Wednesday, June 23, 2004
KNIGHT RIDDER TRIBUNE
Bette Midler, who's co-starring in "The Stepford Wives," has a 16-year-old daughter. Midler reports she's incensed by the way the media panders to young people. "The thing that I think is really unfair is that the advertisers and the media see the kids younger and younger as a source of revenue," she says.
"They don't really care. That thing where you have to protect your children has really gone out the window, and I really, really resent it. I'm really, really sorry that people don't make more of a fuss about it. Something has happened in the last 20 years. People are so chic. They used to march. People used to scream, and they don't do it anymore. I guess that they're so busy trying to pay off their credit cards that they don't take an active part in it. Maybe they say, 'I'm just one person. What difference can I make?'
"But I really think that it's offensive, and I think that it's unfair to the children because their childhood is basically cut off. After you've seen so much sexuality, they're sexual at 8 and 9 and 7. You see little girls bumping and grinding in their bikinis, and it's appalling because childhood is the best part of your life. It's the part that's the funniest. It's the part that you remember the best, and if you're grown up by the time that you're 8, what do you have to look forward to?"