It's a teen show about a bunch of high schoolers and there's vampires, witches, werewolves and now ghosts. It's drama out the wazoo and although I'm not a drama kind of girl, I LOVELOVELOVE this show.
So one part of the show is that there's a lot of sex. Everyone is falling in love and hooking up. The main couple, Elena and Stephen, are doing sleep overs. Elena's BFF Caroline started with vampire Damon, then good guy Matt and now is with vamp/wolf hybrid Tyler.
I never thought twice about all the sex until last night when they were staring their last year of high school. WTF!!
Now the actors are all in their 20s and look it. So I probably never thought twice about the sex because they all look old enough to be hooking up (some look old enough to be parents). But on the show they were juniors in high school and sleeping around. All of them.
I was so upset. Upset with myself for not recognizing the age of the characters. Upset that there are programmers out there who think it's appropriate to have a show with high school juniors (and sophomores) sleeping around and spending the night at their lover's homes. Upset that there are parents and guardians on the show who are concerned that their kids are paranormal but don't give a damn that they're sluts.
I think we're done watching. I'm so disappointed with the show for not being clear of the character's ages. And the morals being so down the toilet. This is not what I want my daughter thinking high school is.
I remember an episode of Buffy where Tara and Willow share a kiss and how irate a commenter was, to the effect she would no longer allow her daughter to watch the show. Others bashed the mom for thinking a sweet romance was worse than all the blood and violence.
ReplyDeleteSo I asked my sister, foster mother to many, many boys over the years, for her take on sex vs. violence in movies and on television. She said that the violence never made an impression on her boys, it just rolled off them, not real at all. The sex, though, no matter how tame, loomed large for all of them. Any titillation, anything remotely sexual had them riveted and fascinated, and the impact of it lasted well beyond what it should have. They have no perspective or context when it comes to sex, which makes watching it all the more treacherous.
All that was a long way of saying I understand and agree with your reaction to Vampire Diaries.
Thank you for saying that because I don't want to be an overacting mother but man, that bothered me a lot.
ReplyDeleteThe way I see it, until children mature and have a context, a healthy, age-appropriate one, you're the gatekeeper. You know your child best and your instincts are telling you this wasn't right for the two of you. It's hard to unlearn something, better to keep the genie in the bottle for now. You'll know when the time comes to uncork it and discuss.
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