Well If It Wasn’t Creepy Before…
March 27, 2009 - 1:59 am by Ryan Phillips
Wednesday I did a post about how having the 17-year old Shawn Johnson on Dancing With The Stars was creepy. In the comments the sentiment was largely against my view. It was even insinuated that I was “Puritanical” by one of my fellow writers. Then this was reported yesterday.
You see? It’s all fun and games until a 34-year old stalker packs up and drives across the country to Los Angeles with a shotgun, Colt .45, zip ties, duct tape, newspaper clippings and love letters to a (barely) 17-year old girl and jumps a fence in an effort to “meet” her. It’s even better when he claims he knows they’re meant to have children together and that she communicates with him via ESP.
So with that in mind, does anyone else now agree with me that sexualizing a 17-year old on national television might be even a slightly bad idea?
9 Responses to “Well If It Wasn’t Creepy Before…”
So… I’m going to give the benefit of the doubt here and say that this is not a joke post in light of the news about the stalker.
And now I’m going to ask just what you are doing sexualising a 17-year old on a sports blog?
I mean, on the odd chance that women’s gymnastics is a big enough non-Olympic year concern it might be worth noting that she’s appearing on DWtS. And I would suppose in the context of pointing out how creepy it appears in or out of the context of that show, that it might be necessary to post a picture/video as an example. But the picture at the top of this very post? About a stalker with a very unhealthy obsession with a minor?
And on a blog that plays up to a likely large male readership using photos of women largely considered beautiful, many who have an even tangential relationship to sports, if at all?
Do you really wonder how an entertainment media that is obsessed with youth and beauty could provide potentially inappropriate exposure for a woman not yet of legal age?
By Santa Claustrophobia on Mar 27, 2009
I changed the picture because I finally found one of the stalker. Originally I just used the one the New York Daily News used. I didn’t think it was sexual in any way, it was just a picture from the show.
By Phillips on Mar 27, 2009
And no, that’s not me in the picture.
Also, if we can’t use a minor to sell sex to the viewers and drive up ratings and corporate profits, then this ain’t America, dang it! Yeah! Rumsfeld!
(I’ve been watching too much family guy)
By McD on Mar 27, 2009
I didn’t say you were wrong, Phillips. I just gave you a poster to help ease your pain.
By MJenks on Mar 27, 2009
I totally see your point, but the problem is so much bigger than Shawn Johnson. I mean, how is this different from the Olsen Twins (where someone had a countdown clock to their 18th birthday) or Lindsay Lohan (who was all sexed up at 17 in Mean Girls) or those Miley Cyrus pictures in Vanity Fair?
By Red on Mar 27, 2009
Let’s give him a little credit, I doubt Phillips sees Johnson as the face of the issue. Rather, it’s an issue, and spending his alone time watching DWTS drove it home for him.
Whether or not we should judge him for watching the show is another issue and I will say now that I find it highly unlikely that you just happen to come across this…
P.S. that guy could not be any creepier
By Pablo on Mar 27, 2009
Actually, and this is completely honest, a friend had emailed me the clips of Johnson on the show saying it was creepy. So I tuned in for part of an episode to see if I agreed with her. And yes, I do. That’s how the whole thing started.
By the way, I’ve read some info on this guy on a few Web sites about the case and it just keeps getting creepier.
Apparently the last time his family and friends saw him before this incident, he was talking to a tree. No joke.
By Phillips on Mar 27, 2009