Tell All Tuesday

Teenage Sex Appeal

Why yes I do feel like a huge pedophile by writing that, but while being laid up at home and having nothing else to do but watch HLN, I've been noticing alot of BAD teenage sex appeal.  (Okay when is it good?  I'll get to that).  But I like to always get the bad news off of my chest first...

For those who have been living under a rock, Miley Cyrus has gotten a lot of bad press recently for her very risque video for "Who owns my heart."  I recently watched this video and would have to agree with the images of her rolling around in a bed and kissing on girls of the same sex is a little too much for me to handle.

But, wait Magan, didn't your boy toy Adam Lambert do the same thing?

Okay, first off YOU WILL NOT SPEAK ILL OF MY GLAMBERT...

But, why yes he did get criticized for similar sexual performances...

So what's the difference? 

Adam is a twenty-eight-year-old MAN and Miley Cyrus is a seventeen-year-old GIRL.

Miley spent years building up her fan base on the squeaky clean HANNAH MONTANA, and even I'll admit that I was a fan of the show's image.  It was something I could watch with the kids I babysat in high school without having to worry about anything raunchy coming on and I thought with such active parents in Miley's life she would never go down the wrong path like other Disney stars have...(not mentioning any names that start with L...)

Then it seems like she decided that she wanted to break away from her Hannah Montana role, but do it in the trashiest way possible by riding an ice cream cart like a stripper show on a COMPLETELY kid friendly awards show.

But Magan what about Adam Lambert and the AMA's?

My subconscious mind needs to stop talking about Glambert right now... But yeah he did have that sexually charged performance, but again I will explain the difference.  How many of you ACTUALLY watched him on Idol?  I sat with my parents watching him and let me tell you, from day one I knew that this guy was the next David Bowie.  You could tell with his outlandish costumes and performances that radiated sexuality even on prime time television, that he was definitely not kid friendly (thus he does play a lot of 18 plus shows people!)

Oh and the AMA's?  Yeah who lets their seven-year-old stay up to watch a performance at eleven o'clock at night?  Yeah my parents would let me stay up to watch Conan when I was in like 9th grade, but I was fourteen there is a HUGE difference between a young kid staying up till eleven on a school night and a high schooler doing it.  And from the looks of the set and the costumes, sorry ABC you should have known.

Now that I've stepped off my Adam soap box...I want to talk about the SAFE teenage sex appeal.

This is actually one that I've seen most prominent in teen literature and then when it's adapted onto the screen.  Even though I'm not a huge fan, the Twilight series does this REALLY well.  As a mom, you know what you're getting into with the Twilight series.  Yeah there are sparkly vampires, a little violence, and some forbidden love, but you know that Edward Cullen isn't going to get on a stripper pole to start seducing Bella.

YA writers (oh yeah I'm including myself) we know how to do the sexual tension tango without taking it too far.  We know that a first kiss scene can be just as sensual as a sex scene and we can do it well.  Writers know who their audience is and exactly how we should tailor our work to that audience.  Even when things are adapted to the big screen (Hunger Games anyone?) we know that there would have to be a PG-13 rating, at the very most, so we can get our readers off those showings.

So YA writers, THANK YOU, thank you for knowing the difference between bad and safe teenage sex appeal.  Thank you for making it known that you know what's appropriate for teenagers to read and won't get them bored.  And thank you blog readers for not talking smack about my boy toy any more than my Devil's Advocate does...

So what do you think about Miley Cyrus?  Sex Appeal in teenagers?

Tell All Tuesday

Why I deactivated Facebook.

When I started college, in 2005, Facebook was just a college thing. You could go on, meet your fellow classmates, post pictures from parties, and do whatever other crazy things that came along with facebook. Then it branched out from college students to high schoolers and before long anybody with a name and a an e-mail account could have facebook. I have seen people get turned down for jobs because of inappropriate pictures, articles about teenagers committing suicide because of something that someone wrote on their Facebook wall.

Sure Facebook is good for some things like promoting yourself, networking, keeping up with old friends, or sharing your pictures. But when I really started to look at all the bad things it was bringing into my life I knew that it was toxic. I was spending my spare time checking other people’s facebook statuses instead of living in the real world. I knew when I sat there crying because someone put something mean about me on facebook (hello pregnancy hormones) that me and facebook definitely had to break it off.

I’m not saying that I’ll never go back to facebook because I do like keeping in touch with my friends from high school or seeing people’s pictures from vacation. But if they really are my friends and not just my facebook friends then I should be able to talk to them not just via facebook. I will still keep my Twitter and this blog going, but my life sans facebook will probably give me more time to blog, edit my manuscript, and more importantly live in the real world instead of the facebook one.

Tell All Tuesday

So here is this new little segment that I am calling "Tell all Tuesday."  During this time I will either rant, fangirl, or just in general talk about something no-holds bar that's really exciting me or making me upset.  People are free and encouraged to comment, BUT I don't want spam or snark.  I am willing to have intelligent debates with people, but I don't want any just point black criticisim or saying "I'm wrong."  All of these views are the opinion of one Magan Vee and in no way am I trying to really offend anyone.


So the first tell all Tuesday is....

Oil spills, Floods, and Earthquakes...OH MY

So as I was away in Sicily I was kept very up to date on world news since the only English stations on TV were BBC and Aljazeera.  The one constant topic that they were talking about was the oil spill in the gulf coast.  For those of you (okay lets face it you know by now) I work for a major insurance company, but I will not mention names or what I do in the department, so anyways you can see why I have a vested interest in the oil spill.  One of the comments that was made on BBC that really got to me was when they said that Obama's approval rating, with regards to the oil spill, was lower than Bush's during Hurricane Katrina.

Oh yeah you heard me.

For those who have read my book or just know me in general, Katrina is very near and dear to my heart.  I spent some time building Habitat homes after Katrina , wrote a book that took place in New Orleans, and when my Nana (grandfather's) family came to America they came to New Orleans, so needless to say Louisianna is very special to me.  That being said I saw Katrina first hand, I saw the effects that it had on people emotionally and physically.  And for those who remember Katrina...WHERE WAS BUSH?  Really were where was he?  He didn't do anything and when he did do something it was miniscual.  Yes, granted, Obama hasn't done too much either, but what can he do?  Our military is not equipped for this kind of damage and he's trying to do everything he can by pushing BP and meeting with legislatures.  There is alot of hands in this pot that have to be and he can't just cross them.  The rig is actually not owned by BP (one hands), The equipment needed to scoop up all this oil is minimal and can't do all of it (another hand), Fisherman and Tourist outlets are suffering financially because of this and need help (another hand).  So it's not as easy as doing something simple such as...oh lets say getting people better places to live than small FEMA trailers.

Which I can go on about that for days, but this leads me to my next point that kind of brings it together.  The Haiti earthquake.  Celebrities donated millions of dollars and even did a new "We are the world."  Where are the celebrities for The Gulf Coast?  Sure for Katrina they came around...about six months later.  The celebrity faces of Katrina were Sean Penn on a boat with a gun and Kanye West talking smack about George Bush, but Haiti gets Madonna donating millions, Justine Bieber singing songs, and every grocery store selling red ribbons.  I'm not saying that Haiti doesn't need aid, I'm not, but what about the people suffering in the gulf coast?  Why don't you see celebrities down on their hands and knees washing animals with Dawn soap?  That's what I want to see on the news. 

This is why I applaud all of the authors and country stars that are doing everything they can for Nashville.  If I could leave work and help the gulf coast, or Nashville, I would.  (It's also kind of a conflict of interest in a weird way).

But that is all I have to say on that topic for now.  I didn't mean to offend anyone and if I did, why did I offend you?  How do you feel about these disasters affecting the US and what do you think can be done about them?