothers and aunts all around them will follow suit. When Cosmo and Heat are your mother's favourite mags, yours will be Seventeen, Paris and all. When your mother's favourite TV show is either Extreme Makeover or Desparate Housewives, you haven't much chance of escaping the vortex.

The war with the media will never be won. It's a mother of a mother revolution that we need here.

Or is it only mothers who are responsible? Daddy's Little Girl is the princess who worries about being perfect and just wants to be liked no matter what. Give the moms a break - the fathers also need to get their arses in gear.

Yes, fathers. Vital to a girl's self esteem etc etc, but the father factor is its own whole encyclopedia and this forum's concerned with role models as popularly depicted. But since we're straying, I was at a braai the other day, and while the fathers were doing their manly fire thing, some were also covertly perving at each other's teenage daughters. I wondered what would happen when they caught on to this - but they didn't. Strangely, they were oblivious to one another's fantasies of other daddies little princesses, and there was no bloodshed that day.
But there are many truly wonderful fathers out there, and it holds good that the best thing a man can do for his children is to love their mother.

Unfortunately, so many things stand in the way of this. For instance, how can a man truly love a woman who does not love herself? And while women are raising girls who idolise Paris Hilton, they are also raising boys who have as little respect for women as women have for themselves. And these kids turn into the men and women of the future... and so on... and so on. The buck has to stop with Mom.

Sorry if it's harsh. No, we can't give moms a break yet.

Fathers have Paris Hilton dreams.

Yeah. Couldn't agree more. Especially if he's the one sneaking into the loo with the latest on any thing to do with Paris, Britney and all the other fallen stars.

do you read seventeen? judging by your piece (which is not, by any means, nonsense, but still...) you don't that often. they actually do focus on some huge and troubling teen issues: sex, drugs, abuse (physical and emotional), alcohol, peer pressure, coping with death and loss, depression, problems with your parents... so, teenagers who read it are not all vacuous, dumb chicks who want to follow the norms. anything but. my little sister reads it. I read it sometimes, to figure out how kids' minds work. and i promise you its not junk, and its not trying to indoctrinate.
as for having Paris on your cover... like it or not, we live in a celebrity driven culture. why do you think heat sells? and Huisgenoot? and You magazine? all of them filled with more crap than seventeen could ever be. and since most magazines are run by huge companies, and money is the driving factor, you gotta think of what will sell. in the end, they try their best to still be a balances, informative magazine... even with paris on the cover.

hey, she's hot and skanky. i feel my rights as a lover of hot, skanky
bee-yatches are being infringed upon

put paris on every cover.
mmmmm... paris

watch the movie... "One night in Paris" Its pretty crap amature, but she does give you the skanky Biaaaiitch look. hehehe, besided that...

Thanks for joining us. And for so eloquently holding yourselves up as examples of some of what is being discussed here. This forum is indebted to you both, for your useful illustrations. You two are truly brave, and will certainly go far! I'm sure you make your mothers proud.

I had a very good up bringing... where my folkes showed me the "Good" side of life and the "Bad" side... as long as i knew the consiquences of my desicion... Thanks Mama ur the best...

thanks for straightening me out!

I'm such a scallywag sometimes...

are you single?

So is it concerned - cuase you are = Interested and involved?

Or

Anxious; troubled: the concerned parents of youthful offenders.

Nice moves, for the mover and shaker... yes we will go far in life...

Could someone please list a decent web link to "One night in Paris"?

Thanks.

Nuff Said.

gvhhksyhih,z;ljdid

ckljjkpjv;j
nlkj;lkckjs
m;

I once asked the headmaster of a respected school about the problems he was facing, and whether respect as a concept had become irrelevent.
He said: yes, to all intents and purposes respect has indeed been rendered irrelevant. How should he instil respect in a generation of children who have grown up amidst disrespect, he asked? He said that laying all the blame at the feet of gangster rappers and the media was a cop-out. All around them, he said, are adults who model disrespectful behavior.

But again, I digress. And shouldn't you two be out hunting wooly mammoths or something? All that rampant manliness is a bit wasted in here.

mmmmm... wooly mammoth

No way! Really? You like mammoth??? I have a lovely recipe if you want, passed down through millions of generations. If you go out now and hunt one you could get your mom to make it for you. Go now! Run along!

Poor Paris dude.

this forum was the BEST.

The loaded comments, the overpowering feeling of hate, the endless and ageless battle of the sexes, not to mention the passionate typos.

shouldn't you okes be working instead of shooting the shit?

ja, that had actually crossed my mind too. Must work, must work...
I'm a currently unemployed freelancer and I wonder why?

hehe

Go to work, stop dreaming of Wooly Mamoths... the MAN will get that for you.... hehehehe

The Sunday Times last weekend presented its (actually Hot Dogz's) treatise on selling to kids, under the euphemistic title "Generation Next: 10-13 Youth Brand Survey". It made much of the distinction between "tweens" and "teens", and seemed puzzled about the fact that many "tweens" were responsive to brands or ads NOT ACTUALLY TARGETED AT THEM but at their older "teen" siblings or even adults.
Anyone who has had fair dealings with children of all ages will know that "tweens" (as labelled by Those Who Know) aspire to being older than they are, quite simply. They hero-worship the older children and want what they have. Twelves read Seventeen because Seventeen talks to Seventeens and twelves want to be seventeen. So your tween daughter wants to be Paris, and read about Paris, and have a TV show and a dog like Paris… and sooner or later someone’s teen brother will say, “hey you wanna watch a Paris video?” just for laughs, and it’s so cool because Paris is cool.

Then, not directly to do with the Paris issue but linked nonetheless, there was Chris Moerdyk's comment with regards to the problems faced by the marketing industry, whose rights to advertise to children are being infringed upon by "Pressure groups, bunny huggers and moral custodians..." There's this conspiracy, don't you know. Friggin bunny huggers.
He says that advertising actually doesn't work anyway, so he doesn't understand why it needs to be such a big issue. Hold on. What does Chris know that all those people wasting/making money on advertising don’t know? I'm confused about this, but maybe the explanation is in the last column of the article, a third of which is annoyingly cut off by a printing error.
Anyhow, the big persuader, he says, is not advertising but PEER PRESSURE and always has been. Here's a thing, Chris - advertising these days IS peer pressure and you know it. With all the lovely focus groups and targeted strategies, savvy marketers can tap strait into the vein. Paris yoghurt, Paris jeans, pink Paris jumpers…
So if you figure out the tween aspires to teen aspires to adult aspires to teen equation, and then turn up the peer pressure a couple of notches, you'll be laughing Chris, and not having to snivel about the damned pressure groups or about advertising not working. And the bunny huggers and moral custodians will have to pipe down because it's not advertising. After all, advertising doesn't work, never has.

Incidentally, with the FHM victory, it looks like the bunny huggers and silly mommies have lost this one, Chris must be pleased to know. The FPB has ruled that FHM is a magazine suitable for all ages, and contains no content that degrades women or is harmful to children.
Subjectivity is a beautiful thing.

So, Ann, it seems as though our objection to Paris’ role-model status is destined for the Ridicule Bin by those who know better than us. They want us to butt out and go bake a cake or something. We are annoying them.

YOu moan about Paris Hilton on the cover of a magazine ... when was the last time you walked around Sandton City or Cresta. These little girls all dress up like little prostitutes. I really doubt that Paris Hilton on a magazine cover will make that any worse. This is the same as people bitching about the Simpsons corrupting their kids while they are never around to mentor their kids themselves. Don't blame the media because you are a bad parent. Get your kids off the streets and take them to a game reserve.

I thought I was done with this forum but your comments cannot go unanswered.
You ask, "...when was the last time you walked around Sandton City or Cresta?"
Yes well, that is the point. It's good that you have at least noticed that "These little girls all dress up like little prostitutes", congratulations you can join the club. So who do you think the little girls are emulating? Could it be that they are emulating what is held out to them as a desirable image, by people who target them directly?
You say, "You moan about Paris Hilton on the cover of a magazine ...". Do you even know this particular magazine? That it is targeted at teen girls and that pre-teens read it too?
Last month it happened to be Paris but there is no shortage of trampy celebs who have been rated and sold high on the cool guage. Rated and sold by who? Heavens, surely not by the media!

When was the last time you attempted to understand teen aspirations?
Teens make noise about individuality, but in fact what most want at this particularly difficult stage of life is conformity, to be seen as cool-in-the-group, and not to be on the outside. This being the case, when teen icons are trampy mall rats and less-than-mature adults, then that is what they will aspire to. Which is this forum's subject. The effect is now being noticed, but the cause is complicated and layered. Part of it, though, is most definately media oriented. And yes of course, bad parenting is in the mix too.

But it is BECAUSE we try to be good parents that we have to take issue with the media, instead of keeping quiet and hoping it'll go away. It will not.
In a perfect world we would all love to be able to spend all our time with our children in the game reserve, but in reality that cannot happen. There is also a large majority of parents whose only hope is that their children reach adulthood with some nutrition and the rudiments of an education, to whom the very idea of a game reserve exists in dreams only. For the children of these parents, celebrities represent an ultimate ideal of wealth and lifestyle. Something to aspire to. These are the children who need the most protection, since mostly their parents DO NOT HAVE THE LUXURY of the time needed for mentoring. Game reserves are not real-life for most people. Real life unfortunately is downtown, or in the mall, or in the schoolyard if you're lucky. We will not even begin discussing the many thousands of children in our country who head their own households and must be their own mentors. As one of our motherland's sayings goes, "all children are my children". It will not help for you to run off to the game reserve to stick your head in the sand with your own very lucky children and blame everything else on other children's bad parents.

So shouldn't we as a community take more care about who we hold up in real life as examples of success? Or in your case is it a case of, it's not my community?

... with sick of mallrats person. People are very quick to blame the media / peer pressure / apartheid for their failed parenting skills. We need to go back to family values in this country.

I think she is great. I am a Paris with less brainz

Seriously though.
I'm all for being rich and doing nothing -isn't that really what everyone would love to do?
Her attitude to her sex tape is shocking though ('oh, like look at me look at me!'), as well as her momumentous ego. Shame. Let her be on the front cover. At least you can line your birds cage with her face later!

She is also a gay icon who grand marshalls gay Pride parades with her mother and has a massive following in the gay community. Paris appeared on the June cover of WRAPPED magazine (Africa's first LGBT monthly glossy) - an exclusive shoot done for the magazine. I guess many a gay boy would also like to be a skinny, wealthy heiress!

Its amazing how many people actually know Paris Hilton in this country. I find people like you extremely dodgy when you waste away your time making horrible comments about people who have done the world no harm. Here is a news flash for you! Paris Hilton DID NOT release a sex tape. It was done by an x-fiancee who wanted to make a quick buck. The girl was devestated by the betrayel and tried to fight it in court by which time the thing had already sold millions. This is not her claim to fame. She models, acts, sings and writes. In 2005 she donated over $8 000 000(MILLION) to charities for the old, sick, young and animal charities!!! What have you done for this world? What makes you so special that all you can do is focus on the negative things affecting people instead of trying to see some of the good? South African people are among the most judgemental on the face of this planet. It is so sad to witness some of the things being said about her. Ask yourself these questions. Have you ever stolen something, no matter how small you thought it was? Have you ever told a deliberate lie? Have you ever told someone else about another person that you have had sex with? Those are all very bad things to do, so judge yourself instead of others.