Parents can hardly criticize New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner for his latest sexting escapade when their teens commit the same deed (and have done so for years) – or so says The Daily Beast.
The Daily Beast’s Lizzie Crocker agonized over the conundrum, asking, “In the wake of Anthony Weiner's latest sexting scandal, one question has emerged that’s particularly tough to answer: How can parents explain to their kids that Weiner was wrong, when your typical Snapchatting teen has likely been sexting for years?” The Daily Beast, a liberal reporting and opinion news site, published the article entitled “If Sexting Is So Wrong, Why Does It Feel So Good?”
Crocker highlighted how sexting, or “sending dirty pics” for “kids these days” has become “as routine as breathing” – “which kind of makes it hard to chastise Anthony Weiner.”
“Routine as breathing?” Wow. Guess there isn’t much parenting going on when The Daily Beast closes up shop for the night.
Even celebrities do it, Crocker argued, like Rihanna and Gossip Girl’s Blake Lively.
Among other examples, Crocker cited a “typical” 25-year-old single male who sends pictures where his “junk is draped over a Capri Sun juice box” as well as “veiny close-ups” in order to “to shock, surprise, and castigate” his friends.
Crocker admitted that the “average teen or 20-something sexter likely isn’t dealing with the issue of power dynamics that comes with an older male figure preying on a younger woman, à la Weinergate.” They also lack media paparazzi, and “spouses who suffer the disgrace of being the good wife.”
She didn’t give up her case though. Despite “terrified” parents and a study correlating sexting and a higher rate of teen sex, Crocker pressed on, “But given that the content of their sexts is pretty much the same as Weiner’s, if not worse, should we be worried? Or is it the opposite—has it become so mundane, it’s not even worth stressing over?”
Hypersexualized teenagers with more communication technology than the Apollo moon shots had. Pretty mundane. But hey, in couple of years, sexting could be resume enhancer, showing a mastery of social media and an extroverted personality.
In the mean time, Weiner’s “Carlos Danger” persona has lots of liberals pondering whether they’re ready to forgive sexting politicians. Writer and noted forensic gynecologist Andrew Sullivan doesn’t think it’s a disqualifier, while ABC is studying whether or not sexting “counts” as “cheating.”
