A reader writes:
I was struck by Jason Alexander’s most impassioned comments on the Bill Maher show last night. They related to his children’s exposure to forces that were not "wholesome". He was the "liberal" voice on the panel – speaking on Iraq, etc. – but somehow kept coming back to his efforts to limit his children to those influences that they were emotionally prepared to handle, and exactly how difficult that was in current society.
I think it’s a point that is not sufficiently written about. Everyone is so stuck on left vs. right – family-values-christian-right vs. amoral secularists. I am a married and childless 38 year old female who lives in the West Village in New York. I am considered a "liberal" by my deeply Republican siblings (3) who all live in Republican suburbs in various U.S. locations. (I am an "Economist" liberal — i.e. a righty in the U.K. but that’s not relevant.) While my siblings fiind my surroundings shocking (I live opposite a transvestite club), I am deeply shocked by what passes for normal in Republican suburbs. I spent some time researching and designing costumes for my 6-year old niece’s dance recital because the costumes proposed and readily accepted by the majority of the mothers were in my eyes prostitute garb. I spent some time encouraging my sister to object to the costumes as only a handful of other mothers agreed with her that the proposed costumes were a bit risque for the 6-year old set.
It’s a not very well understood fact that there are a great many "liberals" who bristle at the "family values" tag but who feel deeply about morality and the value of individuals. I turn off at the "family values" label because I understand it to be anti-women. The friend with whom I most often discuss the horror of today’s morals (inadvertently buying "Dinner Date Barbie" for a 7-year old niece and finding out that said Barbie comes equipped with a black lace teddy) is a card carrying Democrat and regular donor to Emily’s list.
Or maybe I am too naive. The corporate-driven and supported ubiquity of Britney Spears has long been attributed to the permissiveness of the left. The reality of course is quite different. It’s obvious that the current culture is seen as a problem by a broad cross-section of people. Maybe it’s time to define morality in non-political terms that a majority of Americans can get behind.
I should concur that while I’m very easy-going around adults, I too get very socially conservative around kids. I don’t believe in sheltering them from the world, but I do believe in protecting them for a while, and I can certainly sympathize with parents who want their children not to be exposed to what is now available. That doesn’t mean I’d censor anything; just that, if I were a parent, I’d be vigilant. That doesn’t quite fit into the crude red-blue axis, does it? But then a lot doesn’t. Which is part of our predicament.
The Dish 