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TechnoratiNEW YORK – A director at the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization criticized the United Nations’ upcoming meetings discussing the world’s girl childs, noting that the organization is not addressing negative cultural influences in girls’ lives.
Using Britney Spears as a model, Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, director and senior fellow of Concerned Women for America (CWA)’s Beverly LaHaye Institute, went on to show how not addressing the real-life negative effects of popular culture and sexual promiscuity can be just as damaging to girl childs as having limited rights.
“Britney illustrates what happens when we fail to address the ‘harmful attitudes and practices’ of popular culture,” said Crouse on the CWA website.
According to the United Nations, there is a need to stand up for girls’ rights. Children all over the world have been exploited in a number of ways, especially with their sexuality, and the international organization has come up with eight strong recommendations for helping girl childs.
"Shortchanging girls is not only a matter of gender discrimination; it is bad economics and bad social policy," noted the U.N. Millennium Report. “[Girls] receive inadequate information, guidance and services to help them to go safely through adolescence to adulthood ... especially regarding their reproductive and sexual health."
While the CWA does not disagree with the U.N. recommendations, it sees a missing influence that they must tackle.
“The dangers to girls from the worst of American culture can be just as destructive as the cultural practices that are recognized around the world as harmful to girls and women,” said the CWA director on the website.
To strengthen her argument, Crouse used the life of Britney Spears to illustrate the damaging effects of not addressing sexualized culture.
“Some would argue that Britney is the poster girl for ‘empowerment’ because she took charge of her sexuality, as the feminists challenged her generation to do,” added the senior fellow. “Yet, clearly her life is out of control.”
She went on to cite many “bizarre” incidents from Britney’s life including an onstage kiss with Madonna, her two marriages, a nude pregnant photograph in Harper's Bazaar, and her recent head shaving.
Crouse also cited that 37 percent of American children are born out-of-wedlock today, and that 15 million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases appear every year.
The CWA director will be in New York at the U.N.'s Commission on the Status of Women for the next two weeks in which she will write a nightly commentary on the proceedings.
