In what prudish universe are leaked photos of a 21-year-old, grown-ass woman in lingerie scandalous? In the world of Nickelodeon, that's what.
Titillating pics of Jennette McCurdy, star of the network's Sam & Cat, are being blamed for the show—a massive hit—being put on permanent hiatus. While the issue is more murky and complicated than this, the fact that the photos were ever a story at all is somewhat of a wonder.
Of course, this is far from the first time there's been an uproar over a young starlet exposing all (or a carefully placed triangle.) Who could forget the horror when Britney Spears came out on stage stroking a snake wrapped around her neck, or when Christina Aguilera got drrrty as "Xtina," or when Miley Cyrus first exposed her naughty side by appearing topless with her dad (ew, ew, ew) or, most recently, when Selena Gomez posted an Instagram shot of herself naked, inexplicably tangled in curtains?
In many of these cases, the starlets seem to be actively rebelling against a system that mandated their youthful purity, actual maturity be damned. And without fail, all these cases have been met with a fair amount of hand-wringing from the public and, as the case may be, whatever company—hello, Nickelodeon and Disney!—that had previously been profiting off a squeaky-clean image.
The thing is (sorry fretting parents of the world!) teens are sexual beings. By the age of 18—61% of Americans have had sex—just about the age of the character McCurdy portrays on Sam & Cat. So is it really so awful, demoralizing and youth-corrupting for a star portraying someone this age to take photos of herself in lingerie?
In fact, presenting teen characters as totally chaste and pure is damaging to adolescents, because it's at direct odds with the raging hormones they're naturally dealing with—and are probably already feeling weird/conflicted about. There are broader implications for this, too: this conflict is at the heart of America's soaring teen pregnancy rate, which is often blamed on our insistence that teens be taught abstinence rather than how to use protection.
In other words: please stop acting like the McCurdy pics are scandalous or are going to transform your daughter into a sex-crazed panty-dropper. At 21 years old she has every right to get a little sexy in her undies. Moreover, it may actually be good for a teen audience to see her as such. We can't control hormones, but we can control how young people feel about their budding, often frightening, sexuality. And shame probably isn't the best way to go.
Image of a (sorry creepers, clothed) Jennette McCurdy: Wikimedia Commons
