Feminist Rages Against 'Sex-Obsessed Christian Group' Spreading 'Myth' Of an Oversexed Pop Culture

Over at Salon.com, feminist writer Amanda Marcotte is as consistent as the Parents Television Council in addressing MTV. PTC thinks it's a smutty channel, especially due to buzz-baiting sexual pranks like the twerking of Miley Cyrus at the 2013 show. Marcotte thinks if anything, MTV is behind the curve of cultural progress.

Marcotte believes that the "sex-obsessed Christian group" -- the PTC -- and other conservatives are spreading the "myth that our culture is oversexed." No, a myth would be that our culture is prim and proper and reticent to talk about sex or put nipple-slips or teenage orgies on TV. Marcotte thinks it's just so "retro" to try and hold the old-fashioned broadcast networks to any kind of limit on sex or sex talk:

PTC seems like a very retro organization these days, still hammering on about what’s on TV when everyone has immediate access to whatever entertainment they want through the Internet. But the organization matters, not just because it is symptomatic of the larger tendency on the right to use “the children” as cover for attacks on the choices of older people, but because they are still the biggest organization out there setting the agenda for what kind of media conservatives are going to hold out as evil. You know, because of the children.

And while PTC might not be very successful at getting stuff off TV, it and its proxies in the media are extremely good at spreading the myth that our culture is oversexed, especially to conservative audiences. That, in turn, leads to attacks on sex education, Planned Parenthood, and activists like Sandra Fluke who want insurance to cover birth control—anyone who is perceived as aiding this supposed over-sexualization.

At least Marcotte noticed that MRC president (and PTC founder) Brent Bozell hasn't run the PTC for years now. But the current PTC boss Tim Winter is apparently ruining his chance to be a moderate by objecting to McDonald's advertising on naked reality shows:

Winter is mad that McDonald’s advertised on a silly VH1 show called Dating Naked. “The juxtaposition of this historically family brand with such sexually graphic content is shocking,” he argues, even though the nudity on the show is obscured through pixilation and the contestants aren’t engaged in any more sexual behavior than on any other dating show. So McDonald’s can continue to use clowns and toys to encourage kids to eat all the grease and sugar they can stomach, but [G]od forbid a dating show that admits people are naked under their clothes.

Marcotte insists that the Cyrus twerking routine was simply proof that Miley "grew up" -- if that bizarre butt-shaking ritual in a bunny suit seemed especially mature. The problem with so much smutty pop culture is that it seems designed for 14-year-olds. MTV surely planned to exploit Miley's Disney Channel background and the kiddie-Halloween overtones of her outfit:

Cyrus gets singled out because she had the temerity to change from a squeaky clean child star to a more mainstream, risqué pop performer. In other words, she grew up. “Miley Cyrus built her career on the backs of teens, ‘tweens’ and their parents. But the content of her Bangerz Tour is wildly inappropriate for children and families, and NBC knows it,” Winter complained on the blog.

Even though Cyrus is now a grown woman, she is obligated to continue acting like she is a child. No big surprise there, as PTC’s entire existence is predicated on using children as a cover story for what they really want, which is an entertainment industry that treats grown adults like we are children.

Marcotte certainly wants to part of parenthood, calling babies "time-sucking monsters."