Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 9, 1995 TAG: 9503090037
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETH MACY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
You didn't have to be 17 to read it. By the time you were, it was passe. Kid stuff.
Five years ahead of our time, we marveled at the make-up advice, sighed longingly at the ads for clothes we couldn't afford, and read the Q-and-A advice column out loud. From a 1976 "Relating" column:
The other night I found myself apologizing for not going to bed with Jim, a guy I recently started going with. ... Are there any virgins left in this world at the age of eighteen?"
Apparently there were, came the answer. Seventy-two percent remained virgins, according to a mid-'70s study of unmarried 15- to 19-year-olds.
I don't remember this specific issue. I don't remember even knowing the definition of "virginity" at that age, let alone relating to a girl who'd had hers threatened - but how titillating it must have been to read such words!
And I definitely didn't remember how intimate the Q-and-A column was until last week when I read about the Northern Virginia father who berated school officials for allowing his 12-year-old daughter to check out a Seventeen magazine from her middle school library.
Had the magazine I once relied on for advice on scarf-tying and mascara application become as "trashy" as the father claimed? Was he really justified in protesting the content of the February issue's column, called "How can I stop having sex?"
I found the questionable issue of Seventeen at the downtown Roanoke library, though it was not displayed on the shelf with all the others.
Librarians routinely keep it on the back shelves, where patrons must ask to use it. They keep the hot magazine in hiding - but not because it's trashy or inappropriate for young, developing minds.
They keep it back there because teens steal it if they don't.
I was all set to berate Stafford school officials for shelving the magazine, based on my own recollection of Seventeen as a showcase for lipstick ads, how-to-tie-dye illustrations and advice on where to rent the best powder-blue prom tuxes.
I was all set to come out against censorship. Freedom of the press-on nails and all that.
But I didn't find the wide-eyed innocence of Miss America-1976 on the cover of my old favorite. I found a cleavaged Cosmopolitan woman instead.
Seventeen magazine went from selling Clearasil to selling sex.
"KISSING: Are you doing it right?" beckons the cover blurb.
"Barbie's not just a doll - she's a plastic powerhouse," advises the "All Dolled Up" photo display of glittering hot-pink prom fashions. "For prom, the Barbie look is short, shimmery, and as playful as she is. ..."
Instead of ads for Ayds - remember those chocolate-coated diet delights? - Seventeen's ad for Calvin Klein cologne brought to mind the contemporary version of AIDS: An angry-looking shirtless male turns toward a braless pubescent, his leather belt partially unbuckled.
There's nothing here to stimulate the olfactories, but plenty of stimulation to go around. And yet you won't find a condom ad in sight.
Maybe I'm asking too much, but I want Seventeen to present a fuller picture. If it depends on dollars from advertisers who promote sex, then it owes it to readers to show what happens if they have sex.
Where are the stories on sexually transmitted diseases, the photographs of teen mothers, the difficult scenarios of teen-agers thinking and talking about sex - and not just suggesting the deed? Where's the reality?
Media outlets like Seventeen may argue that they're just reflecting the world around them. After all, that 72-percent figure on virginity has dropped to 47 percent in the past 20 years. (Among the 53 percent of teens who are sexually active, nearly half say they don't use condoms.)
Seventeen magazine never was the paragon of teen-age reality. Even as a 12-year-old slathered in baby oil at the Urbana City Pool, I never really believed I'd become a blemish-free Phoebe Cates or the freckled Breck Girl with that knock-out smile.
But it was fun to imagine.
Which is why Seventeen editors - and songwriters and television producers and advertising copywriters - owe it to adolescent girls to delve beyond the glittering hot-pink hawking of sex. They need to remember that Seventeen is still passe for 17-year-olds.
They need to present the "Reality Bites" equivalent of those Calvin Klein black-and-whites.
Beth Macy s a features department staff writer and Thursday columnist.
by CNB