Entry for May 13, 2008 ~ Whatever Happened To...

Whatever happened to common sense? to decency? to modesty and chastity?
Whatever happened to a parent's right ~ no, an obligation ~ to protect a child?!?
Our daughter Andrea is getting married in two months. Her sister Julia (pictured above) is the Maid of Honor. All of our (six) daughters will be in the wedding ~ the bride herself of course, the MofH, the other four being Bridesmaids.
This next Sunday is the Bridal Shower...and everyone we know will be there...Julia showed me the dress she plans to wear ~ a cute polka-dot, black 'n' white with a flared skirt. The reason I bring this up here is to illustrate a very good reason why I can compare my own daughter, who is 21 years old now, to a younger, more famous (or should I say infamous) girl, who is frequently in the tabloids, the news, the stage and the spotlight.
Her name is Mylie Cyrus, the 15-year-old daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus and his wife Letitia.
Normally I don't pay much mind to the younger celebs; being 57 myself, I have my own life, my own interests...and little time to give to gossip and nonsense.
But there is something recent and which corresponds to the events going on at my own house that I just wanted to mention here...the fact that our six daughters, all just as lovely as Mylie, but having been given just as many chances and choices in their own lives, have chosen to take the other road, the one less traveled in these days of immodesty and impurity.
The way girls are brought up these days, to follow any fashion trend, I am surprised I was able to keep my own girls as pure as they have remained to this day ~ and I give full credit for this to our Faith in God and His Church. We always tried to show a good example and without giving a daily lecture, but showing by our own lifestyle that much more is expected of us than to "show some skin" and give in to whatever is currently "in style."
Unfortunately, not so in Hollywood...and poor Mylie is, I fear, the latest victim in this never-ending line of nearly-naked "wannabes"...to show their own innocent selves in provocative manners, whether or not it is perceived by others as being such...it is exactly that. And according to those "in the know" ~ other celebrities exposed to the same pressures ~ it seems that the modern way of thinking goes along with "whatever feels good, whatever one wants is ok" and to hell with convention, tradition and any kind of normalcy ~ especially for young girls in the limelight and all the others who look to them as role models, and also, and just as important, all the young boys who see their contemporaries in such exposed manner and are given over to the ways of thinking that this is how it must be!
Why then, tell me please, do we wonder why a young man, after years of such exposure, grows up to believe that whatever he wants to do with a young woman ~ whatever liberties he cares to impose upon these young women ~ we pretend to be so shocked!?!
No wonder men think women are their personal playthings! A boy sees a young girl like Mylie, posing in Vanity Fair wearing nothing more than a bedsheet, and assumes that other girls will show him the same if not more...
Society has a long way to go if this is ever to change.
Back to our own six daughters...Julia was not sure about the neckline of her dress...and asked me if I had a brooch or pin that would close it up more...it seems it is cut lower than she had first thought when she bought it. It has a lovely half-circle brooch at the gathering just above the waist; as it happens I do have a snowflake brooch with the same stones, smaller setting, which would be perfect to keep it modest...and a perfect pairing with the other, larger piece.
But it would take years of raising a daughter ~ let's call it "conditioning," shall we? ~ to expect her to come to this idea on her own. Knowing that just a small touch to keep herself well covered and pure is a simple gesture that Julia has come to all on her own ~ would Mylie be capable of the same??
Her father claims to be so protective of his daughter, and I question where was he in this situation? Did he allow it for the money, the publicity? I would have thought that Billy Ray, being the so-called conservative parent that he claims to be, would have felt the right ~ no, the obligation ~ to put his foot down and say, "NO!!! My daughter is better than any of that! She will NOT be taken advantage of!"
Thank God that I am married to Michael, not Billy Ray. Celebrity status notwithstanding, I would rather have had a single daughter like Julia than a million like any in Hollywood ~ for all their money and fame.
It won't get them where they need to be......