Recently the world has been acquainted with Montana Fishburne. At first the last name sounded familiar to us (is she somehow related to that actor whose last name is Fishburne?) and when we finally realized who she was (yeah she is Larry Fishburne’s daughter!) we were shocked to know why her name was suddenly appearing on blogs and in the news. She wants to be famous and start her own empire! (Wow, i’m so happy for her, a young lady who has such a big dream.) The disappointing part to this entire story is the way in which she chooses to launch her “career.” The media is fascinated with our outward appearances (hair, skin, smile) but even more fascinated with our body parts and what we can do with them (breast, butt, thighs) just a mere mention of those words will definitely grab many people’s attention. Ms. Montana Fishburne knew what to do (in her opinion) in order to launch a career and that was to release a sex tape. Well she did one positive thing, she got people talking. No one knew who she was before but now we all have heard of her, some people out there have seen her tape, some have seen her pictures, either way she got us all talking. The question is, did she accomplish what she set out to do? She is selling sex, it has worked before for other “celebrities” so as the old saying goes “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it,” by that I mean the sex trade. No one is here to judge Ms. Montana and her career choice, but what role does the media play in all of this? After all the media is the one who picked up this story, they are the ones who are blogging about her, radio host are talking about her, so technically the media (mainstream) is helping to promote sex. It is something that many people are fully aware of but when will this obsession with oversexed “celebrities” stop? An even bigger questions is why is it so important? Are our lives not fulfilled enough? Do we need to play into someone’s desperate cries for attention and fame? Almost everyone that the media has discussed who released a sex tape has gone on to profit off of the sales of such tape, have reality shows, clothing lines and the list can go on for days. These people are really great at marketing and one can learn something from them, it is just disappointing to see what they are marketing (their bodies) and how they choose to do so. As a young child I was filled with a richness of my own culture that made me want to make great decisions in life. Their was “A Different World” (which made me excited about going to college one day,) music from Queen Latifah (U.N.I.T.Y), Teen Summit on B.E.T. and a host of other programs that made me feel good about my future. Can one imagine being a ten year old child now? Their are reality shows about “bad girls” and women who continually make poor decisions about worthless guys. Is this the direction our future is headed in? The next generation needs to know that your body is your temple, that school is important, that you do not have to conform to other people’s wants, that you can be free to make your own decisions. While it is a parent’s job to teach this to children it is understandable that some parents are working two to three jobs, that children endure hardships as well, and that they sometimes turn to music or the television as a form of babysitting or comfort. Hopefully in time the media will start turning towards a more uplifting direction, but for now it seems that sex will continue to sell until people stop feeding into it.
