Question 2:
Most of you seem to agree that child sexuality is natural and normal on its own, but becomes problematic in the context of our culture. Do late-twentieth-century images (e.g. Calvin Klein ads, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Barbie, etc.), books (most famously, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, Forever and other books by Judy Blume), and films (Kids, the new Lolita, PG-rated movies with sex and nudity) involving child/adolescent sexuality promote or encourage kids to become sexually active before their time? Do they influence the rates of teen pregnancy and STDs, and the age at which kids lose their virginity today? Or, could it be argued that they promote positive sexual identities, comfort with one's own changing body, better gender/sexual relations and a freedom to ask questions?

Thanks to Celine for bringing our highfalutin theory back to earth. She says eloquently what I've heard from many other young people: We're sexual, we're having sex, and it's not because adults are manipulating, exploiting or bad role-modeling us into it. So get real, get used to it, and be a little helpful. As for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mom, Dad, please -- lighten up.
Speaking of role models, while I still insist that representation matters, a lot, in how we feel about sex and self, just as it influences what we think about prisons or Toyotas, I credit Stephen for reminding us that the task of art is not to provide positive role models (ugh!) but to challenge, move, even enrage us.
So on to challenging and enraging: Naomi Wolf. My response is not quite rage -- more like irritation, since her challenge is such predictably puddle-brained liberal laziness. "I'm a free-speech feminist, but . . ." Mainly, though, Huh? We're "crossing" into some, uh, "zone of [children's] privacy and dignity"? Get specific, Naomi. Give us suspects, indictable crimes. Even Joe McCarthy (of whose tactics hers are uncannily reminiscent) required the accusers to name names.

A. M. Homes and Stephen Schiff respond to Naomi Wolf's valediction

Question 1
A. M. Homes
James Kincaid
Judith Levine
Michael Medved
Stephen Schiff
Celine Texier-Rose
Naomi Wolf

Question 2
A. M. Homes
James Kincaid
Judith Levine
Michael Medved
Stephen Schiff
Celine Texier-Rose
Naomi Wolf

Question 3
A. M. Homes
James Kincaid
Judith Levine
Michael Medved
Stephen Schiff
Celine Texier-Rose
Sally Mann

Question 4
A. M. Homes
James Kincaid
Judith Levine
Michael Medved
Stephen Schiff
Celine Texier-Rose