Living in a world suffering from blindness

Have you ever been in a situation where the answer to a question is obvious, but for some reason no one but you realizes it? I remember sitting in college history classes during some discussions and wondering why no one could see the obvious answer to the question the professor was asking. (I am a genius after all.) Or when a friend or family member comes to you with problem and the solution is painfully simple. Of course, it is often easier to be outside of a situation to see the answer.

This morning as I read "Dear Abby", I felt like I was in one of those "duh" situations. A while back Abby got a letter from a woman who was upset that her husband took their 13 year-old son to a restaurant with "scantily clad" waitresses and then told him to keep it a secret. When the wife found out she was furious about it and the son sided with his father. Abby said the husband was out of line for trying to have the son keep it a secret from his mother. He shouldn't be doing things like that to his wife. So today someone wrote in wondering why it was such a big deal that the father asked this secret to be kept. This writer's argument being that a couple doesn't have to "know in down-to-the-minute detail everything a spouse/ lover has done while away from the other." What's the big deal about the secret? Abby agreed that she reacted strongly to the first letter, but still stood by her original answer that the husband shouldn't have tried to keep it a secret.

Okay, am I the only one with a brain here? Let's pretend the world has some morals and look at the obvious problem, the fact that the husband took his 13 year-old son to a place with half naked waitresses. Apparently I am the only one who found fault with that. Abby said "to me the important issue wasn't the amount of flesh being showing in the restaurant." The writer of today's letter stated she also didn't see that as a problem, "And why such a big deal over a little skin (and probably cleavage) showing? I often see less clothing on the young women when I'm out shopping for groceries!" Excuse me while I go bang my head on the wall due to the stupidity of all those involved in this issue. I too see women at the store who look like they forgot to get dressed for the day or who are competing to see if people can accurately guess their actual bra and panty size. However, it is one thing to run into them at the store and quite another to take a young teen to a place to purposely look at them. People don't go to those type of places for the food! Okay?! Taking the son there is sending a big message to the boy about women and their bodies. It's okay to see women as a pair of boobs and fantasize about their bodies. (Yeah, nothing wrong with that) The grocery store analogy doesn't work unless the father is also taking the son out in public to ogle over any scantily clad woman he sees. And yet staring at a woman in a tight top in the grocery store just wouldn't be appropriate.

I know, I am horribly "old fashioned". In a day and age where nobody really understands what feminism and equality among the sexes means I am teaching my girls that their value isn't found in their physical appearance and my boys that women are of divine worth and should be treated as such. My kids know that their bodies are sacred and that their behaviour should reflect that. Oh, I know, only a few see the obvious answer to the problem of divorce, teenage pregnancy, lack of respect and love in relationships, etc. I am sure Abby would tell me that I am the one overreacting if I wrote in my opinion on the matter. After all, it's not the "important issue".