Sunday, August 7, 2011

beautiful

Geoffrey Gurrumul  Yunupingu – Wiyathul




(english)
Two scrub fowl crying out, looking for Guwalilŋa
the calls like women crying, looking for Murrurrŋawu
the cries returning his mind to the jungles at Mutjmutjŋa
oh place Guwalilŋa, Warraika, Yumayŋa, m..m
Oh the old man cries, from this drink
oh dad Kampa-Djuŋadjuŋa, home Mayaŋ-ŋaraka bright in his mind
oh my two mums, beloved mums, hold Ruypu Milinditj
oh my two mums, beloved mums, cry for the sacred spring Burarrapu
oh the place Guwalilŋa. Warraika, Yumayŋa, m..m
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Shirley Temple’s first movies were parodies of successful burlesque movies. In this clip, a three year old Shirley vamps it up – wearing an off-the shoulder creation and a garter – as a send up of Delores Del Rio. 


Women are so shallow; they'll do anything for a lollipop.


Cute or just plain creepy?

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[Sep 2011] Dear Reader
Someone has hijacked or hacked into the following You Tube clip


to see the following clip please click the play button in bottom left
hand corner, and ignore instructions to subscribe or click in the middle
of the clip... after a few seconds or more the child abuse story will appear - promise!



A week ago, a U.S. style beauty pageant came to Northcote, a Melbourne suburb. The pageant had lots of publicity because of the protests before hand, and a magazine and one ‘current affairs’ program paid megabucks for exclusive coverage. Another current affairs program from a rival station tried to do the dirty on the first mob, not by trying to invade the pageant itself, but by trying to buy access to six year old American Pageant Queen Eden Wood. 


While mothers and their young contestants were traumatised by the media circus, conscientious objectors held a peaceful protest away from the venue, in the Fitzroy Gardens. The only thing that bothered me about this was seeing kids holding up protest posters. Usually when kids are protesting say, outside abortion clinics, or that homosexuals are an abomination to god, it makes my blood boil, and I think it's a bit rich in this case too.


I notice one mother in this news clip calmed a young contestant who didn't want her eyebrows waxed by pulling out a bag of lollipops. Women are so shallow, in this case both the mother and the daughter.

Does the toddler’s pageant business seek to sexualise young children?

I suspect that any adult who finds young children especially attractive will get their jollies whether there is a pageant or not. But there is something rather sick about what these kids go through, whether they want to be princesses or not.

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I beg to differ with the mum in one current affairs promo: It was never my dream to be a princess. Far from wanting to dress up, I never wanted to get out of my pyjamas at all. This might have had something to do with never wanting to get out of bed at all. 
To this day I still associate getting dressed with the sound of my mother screaming at me.


I do remember being given a doll for Christmas when I was quite young, and throwing both the doll and a tantrum.
The doll was neglected for a few years, but did eventually get some use when my brother took it up onto the shed roof. He wanted to see if the parachute he had made would float the dolly gently to the ground. 


It didn't.
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4 comments:

  1. Being clean and beautiful does not come naturally to children. Dressing them up to look like tarts, teaching them to dance in a provocative ways and competing against each other in looks is wrong. There may be a good reason why their parents should not be charged with child abuse, but I can't think of one.

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  2. Hi Andrew,
    When writing this I was having trouble defining the line between harmless "isn't he cute" comps and the "toddlers and tiaras" pageant. I think you've put it down rather well.
    Don't know if you are a movie-goer or not, but I was a tad put off by the ending of the movie "Little Miss Sunshine", and disappointed that Toni Colette was part of it. I think the words "tart" and "provocative" apply in that context.

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  3. I don't like these pagents either but it is a bit hard to define why not because is there any difference between this and the father that spends hours in the back yard playing footy hoping his kid will be a star. Or kids being made to practice piano for hours or any number of other adult dreams visited on children. Even dare I say it forcing kids to study.

    Some of these things we regard as good for them like cod liver oil, some of it therefore is a clear value judgement.

    OK so the potentially sexual aspect of these shows is a bit creepy but I agree with Fruitcake, as I am not attracted to children I don't find them sexy (just a bit creepy) and if I were attracted to children I doubt I would need them to dress up etc to find them attractive.

    It depends on the harm, tennis elbow from overuse is bad as is mental trauma from pagents.

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  4. Hi Big Dog,
    Don't recall anyone giving me cod liver oil because it was good for me - on the other hand Castor Oil was THE single greatest threat of corporal punishment that worked.
    I think Andrew's use of the words tart and provocative is a start.

    “I shall not today attempt further to define [obscenity]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it….” [Justice Potter 1973]

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