Especially for Parents
News and Commentary by Sharon Secor
December 2005
What Can One Do?
It is easy to allow oneself to be lulled into inaction by the seemingly overwhelming influence and presence of an ultra-sexualized media and debased popular culture. It’s too big, there’s too much, it’s everywhere. Yet, history is full of individuals who were able to accomplish great things in the face of what seemed insurmountable odds. And, as throughout the world the birth of one such individual-- one whose influence is still strong more than 2,000 years later -- is celebrated by so many, right now is the perfect time to contemplate what one can do.
Whether viewed from a religious or a secular perspective, how that one individual changed not only religion, but also the course of history itself, as well as influencing how individuals treat each other and govern themselves, is nothing short of inspirational. Indeed, for those who feel as though they have little or no power in the cultural climate of today, there can be no better example.
There’s a lot that one can do. Often the actions of blossom into the action of many. Sometimes all it takes is for one person to speak something, which encourages another, and another. That’s exactly how a group of teenaged girls were able to focus the nation’s attention on a series of derogatory tee shirts marketed by a national retailer, organizing a “girlcott” that reached throughout the country.
Perhaps it was a casual comment from one teen girl to another, maybe about the tee shirt sold to girls by Abercrombie & Fitch that has the phrase “Who needs a brain when you have these?” printed across the chest, or maybe about any one of the other similarly sloganed shirts offered by the retailer, that spurred the realization that the girls were not alone in finding the tee shirts offensive. Whatever the catalyst, the result was that a small group of girls, ranging in age from 13 to 16, in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County, came together and decided to act.
Today’s technology makes it easier than ever before for a small group to have a powerful impact. These young ladies made fine use of the Internet to publicize their “girlcott” of Abercrombie & Fitch, spreading their message throughout the nation. Their efforts brought them, and their cause, into the national spotlight, with appearances on NBC, FOX, CNN and ABC, as well as numerous mentions in major newspapers.
Illinois State Senator Steve Rauschenberger stepped in to lend his support, introducing a resolution that asked for Abercrombie & Fitch to stop selling the shirts. And, on November 12, 2005, the NY Daily News reported “the company pulled two of the several dozen shirts and agreed to discuss more “empowering” slogans.” None of which would have happened if that small group of girls had believed that they were too small and too few to have any real effect.
The Internet has become a powerful tool for action, a way to combine individual voices and actions into a force to be reckoned with. There are countless groups and associations making use of this tool to connect with each other and to organize actions. Powerful organizations evolve from just a tiny few, many designing websites that reduce taking real action to just a few minutes of effort, long enough to send an e-mail or two.
Among those organizations that make it simple to add one voice to many is the Florida Family Association. Like many similar groups, they have devised a website and a system of e-mail alerts that makes it simple to write to the decision makers and policy enforcers. They’ve enjoyed great success as well, such as helping to influence major retailers to stop selling pornography in their stores and encouraging major corporations to stop funding offensive television programs by purchasing advertising time.
According to the Florida Family Association website, a dozen of the biggest gasoline sellers now “prohibit the sale of pornographic magazines by independent retailers that sell their brand of gasoline.” Some of the largest grocery chains, including Albertson’s, which is the nation’s second biggest, convenience store chains, like the almost legendary 7-11, and drugstores have also made the decision to refrain from selling such material. Advertisers have been falling away from graphically offensive programs left and right. More than one hundred advertisers have been persuaded away from Playboy’s Girls Next Door program. Numerous major corporations have stopped permitting their products to be advertised on The Man Show. Why? Because citizens (and potential customers) one by one, took action.
Throughout religious and secular history, time and time again we’ve seen people answer the call to do important work. We’ve seen people who’ve traveled down a bad path, who’ve suffered, who’ve harmed others deeply, undergo a transformation of sorts, one that allows them the courage not only to help themselves, but also to reach out and make change for others as well.
The New York Times recently reported on one such young man. At age 13, he became involved with Internet pornography, through his computer and a web cam. Gradually, by the pedophiles he met online, he was drawn into pornography and prostitution. He performed live over the Internet for cash and gifts, using a web cam to allow adults to observe him as he posed nude and engaged in sex acts. Some of his cyber customers he also met in the real world. He started using drugs, and he eventually, to use the words of New York Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald, “crossed the line from under-aged victim to adult perpetrator,” running pornography businesses, producing pornography, and drawing in underage boys.
His story is not uncommon. Indeed, there is a shockingly large web cam related sex industry subculture operating just under the radar on the web. And, there’s a lot of big money floating around this underground. According to the New York Times report, this young man made hundreds of thousands of dollars himself. And, as Eichenwald points out, there are all the related industries that feed on the trade making money, too, such as Web hosting companies, credit card processing companies and even advertising revenue.
There is, however, an aspect of this young man’s story -- a young man whose biological father, upon finding out what he was doing, chose not to help him, but rather to profit from him - that is decidedly uncommon. This young man could have stopped at helping himself, getting out of the business, quitting the drugs and making a new life for himself. But, instead, he chose to act, to take action not just for himself, but for others as well. Responding to the urgings of the New York Times reporter, he chose to turn over his information to the Justice Department, risking prison and humiliation. Thanks to this young man’s courage, more than 1500 adult men have been identified through their names and credit card information, and not only have numerous exploited children been identified by him, but also children have been rescued from their exploiters and users. All of that is the result of one young man heeding his call to action.
We all have the option to act and while enacting and enforcing laws can alleviate problems we face in the current cultural climate, it is the changing of hearts that will bring true resolution. And, whether you learned it from your faith or from a Southern mother like mine who said you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, some ways are more effective than others when it comes to trying to change hearts. We can each try to reach one person at a time, speaking with love and trying to encourage empathy and understanding in those around us.
It is a fact that vast changes have taken place in our culture. We’ve seen many parts of our society degraded and damaged by a popular culture and seemingly omnipresent media that just can’t seem to halt their downward spiral. But, it doesn’t have to be that way. We each have the power to make change happen.