The Ratchet Years

Raise your hand if you know a 40+ year-old aspiring pornogra...uh...urban model.  You and I probably know about 20-30 each, with maybe one or two of those who are honest enough to declare that tag for themselves, and another few more that are...well...you.  Via their pics and the captions, the love they have for themselves is so strong, so real, that they force their children to prepare for real life 'yo mamma' jokes.  They're so secure in their call center jobs that they don't bat an ill-advised fake eyelash when taking a quick bathroom pic...on company time...while wearing their badge.  They spend hundreds of dollars on perverts with expensive cameras and Photoshop.  They're all about the dollar, all about respect, and please...hold the judgement.  They are the shining glory of the ratchet years.

I interviewed a couple yesterday who desires to work with our teen ministry, and the wife sprung that term on me....the ratchet years.  The familiar but catchy slogans' brilliance was only enhanced when she defined it.  In discussing the plummet of young women's self-perception, she went on to mention that it was the attention-seeking, emotionally-desperate, grown women that were the driving force behind the ratchet years.  And she continued that while teaching young women that filtered, inappropriate images don't define a person; she was saddened that an entire generation who didn't grow up under such imagery is lost.

Are we dealing with mass emotional suffering because of broken marriages, divorces, and decades of being single and visual degradation is the cry out for thousands of women?  Is it even degrading to take three-quarters naked photographs while claiming to be a Proverbs 21 women?  Is there a difference between a Kate Upton who takes pictures for Sports Illustrated for a couple hundred thousand a shoot and a @BlackCherryChick (not a real person) paying to take pictures for Instagram in a housing-project-living-room-turned-photo-studio?  What exactly is self worth...and is there a blurred boundary between that, confidence, and hidden despair?  I guess the answers to all of those questions would fall on the opinion of the object (no pun intended).  But it would be hard to find in the Word of God that either scenario, which basically is for men to be attracted to a product by lustfully looking at a woman, was what The Lord God intended for any lady.  Still, a persons' prerogative is just that; their prerogative.  And if you want to show cyberspace how much you love yourself by questionably promoting your flesh, I pray you've prepared your child to be witty in his or her responses.  More importantly, I pray you ask yourself this question...the question that the reformed of the sex industry have asked themselves for years...is this way I want others to see of me who God says I am?

You have to believe your life and your child's school years are worth more than 200 likes.

Peace