You know, the good thing about weekends is it gives you time to relax. To unwind, to stretch your legs a little, and also maybe your word count a bit. But what to do with that extra space and freedom? Recently we've noticed that the New York Times has taken to filling the weekend void with poetic, allusive, hyper-detailed descriptions of underage girl-bodies that seem, well, just this side of yucky. Don't believe it? Read on.
"I had a huge headache, so I was in the back relaxing," Ariel said as she sat at her grandmother's table, looking sweet and tough as taffy in an oversize Sean Jean shirt, fatigue-style pajama pants and fluffy pink slippers.... During her Christmastime visit to her grandmother, on the way to buy a quart of milk, Ariel walked with a swagger that, after a lifetime of fights, has become as much a part of who she is as her full lips and her almond-shaped eyes.Sweet and tough as taffy? Is that salt-water taffy? Caramel? Fruit?
The really remarkable thing is that context doesn't appear to matter much at all. If it's not a work day, and a ripening girl happens to be a part of the story, the Times will go out of its way to make all involved really, really uncomfortable. Consider how that 14-year-old girl with smelly autistic brothers was described in the mag a few weeks back:
Her own face is heart-shaped, sprayed with faint freckles and often demurely animated — lips slightly pursed, eyes knowing — by a look of private amusement on the verge of being made public.At the end of the same Presidents Day weekend, a girl suffering herself from epilepsy (evidently, the new autism!) curiously took on the same heroin-chic nymphet vibe:
The first thing you notice about 12-year-old Nora Leitner is the dark circles under her eyes. They stand in stark contrast to the rest of her appearance; at a glance she might be any petite, pretty tween girl, with her blond ponytail, elfin frame and thousand-watt smile. But the circles tell a different story: Nora looks as if she hasn't slept in a month.And who can forget the "demureness" in that boy-girl straddling story:
Jessica, a soft-spoken girl who braids and pins up her hair before each match, says wrestling has helped build her confidence, challenging both her body and her mind.With the hairnet, the dark T-shirt under her singlet, and the headgear over her ears, there is something oddly demure about Jessica, even as she is on all fours with a boy riding her back. The onlookers yell, ''Lock in that leg'' and ''Keep pushing,'' and her mother yells, ''Come on, Jess, upsy-daisy.''
Where is all this coming from? Our hypothesis is that the trend began with that Dakota Fanning-rape-anticipating magazine story last summer about child actors trying to make it in Hollywood. Not that Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's article was all that titillating; that, um, honor belonged to Larry Sultran's hot/hot/gross photographs. It seems the Times has decided that, when it comes to the girls, 'tis better to tell too much than show it. EARLIER: The Secret Saturday 'Times'
















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