Child Stars/Entertainers: Too Much ( Take Two, Logos Argument)

Over the years, many Presidents have been focusing on fighting terrorism. With many people these days concerned about the “War in terrorism”, they have forgotten about the war going on in America; the war on fighting for the innocence of American youth.

            In the category of child performers/entertainers, there are over 250,000 children. That enormous number is just from children competing in beauty pageants and doesn’t include child actors, dancers, etc. Unfortunately, although they are living out their dreams, the things these children do while performing are age inappropriate. There are multiple polls and hard evidence to support this claim. For example, in a poll taken by The Student Room, a large social change blog, it was found that an astronomical 77.50% of people thought that child beauty pageants should be banned. Also, on the blog for popular media source page 6, it was discovered that 92.45% of people who answered the poll felt that child beauty pageants were “Not cool” when asked if the pageants were okay. After seeing facts like this, it could be said that these are just numbers and that they might not echo the real opinions of the people. There are also a multitude of quotes from the average American and top reporters. One quote came from the renowned magazine Psychology Today, where  author Martina M. Cartwright Ph.D, RD. wrote “Armed with spray bronzer, the moms dutifully "carved" abs into their daughter's bare midriffs just before the young girls performed a provocative dance that caused audible gasps from the audience.” This exemplifies how inappropriate the things these young children perform are. It’s painful to think about how a group of talented young girls poured their hearts out on stage while their talent was undermined by the clothing and dance moves they didn’t know they should object to. We can stop the degradation of young children in our society by following some simple advice from an everyday mom, Amy from Idaho who says “I think the prevalence of media in our society means that we need to be extremely vigilant and never miss a teachable moment. The best way to counteract the things we don't agree with is to talk to our children about them as they see them so our values get across.”  The youth of today need see our values and need us to win this war for innocence. That’s a fact

Child Stars/ Entertainers. Too age Inappropriate?

Stop: I want you to pause for a minute and take in your surroundings. Once they have been taken in, completely forget about them. Transport yourself to another place and imagine this: You are a young child entering your first beauty pageant. Soon enough your number is called and you start dancing just like your mother taught you. A lot of twirling, smiling and shaking your hips. The judges seem happy when you look at them, but a few frowns cross over the faces of those in the crowd. As soon as the song is over and you saunter off the stage, a hush falls; the crowd surprised at what you just did. You don’t know what just took place; you are only six.

Recently, there has been much controversy over shows like Toddlers and Tiaras and child beauty pageants in general because of their supposedly over sexualizing of young contestants. With that, the question is whether the clothes they wear and moves they perform are age appropriate. Sadly, the answer to that is no, some of the things that these child performers do and wear are age inappropriate. While that may not be the case for every child in beauty pageants or the like, it’s true for many. Take for example child beauty pageant star Eden Woods. While in New York modeling for clothing company Cicciabella, Eden wore a white “Cowgirl” outfit, which was practically  a bedazzled bikini when she ripped off her jacket during a provocative dance. As one woman attending the event said, “Whatever you want to call it, it made me uncomfortable.” This is only after two publicized cases of a three year old girl wearing the Julia Roberts “Prostitute” costume from Pretty Woman, and a woman giving her daughter a padded Dolly Parton costume to wear in a pageant. It shows that society and their parents have been failing these young children. That’s because with the media’s promotion of the “Sexier” the better, we have fallen into a trap. While there have always been problems with children in entertainment (A thirteen year old Drew Barrymore did go to rehab), the amount of media we have today only makes it more apparent. Luckily, this  inappropriateness can be stopped . It's up to us to say enough is enough and take back what every child needs; what the nostalgia of childhood reminds us of .  Innocence.

           

My Name

 Aaliyah- First Name

Jhaneil- Middle Name

Dillion- Last Name

To start off, my first name Aaliyah turned up some very interesting finds. They were namely web pages about the deceased singer Aaliyah, who was known for songs like One in a Million and Rock the Boat. In everyday life, that is the first connotation my name derives. I was also able to find that in the top 1000 names since 1880, the name Aaliyah ranked number 146 overall. Also, Aaliyah is actually an Arabic/ Hebrew word that generally means high, exalted or ascending one in both languages. In Arabic it is the feminine version of the name Ali and in Hebrew it goes back to the journey to the Promised Land. Well, all of this is fine by me. I mean being connected to a famous artist and being considered exalted is quite the compliment!  

My middle name, well it’s just that. It serves no other purpose than to separate my first name from my last. I would love to have an interesting story behind the name Jhaneil, but I am confident that my parents concocted the name out of “Thin Air”. But on a more positive note, while this name has been the bane of my existence for as long as I can remember, I have found that I am not alone. When searching the name Jhaneil, multiple twitter and facebook accounts popped up, proclaiming that I should “Friend” this person, or make sure to “Follow” that person. Although this name did not turn up any significant connections or shocking revelations, what I found attested to the prevalence of the internet in American culture. Because even though I dis not know any of my fellow Jhaneils, their whole lives were a click away. Whether that's a positive or negative thing is a story for another post.

                              

On the other hand, my last name was a bit more complicated than my other two. That’s because surprise surprise, my last name has no lineage. My father’s family name is Hemmings; I have no idea where the name Dillion came from. The first thing the computer produced when I typed in the word Hemmings was Deon Hemmings, the first Jamaican woman to ever win a gold medal in the Olympics ( 400 meter hurdles in 1996) and Lloyd Hemmings , who was in a band called the Awah band. I doubted any of these people had anything significant connection to me other than the same last name, so I backtracked and looked up the country of origin. I mean, where exactly did the word Hemmings come from? After a little digging I found that Hemmings was a Scottish family name, one specific family descending from Vikings. There was also a Brittish Captain named Samuel Hemmings who came to Jamaica and opened the first slave village in the 1670’s. Could it be a coincidence that my real family name is Scottish and there was a slave village owner by the same last name living in Jamaica? There are so many possibilities. I believe that until an official genealogy search can be done, the history of Hemmings will be shrouded in mystery. For now, that’s okay. As long as I know who I am, does a last name really matter? I think not. Whether a Dillion or a Hemmings, I am me.  Shakespeare had it right when he said “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”.  People define the name, not the other way around.