Health magazine ran an interview with Brooke Shields in which they applauded her "mission to empower girls." Here's something she said that made me question Health's verb choice:
Q: What’s your biggest health regret?
A: Not learning to love the way I looked earlier. And I think I would have had sex a lot earlier! [Laughs.] I think I would have lost my virginity earlier than I did at 22. I had the public and all this pressure, and I wish I had just gotten it over with in the beginning when it was sort of OK. I think I would have been much more in touch with myself. I think I wouldn’t have had issues with weight—I carried this protective 20 pounds [in college]. It was all connected. And to me, that’s a health regret.
As the mother of a teen girl, I have questions about her mission.
What do you think?
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
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4 comments:
I think there are many aspects to that quote which seem odd!
What? Concerning to say the least.
~ Wendy
How is not having sex earlier a health regret?
Is "just getting it over with" the appropriate way to view sex? Something our young ladies ought to emulate?
Ms. Shields mentions she regrets not having sex, if only just to appease public pressure... is that perspective really a form of empowerment?? Seems more like playing the doormat to me.
Shields was sold as a sex symbol since she was a pre-teen. The rumors, press, and adult managers of her career must have kept the virginity issue stirred constantly. Can you imagine your first time being a subject of public debate all the time? The pressure and expectations experienced by an average girl would be magnified a hundred fold, and the bragging rights of the guy! His locker room would be The Enquirer.
Although kids have pressure and peer ridicule to deal with, celebrities don't make the best role models. They live in a different world.
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