Why, Dakota, why?

It seems like at least part of the general public is as enraged about this next story as I am! For those who haven't yet heard, 12-year old formerly cute and awesome actress Dakota Fanning will appear topless and will do a rape scene in the movie Hounddog. This totally disgusts me! Why the heck would anyone want to see pedophilia in a movie? I mean, it's gross and happens all the time in real life, and the whole point of movies is to create an imaginary world that is cooler and more fun than the real world! Emphasizing the dark aspects of life totally defeats the purpose of movies.

Some people claim that it's important to educate the public about child abuse. Well, I think most people already know that rape is bad! It's not as if they need to be taught that. And it's not as if pedophilia doesn't get enough media coverage! The media gives a lot of attention to child abuse; just take the case of Jessica Lunsford, or Shasta Groene, or Carlie Brucia, or the hullabaloo over the Catholic priests for example! The last thing the media needs to do is focus on child abuse some more!!

Others defend Dakota's role by saying that she must have consented to it, and that her parents would not have had her do it if she weren't comfortable. Well, the fact that she was willing to do something so gross is certainly not something I hold in her favor!

Finally, to those who claim that rape and nudity are art, you are utterly wrong! Art is beautiful and uplifting. Nakedness and sex are aesthetically hideous. Take, for example, The Polar Expresss, The Chronicles of Narnia, Because of Winn-Dixie, or Disney's High School Musical. Now those movies are art! Fun, imagination, and fantasy make a good movie, not dark, depressing subjects like pedophilia!

This despicable story is becoming high-profile -- my favorite news source, CNN, has a video about it on its home page. I cannot find a text article there, but until I do here's this.

For more go to Google News. Or, to see some interesting debate, check out the IMDB message board. You might even see a post or two by yours truly. Just beware that you need to sign up for a free account, and there are some extremely obnoxious people on those forums!