Mayim Bialik bemoans Ariana Grandes ads & the downfall of humanity

Mayim Bialik has a regular column at Kveller, in which she discusses parenting. Her current concern has to do with risqué advertisements, particularly featuring Ariana Grande. Mayim doesn’t specifically refer to which Ariana billboard bothers her, but they’re all the same. Ariana favors short skirts, bared midriffs, and “innocent”-looking ponytails. She doesn’t reveal more than any of her pop-star contemporaries. I think people find it bothersome that Ariana looks so young. I’m just glad she’s covering her bits and pieces.

Mayim is very restrained in her own sartorial leanings. Mayim is Orthodox Jewish and wears modest clothing as part of her religion. She always covers up and sometimes looks frumpy on the red carpet. In a recent essay, she seems very upset about the Ariana ads and constant barrage of Victoria’s Secret tushes.

I am a bleeding heart liberal without exception. But I am old-fashioned. My kids have clothes they only wear to synagogue. I don’t favor my kids cursing. I dress modestly. I don’t want my kids learning about sex from billboards. Stuff like that.

Which is why a few billboards I have seen lately really bug me. There is one for Ariana Grande, and I will go ahead and admit I have no idea who she is or what she does. Based on the billboard, she sells lingerie. Or stiletto heels. Or plastic surgery because every woman over 22 wishes she has that body, I’m sure. Why is she in her underwear on this billboard though? And if she has a talent (is she a singer?), then why does she have to sell herself in lingerie? I mean, I know that society is patriarchal and women are expected to be sexy and sexually available no matter what we do in society, but I guess now I need to explain that to my sons?

Then there are the Masters of Sex ads. Seriously? How am I supposed to explain those to my kids? Especially my older son who can read?

And while I’m having an old lady moment, what’s up with those ads for Levi’s jeans where it’s basically people groping each other as foreplay and undressing each other while making out? Just tearing those jeans off of each other’s bodies like it’s the last day to repopulate the earth. I saw this ad when I went to see the latest Planet of the Apes movie a month or so ago and I thought to myself, “I don’t want my kids seeing this ad if they come to the movies.” I just don’t want them to see this ad.

Am I a crotchety old lady? I guess so. But I just don’t understand why this is what ads need to look like. What good does it do for humanity or society? Why do I have to be OK with young women literally in lingerie on gigantic billboards? If I want to see women in lingerie, I can walk through any mall with a Victoria’s Secret.

[From Kveller]

I see what Mayim’s saying. It’s a little weird to witness VS ads alongside my daughter, but crying about the ads isn’t going to help. I know those ads aren’t going anywhere, and no one else is going to talk to my daughter about them. So I do what a parent is supposed to do: discuss it with my kid. Parents bring children into this world knowing that saucy stuff is out there. It’s not a surprise, so you deal with the subject. PG-13 ads will not go away simply because Mayim Bialik doesn’t want to discuss them with her sons.

Photos courtesy of WENN

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