West Hollywood, by most standards, is a pretty liberal city. Its inhabitants are the kind of people who go to farmers’ markets and who fought for same sex marriage. So why did they band together to fight to have a billboard featuring a mother breastfeeding her baby taken down? 

Let’s take a closer look at the billboard shall we. It was put up by a dating site called Cougar Life, which aims to help older women and younger men find each other and hook-up. While this idea grosses most people out, I was really rooting for the site. On face value, the site could be a really useful resource for people who believe that a woman’s sex life doesn’t end at 35, and the radical feminist in me was all for it. 

Then I saw the ad – the billboard had a mother nursing her child, but it had the section of the photo where the baby’s mouth made contact with the mother’s breast blurred out in the same way that sex scenes are blurred out on cable TV. If that wasn’t bad enough, a thought bubble graphic was placed above the baby’s head asking (presumably men) if they were jealous. 

I’m no women’s studies major but that looks like textbook objectification to me. 99% of doctors will tell you that breastfeeding is the healthiest thing for both moms and babies, but for some reason society can’t quite wrap its head around the idea that breasts are not just about sex. 

Erotizing an image of a mother breast-feeding her baby crosses a serious line. Women are complex, and while a mother’s sexiness doesn’t stop after she gives birth, there are some acts or moments in her life that should not be sexualized. 

Apparently the residents of West Hollywood agreed and petitioned to have the billboard removed. The CEO of Cougar Life expressed some disappointment and tried to make the case that breastfeeding in public is looked at by society with the same prejudice as a younger man dating an older woman. 

Again, on paper this almost sounds legitimate, but when we look at the ad in context, it is clear that the site operates on fetishizing the relationship between younger men and older women – and that my friends is the furthest thing from helping the public to think of women with the complexity they deserve. 

Photo Credit: Cougar Life

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The economy as we all know is doing poorly, this is not something that should keep your children from enjoying life. I have a few activities that are free. The other great thing about these free activities is that they should also spark more creativity in your child.

Board to Death

Most of us have a stack of board games that is dangerously high. If not you can run to your nearest thrift shop and probably pick one up for just a few bucks. An important part of game night is to involve the whole family and tailor the games to the appropriate ages of your children. An 11-year old does NOT want to play High-Ho Cheerio. Personally I like games that have an educational basis. Try Scrabble or Bananagrams. Puzzles are a great alternative as well!

Backwards Day or Crazy Hair Day

Have an entire day devoted to doing everything backwards or creating crazy hair dos. For Backwards Day you could wear your clothes backwards and inside out and do your daily routine in reverse. The important thing is to get creative! Your kids will love it. For Crazy Hair day Google hair dos, this will be a great way to teach your kids how to braid and what not. Also you can by washable hair color spray at a costume store for an affordable price.

Library Day

Encouraging your child to read is one of the most important things you can do as a parent. Take them to a library and have them fill out their own library card. Help them to choose books and after reading have a discussion about the book. Your child will thank you some day. I promise. Also another great thing about public libraries is that they often have free activities so check out their weekly schedule. 

Photo Credit: africa | freedigitalphotos.net

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Teenage pregnancy is an issue that affects hundreds of thousands of young Americans every year. The good news is that the rate of babies being born to young women 15 to 17 years old has decreased by 11% from 2010. Not all the statistics are positive though, a girl who gets pregnant while still in high school only has a 50% chance of getting her diploma or GED. 

Numbers like this make what happened in a North Carolina high school all the more confusing. School officials at Randolph Country’s Wheatmore High School in Trinity North Carolina have banned a photo of a young woman graduating from the school (because she was posing with her baby) from appearing in the yearbook. For the sake of context, graduating seniors were given permission to pose with things that represented their high school achievements and personalities. 

The student at the center of the story is a 17-year-old named Caitlin Tiller. Caitlin wanted to pose with her son, who was born in April 2012, because she felt that he represented one of her biggest personal achievements and showed what inspired her to overcome life’s challenges better than any prop could. She reported to North Carolina’s WGHP that the birth of her baby motivated her to work harder, in fact in addition to graduating early she works 30 hours a week at a part time job. 

School officials said that they couldn’t allow the photo that had Caitlin posing with her baby serve as her senior portrait because it would promote teen pregnancy. Which is kind of interesting because teen pregnancy rates both in North Carolina and the country at large have decreased, but the numbers on teen moms graduating are still very grim. Without a high school diploma or GED these women will earn $260,000 over their lifetimes compared to people who graduated high school. 

Caitlin provides an excellent example of what is possible despite having a baby earlier than most would have liked her to. I don’t know about her neighbors in Trinity, but my take on this whole thing is that Caitlin is a success story that should be celebrated both inside and out of her yearbook. 

Photo Credit: phanlop88 | freedigitalphotos.net

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Teenagers are often coming up with ridiculous ways to entertain themselves. Some of these forms of entertainment are down right dangerous. Read up on these and then prepare yourself to talk with your little sack of hormones about not being an absolute idiot. 

Salt and Ice

This is a pain challenge that many teens are engaging in. They pour salt into their hands and then add ice cubes. They then see how long that can withstand the searing pain. Some teens have given themselves second and third degree burns on their hands.

Butt Chugging / Eyeballing

Butt chugging is without a doubt the most degrading, disgusting thing they have come up with yet. Butt chugging is when teens ingest alcohol through their butthole! Why anyone would want to do this is beyond me. It’s extremely dangerous. Your child could suffer from severe alcohol poisoning and could even die. 

Eyeballing is when young adults take shots of hard liquor through their eye sockets! This can cause scarring of the cornea and blindness!

Trunking

In many states drivers have to be over 18 in order to have a passenger in the car with them. Teens have found a way to evade this law by putting their friends in the trunk. This is dangerous because if they driver is involved in a serious accident the person in the trunk can be injured or killed.

Chat Roulette

Chatroulette.com pairs random strangers together so they can video chat. This is worrisome for a few reasons, your teen could encounter someone extremely creepy or they could accidently reveal sensitive information that allows this stranger to locate them. 

Condom Snorting

I have no idea how this is a cool thing to do but teens are challenging each other to snorting condoms through their noses and pull them out of their mouths. The main concerns here are one, your child could choke and two they could make a complete idiot of them selves. Teens are posting videos of themselves doing it on YouTube.

All right parents, you’ve been warned. Now go stop your child from doing something stupid.

Photo Credit: Dundee Photographics | freedigitalphotos.net

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