Comment threads have an interesting life of their own; for instance last month I posted on Nickelodeon’s forthcoming Naked Brothers Band, and in the comments was passed along a link to this YouTube video. It’s a promo piece for the show and includes an interesting turn of events. Below is a still image from that video.
The image is precisely what it looks like: An eight-year-old boy has his face virtually nestled in a woman’s cleavage. As depicted in the video, the act is meant to be (probably) innocently-amusing, but it strikes me as being a little off — to say the least — that a “babysitter” would be made such an obvious erotic focus.
This season of South Park included an episode in which Ike, Kyle’s brother, becomes sexually involved with his schoolteacher. This is flatly impossible, of course, because Ike is in Kindergarten, but the intent of the show was to highlight the hypocrisy of a society that decries molestation of girls or boys by men, but seems to support it when the perpetrator is a woman, particularly an attractive one. (They probably also wanted to push the age down so far in order to get viewers really thinking about the idea of too young, and when they think too young is … well, too young.)
Part of the problem was that whenever Kyle tried to report the act, the men he was talking to (cops, school authorities, etc.) would ask for details, then reply with something along the lines of, “Whoah … she was doing what with him? Niiiiice…”
Kyle’s point was that whether Ike’s teacher was “hot” or not, whether the teacher was a woman or man, should make no difference. She had no business doing what she was doing.
Look at the above image again and ask yourself if you’d find it anywhere near as amusing if it was an eight-year-old girl shown practically rubbing her face against the groin of a Chippendale’s dancer … or, for that matter, if it were the same boy with said dancer.*
And ask yourself again what the hell Nickelodeon thinks it’s doing, and whether, as some respondents on the other thread have suggested, I’m unaware of what I’m talking about.
Update: A followup post on the other thread pointed to another video which features our bosom-obsessed skin-pounder asking questions such as, “Does ‘alienate’ mean ’squeeze boobies’?” The obsessive way the boy returns to the question, coupled with the poorly-performed “wild hilarity” of the other boys in the room, makes me wonder why it is that this misogynistic sequence was scripted into the show at all.
Between the clingy focus on sex (too young) and the clear message that the only thing about women that matters is “boobies”, all I can do is hope this benighted travesty of an “entertainment” will die a very silent — and complete — death.
What’s particularly bizarre about all of this is that Nick appears intent on running this series — even though it was just fifteen years ago that Pee-Wee’s Playhouse was cancelled because a man named Paul Reubens was caught masturbating in a porno theater … and the fallout from the 2004 Super Bowl débacle is apparently of little concern to the bottom-feeders liners at Nickelodeon HQ.
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* Apart from suggesting that busty women are merely sexual playthings for boys, this scene seems to be legitimizing the idea that an eight-year-old boy can have a sexual or demi-sexual relationship with a grown woman. Does any of this seem okay?
8:50 on January 20th, 2007
omfg. These kids are really creepy. I’m glad other people besides me realize this.
8:07 on January 27th, 2007
people there EDITING the movie. DO you think nick has lost its mind as to put that on there. Other than that it a good movie calm down
18:01 on January 30th, 2007
It dosen’t matter if Nick edits these shots or not, because young veiwers will sooner or later find out the truth of what this so called ‘band’ does behind the scenes.
Frankly, Courtney, with you saying “calm down”, your not aware how truely disgusting this band’s actions really are. How they will manage to screw up youthful minds, like everything else on this planet.
I have nothing more to say about how degrading this is.
21:55 on February 3rd, 2007
you do need to CALM DOWN! So wow, this kid is all up in this women cleavege. who cares? don’t let ur kids watch it if your so concerned.. simple sulution. this is a great baand, and that was only 1 band member actions.. you talkign about the whole band and they did nothing. besides its a 8 year old kid! he doesn’t know any better, and as for the baby sitter, shes just stupid. not your porblem, so don’t say antyhing,
17:35 on February 4th, 2007
Get this gosh darn filth off our television sets! A young boy being interested in *gasp* a women’s bosoms, this is absurd; this surely with corrupt the flaccid minds of our children– I’m a god fearing christian and damn proud of it!
… *smirk* =D
Same sh*t… new show. It’s all crap TV just cut the wire from behind your television sets. You have a lot more to worry about then the “naked brothers band” on TV. Which I find kind of humourous that so many have raised objections about.
Not much you can do, eh? besides maybe get a sense of humour? *smirk*
19:37 on February 5th, 2007
…actually what he is saying is ’see’. SEE, not… squeeze.
…it’s different…but it’s sort-of the same
19:42 on February 5th, 2007
oh wait… that was me that said Warren had no idea what he was talking about….
yaaah… I have pretty much changed my opinion about the Naked Brothers Badn, and my opinion about Warren, also.
4:48 on February 6th, 2007
“don’t let ur kids watch it if your so concerned.. simple sulution”
If you ever saw any other postings on other blogs, I’ve stated multiple time that I’m not a parent.
“that was only 1 band member actions.. you talkign about the whole band and they did nothing.”
It does concern the band as well, because they allow it.
There’s no point debating anything here, when it’s all on http://indigestible.nightwares.com/2006/12/29/naked-brothers-band/#comment-546
4:49 on February 6th, 2007
To the person whose name is “your pathedic daniell”, if you want to insult me by calling me ‘pathedic’ then get you typos sorted out.
20:09 on February 10th, 2007
Oh my gosh.There is so much controversy around the movie.So let’s get it straight.
-Alex Wolff did not say ’squeeze boobies’he said ’see boobies’.Although it is strange,I think it pulls drama out of the situation.
-This scene was nowhere in the movie.I’m not sure where you guys found this scene,but no children anywhere were exposed to this,and I know,because I personally watched the advanced screening,world premiere,and encore presentation.
-I’m quite sure that if you lazy people would stop complaining here and write Nickeldeon Studios a letter,they would respond and do anything they could.Some people of the Cuban persuasion wrote them a letter angry that one of the children were wearing a shirt of a mass Cuban murderer,and Nick blurred out the shirt immediately.
But like it or not,I doubt Nickeldeon is going to shut down this show because you guys feel so strongly for this with so much unstable evidence for you and such strong evidence against you.I’m very much for this band,and NNB is here to stay.Like Alex assured Nat in their movie:
“Naked Brothers never wash up!”
2:33 on February 20th, 2007
*sigh* first off i didnt know the name of the show, second i never knew it was a movie and third its a tv series with multiple episodes which afiya doesnt seem to know, if you have no problem with an 8 year old and a grown women then do you have a problem with an 8 year old and michael jackson? just a thought but would you please get your head out of your ass because there seems to be too much bullshit in your views, anyone that thinks this is alright also sides with michael jackson (its the same situation just different faces)
2:39 on February 20th, 2007
uhhhh ignore my last post or change some of the words plz i failed to read the posting policies etc. sorry about that
8:00 on February 20th, 2007
I didn’t see a particular need to alter the content of the previous post; there wasn’t anything overtly threatening and it’s not like I’ve never used the word “bullshit”. A little less personal attack would be better, though.
The comparison is apt between “Jesse”, Alex and Jacko. Scenes like what we see in the original movie (and, by the way, Alex is absolutely and very distinctly saying “squeeze boobies”, NOT “see boobies”) sexualize the relationships between children and adults, and that is simply not OK.
What if it had been MJ — or an exotic male dancer? Would Alex’s interest have been so “innocent” then? Amid all the grousing about how “innocent” this scene is, I notice that no one has yet bothered to answer this question.
Why not? Too uncomfortable to think about?
18:17 on April 1st, 2007
They probably took the picture at a wrong time. That always happens to people.She was probbly getting up when they took the picture or something. Why does everyone have to be so uptight!?
18:22 on April 1st, 2007
He cant actually like her!!! Thats his cousin. He said on a behind the seens video:
“Yuck! Jesse is my cousin. Why would i have a crush on my cousin?”
Shes an actress. They just act like they like each other in the show.
18:31 on April 1st, 2007
Afiya is right!!!
Danielle- Your correcting people for their typos. And your making a big deal out of it. GET A LIFE!!! You don’t have a kid, so you don’t have to be concerned! Your making this way too big of a deal. And you are pathetic. The actions are disgusting??? I watch the show like every day and I don’t see anything disgusting about it. They are just acting.
“Ihave nothing more to say about how degrading this is.”
^
haha so you just keep on going??? When you say that your not going to say anything else bad about it then don’t say anything bad about it. YOU ARE SO ANNOYING!!!
7:36 on April 2nd, 2007
Brittany:
If you watch the video clip you see that’s not the case. “Jesse” is sitting there for a good 30 seconds and Alex has his face stuffed right into her cleavage.
It’s not about being uptight. It’s about preteen boys being sexualized. On the one hand we’ve got Chris Hansen busting pervs on “To Catch a Predator” — but on the other hand we’ve got a fictional eight-year-old with an apparent titty fixation.
Don’t you see the problem here? The message is schizophrenic.
22:34 on April 2nd, 2007
No, No, No, I think Warren has a valid point (sorry, cant get enough of this topic; poor Warren what have you created?). Anyway I do think he is right, sex is sex, love is love, no matter who it is; male or female and you’re absoulutly right if it was a sexual reference about a male it wouldn’t have appeared ‘innocent’ at all… just wrong and twisted, so why shouldn’t it be the same way with a heterosexual comment? I guess partly because homosexuality isnt as socially accepted, especially for children to comment on (seeing as they probably dont know exactly know what they ‘are’ at that age and probably shouldn’t care)
3:09 on April 3rd, 2007
Thanks, DT, but my comment wasn’t really meant to be about the merits of homo-bi-heterosex in general, which I think is a personal choice, provided everyone’s of age and everyone’s on board with it and everyone’s playing safe.
It’s more about how we, as a weirded-out society in re sex, can think it’s OK on the one hand for a preteen boy to want tit, but that it’s not okay for a woman in her 30s to bone one of her own teenaged students.
There’s a real disconnect here, and it’s obviously pathological. I think parents want to lead their kids away from wrong sex, too-early sex, abusive sex; but when it seems like Nick is putting out messages that undermine these very ideals, well.
And yeah, I didn’t know what I was getting into by even mentioning this crap. Jeez. FTR, some of the creepiest hits I get from search engines tend to run along the lines of “ben 10 gwen hentai naked brothers band naked boys breasts preteen sex”, usually in the same search phrase. Dammit, you pervs, that is NOT WHAT THIS BLOG IS ABOUT.
I really wish Nick hadn’t turned this damned show into a series.
17:24 on April 4th, 2007
Warren– Why would he like his cousin.. That is so disgusting.
“Yuck! Jesse is my cousin. Why would i have a crush on my cousin?”
Thats what alex said in a special feature of the movie. If he said that then obviously he doesnt like her and he doesnt know what he’s doing. You guys cant just watch a video and then just attack a 10 year old about it. You weren’t there so you can’t really say anything. I’m sure his mom (the director) wouldn’t let him do that. Try watching the show or something. You may approve of it. Alex is about 10 years old and Nat is 12, so they act older. Just TRY watching it. I think it’s hilarious and it’s an awesome movie!! He’s 10!!! give him a break. haha. I wonder what he would say if he saw this. He’d probably laugh at you guys for making this a huge deal and for acting so stupid. Get your own life and stop concentrating so much on theirs. Why don’t you just drop the subject? Their are worse things happening in the world and your spending all of your time talking about something that a little boy did like 3 years ago?
Pathetic…
8:08 on April 5th, 2007
Brittany, you’re the one who brought it back up. This post’s thread went uncommented for two months until you came back the other day. Since I initially wrote it back in January I’ve done dozens of others, none of which were on NBB at all.
I’m not the one who’s having trouble moving on.
As for your sad defense of the indefensible, it’s abundantly clear you haven’t even bothered to watch the excerpt — or, if you have, that you really can’t offer anything to explain the behavior that it shows. I’m guessing it’s the former or you wouldn’t even be trying to argue.
18:07 on April 5th, 2007
well people should know.
I actually saw this the other day and thought that I would make a comment. So kill me for saying something. I didnt know that there wasnt such thing as freedom of speech.
And I have explained it but you guys just havent listened. Because parents never listen to their kids or any other kid for that matter, because danielle or whatever her name is said that kids arent responsible enough to make their own decisions.
The show has a lot of good lessons to it.
Like believing in yourself and working hard and thats something that youll never know about, because your the one that thinks kids should be isolated from all things fun in life.
21:13 on April 5th, 2007
Brittany, you seem to be adept at making judgments about people whom you’ve never met, quick judgments that could be quite unfair. That makes it much harder to take you seriously when you suggest I’m being unfair in the way I view this TV series.
You seem to think I haven’t bothered to watch NBB and that’s not correct; I’ve tried, but I haven’t been able to make it through any one episode. It just seems silly to me, and while I agree that there may well be valid life-lessons in the series, my opinion is that they’re lost in escapades which are, to me, a little too goofy to take.
That’s not to say anyone who watches NBB is a loser or anything; it’s just a question of personal taste. I don’t care for movies like Gone in 60 Seconds or gangsta rap either, also for reasons of personal taste. Doesn’t mean there’s anything automatically wrong with someone who’s a fan of any form of music, movies, etc., it just means I personally may not care for it — and as you’ve pointed out, I have a right to state my opinions on the topic, every bit as much as you do.
But taste isn’t what I was concerned about, particularly with this post. What troubled me about the scene with Alex and Jesse is that it seems overtly sexual, and I simply do not feel that it’s appropriate for a staged, scripted show to place a preteen boy in the position of even appearing to be sexually attracted to an adult woman.
Had Alex been, say, fifteen, it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as big a deal, because you expect a boy at fifteen to be into girls. But at eight it seems, at best, contrived; at worst it seems a little more like a dangerous foray into what’s called grooming behavior, which is used by molesters as a precursor to abuse of children. They get the kids thinking some things are OK which probably are not, and then take advantage of those kids.
I’m not saying that’s what was going on with Jesse and Alex. I’m saying that some Creepy Old Man type might watch the movie with a kid he wants to mess with, then try to convince him that it’s OK to fool around in some way or another that really isn’t OK (hey, why not, here’s Alex doing it, so it must be OK, right?), and the next thing you know he’s taking pictures or worse.
You’re right that there are plenty of things to have fun with in life, and you’re right when you suggest there’s no reason to block kids from enjoying those things. But stuffing an eight-year-old’s face into a woman’s cleavage is probably not one of the kinds of things most parents would want their kids exposed to, and I think it’s one of those things that can happen too young.
One of the hallmarks of a reasonable argument is the attempt to see the other person’s perspective — arguing is not simply two people shouting at each other, in person or online. That’s just fighting. An argument is more like a dialogue than a shouting match, and what I’ve been trying to argue is that there may have been one point (at least) in the NBB movie where some lines were crossed which should not have been crossed.
You’re free to disagree, but it’s better in doing so to avoid launching personal attacks against someone, suggesting that the person is in essence closed-minded or simply too dense to understand what seems so obvious to you. It’s better to try to state, clearly and reasonably, things that you think support your position.
For instance, when you say “The show has a lot of good lessons to it”, you’re putting out a good argument in favor of your position. You’re saying that there’s more depth to it than I might have seen, that maybe you think I’ve overlooked some important details because of some of the silliness the series can drop into. You might be right about that. It could be that there’s a lot more to the show than I realize because I haven’t given it a fair chance.
My answer to that is that I think I have given it as much of a chance as I can stand to give it, mostly because it’s aimed at a far younger demographic than the one I occupy (that is, NBB is really made for preteen, tween and early-teen kids, not fully-grown adults).
To me this means that a lot of the stuff it covers won’t really be new to me. One of the things that happens when you age and collect experience is you can often start seeing the ending coming right after the story begins, and all the music and storytelling in the world won’t necessarily help you get through the plot. (This, by the way, is why I stopped watching late Star Trek shows such as Enterprise and Voyager — I’d seen it all before and I had better things to do with the time. So don’t think I’m just picking on NBB.)
I’m sorry you came on this post late; but every post (and comment) has a publication date and time attached to it. You can use that to look and see how old a given topic is before you decide to reply. This one isn’t very fresh, and I’m not sure why it came up in your searches just recently, but that’s not my fault.
While you might disagree with me on the quality of NBB, it’s not fair of you to suggest that there’s something fundamentally wrong with me or my outlook on life because I mentioned, back in January, that I found a scene in the movie that the show is based on to be unsettling.
I know it can also seem brutally unfair that adults seem to have all the power, and that maybe they make decisions which truly are stupid. I find that to be terrible, myself — I can think of a hell of a lot of bad decisions which have been made in the last half decade by adults who (I think) have too much power and who are way out of line. The only thing I can do is try to argue my points, in whatever means seem effective for persuasion, even if I often just drop into angry rants.
I’m sorry if I’ve come off as particularly nasty to you. I shouldn’t have. I forget sometimes that not everyone I meeet online is exactly my age, education level, background and so on, and if I was unfair to you I apologize. I’m not trying to be one of the power-hoarding bullies you run into sometimes, people who tell you, “Because I said so, that’s why”; I never liked hearing stuff like that when I was a kid and I don’t have a lot of respect for adults who behave that way now. Usually, I think, when you get an answer like that from an adult when all you’re asking is why, it’s because they don’t have a good answer, and they know it and they feel like they’ve been outsmarted by a kid, and there are a lot of adults who don’t like it when that happens.
But please try to remember that just because someone disagrees with you doesn’t automatically mean they’re your enemy. Sometimes they just have a different way of looking at things than you do — but it doesn’t always make them wrong, and it doesn’t hurt to try simply saying what you have to say, calmly, and seeing how things go.
14:09 on April 6th, 2007
its a kids show. its supposed to be silly. kids think that silly is funny. He was 6 at the top. That video was made a while ago.
That videos not even in the show. It was on youtube. So obviously kids wont watch the show and see that on there.
I agree with you that we do have different tastes because your an adult and im not, but i do think that it is unfair for an adult to judge a kids movie and show, because they may not have the same outlook on it. The reason that kids love the show is because some kids would love to be musicians and actors (or actresses). The kids on the show inspire other kids that watch it. And they are role models for the good things that they do. Not the bad things.
21:46 on April 6th, 2007
That’s a fair objection and you’re right, we do have different outlooks on the show because of the very real differences we have in age and so on. Your reasons for liking NBB are good ones too, and you’re correct to point out that the kids on the show are doing some of the things a lot of kids want to do. There’s nothing wrong with any of that.
The sense I get from the few episodes I’ve made it partway through is that the general tone of the series isn’t trying to lead anyone into doing anything wrong; but there seems to be a constant return to the idea of wanting to have a girl/boyfriend. Again, while that’s not a bad thing, it might be a little early for at least some of the kids watching to be thinking about things like that.
That was and remains my only real objection to some of the things that happen in the show. All the rest is really just about personal taste, as I mentioned earlier, and you’re correct to point out that taste alone isn’t necessarily a good reason to trash NBB — which I’m honestly not trying to do, even if I come off that way sometimes.
Thanks for your comments; you’ve done well in expressing your feelings here and I appreciate your defense of NBB. It’s well-stated and I think you’re right about the points you make.