Last night I was
flipping channels when Jimmy Fallon's Tonight
Show aired. Normally I love
watching his show, and even though it was a re-run from February, I stayed
interested - until they dropped a curtain exposing a 20 foot poster of the
cover model for this year's Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. Or
should I say dropped the cover on a Playboy model? I don't think her
bikini bottoms could have gone a millimeter lower without being
censored.
Annoyed at the crude Sports Illustrated photo,
I switched channels. Jimmy
Kimmel Live! was showing,
and
then Miley Cyrus walked out - wearing nothing but a bedazzled cape and nipple
pasties.
(My censor box had
to be very large.) Obviously flustered by her exposing outfit, Kimmel tried to joke,
"What does your Dad think about your clothing?" She responded that
her father doesn't watch television. Kimmel blushed more nervous chuckles and
tried commenting, "I don't even know where to look." Miley Cyrus
smiled and advised him to look at her eyebrows instead of her exposed chest.
Then she began an entire conversation about her love
of pasties and nipples. To Kimmel's seemingly discomfort, Miley frequently
showed her bedazzled breasts for all to see.
Obviously Kimmel
felt uncomfortable. As a comedian, he tried to handle the
situation with humor.
I wish Jimmy
Kimmel would have allowed his discomfort to speak out in favor of respecting
and uplifting women.
I wish he would have
responded to Miley's outfit this way:
"Miley, I'm
sorry that you've come all this way to be a guest on my show, but I
will not be able to interview you at this time. I respect women, and I
think the female body deserves respect. Unfortunately, your outfit looks
like walking pornography, and I cannot promote behavior that objectifies
women. I'm happy to continue speaking with you, but only after you put on a
shirt that honors, rather than degrades, womanhood."
I would have offered
a standing ovation from my living room.
Respect for
women has fallen so low that Miley's pornographic display was not even censured
by a floating black box. FYI television administrators - Nipple pasties are not a shirt.
As a counselor I
have seen the destructive grip of pornography on families: A wife in tears who
recoils at the touch of her husband. A husband wrapped in an addiction he
struggles to avoid and thoughts that consume the goodness in him.
A spouse who feels like a piece of meat rather than
a human being. Pornography turns women into objects of
lust. Josh Duggar hid a pornography addiction for years; is it any surprise that he cheated on his wife?
"Pornography
impairs one’s ability to enjoy a normal emotional, romantic, and spiritual
relationship with a person of the opposite sex. It erodes the moral barriers
that stand against inappropriate, abnormal, or illegal behavior." -Dallin Oaks
When celebrities
like Miley Cyrus (and the mostly-naked women at the 2015 Met Gala) wear such
provocative outfits, there should be gasps of shock, not claps of
acceptance. Pornographic clothing should not be a celebrated as a
triumph of self-expression. Pornography is not merely “speech" or a
form of sexual “expression.” New neurological
research reveals that
porn is as potently addictive as heroin or cocaine and possibly harder to
overcome! Outfits so bare and outlandish must be labeled for what they are -
walking pornography. Being so dangerous and addictive, society should reject
these outfits in order to encourage stable families and healthy sexual
identities.
The promotion of
pornography has no place in a civilized society. Whether it be on a television
show, a talk show, a cooking show, or the vast Internet, I wish people would
recognize the destructive practice for what it is - evil. Pornography is almost
instantly addictive, and it destroys precious family relationships. It impairs a
healthy sexual relationship. Walk away people.
I wish the
role-models of late night (here's looking at you Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel)
would stand for honoring womanhood, not glorifying the objectification and
sexual exploitation of women.
Consider this my mic
drop.