I'd like to introduce to you today Dusty Crabtree,
a fellow Musa author. She will be my first guest blogger and sharing her post about the lack of
morality in the media and its effect on teens. Enjoy!Where Have All the Morals Gone?
While shopping at the mall, 16-year-old Sarah strolls into
Abercrombie and Fitch to peruse the racks.
On her way out, she passes a giant poster of a sexy couple caressing
each other’s bare skin, with lips so close they’re almost kissing. She drives home and parks herself on the
couch, grabs a remote, and turns on MTV.
The song “Glad You Came” pounds through the speakers, and the music
video flashes scene after scene of arousing images, all centered around the attractive
male band members partying, finding a hot girl, making out or even showering
with the girl, and, Sarah assumes, sleeping with her. The looks on their faces the next morning
reveal no signs of regret or negative consequences.
After an Axe commercial, where bikini-clad women almost
remove their tops, Jersey Shore
comes on. She witnesses drunkenness,
sex, provocative clothing, materialism, and overall bad decision-making. She knows it’s stupid but she can’t stop
watching. Once it’s over, she turns off
the TV and heads to her room to grab the newest book in the Gossip Girl series she’s just
purchased. Mere pages into it, she is
bombarded with tantalizing tales of young girls drinking, doing drugs, blowing
money, and having sex.
What message is being hammered home to Sarah? What does she think is normal and even
acceptable for people her age?
Sadly, immorality in our world has become so commonplace
that we often don’t stop to think how it affects our youth. Teens are assaulted on a daily basis with
obscene images, lewd behavior, degenerate role models, and perverse
messages. Even media that isn’t
blatantly immoral, like The Disney Channel, in the very least makes kids doing
“bad” things seem normal.
It’s no wonder sex is thought of by most teens as a casual
act that is perfectly normal for someone still in high school or that drinking
and partying is simply a part of growing up.
Being an adolescent and having drunken “fun” go hand in hand.
So what are we to do?
We can’t stop everyone from producing immoral media. But we can offer them more positive
alternatives. True, there are books, TV
shows, songs, and movies that have positive messages and that aren’t harmful
for a teenager’s moral well-being. But
they are few and far-between, and many of them lack the intrigue that’s offered
by the more inappropriate media.
This dilemma was my biggest motivation for writing Shadow Eyes. I wanted to offer our youth something
positive they could emulate. Something
that offered an appealing reality that promoted healthy messages on relevant
issues. Something that revealed what was
truly behind immoral behavior – evil.
The key to writing this young adult novel was that I needed to make sure
it was still provocative and enticing enough for teens to be drawn to it and
enjoy, while still keeping the story’s integrity and moral structure.
Based on the feedback I’ve been getting so far, I feel I’ve
accomplished that. To be honest, there
are some questionable, even somewhat explicit, scenes, so I wouldn’t suggest
children under 13 reading it. However, all
of the immoral behavior is shown in a negative light, in contrast to many
popular young adult books on the market today.
As the main character, Iris, makes mistakes and finds herself in sticky
situations, the reader identifies with Iris and inadvertently learns the morals
and lessons along with her.
As a high school teacher and youth sponsor at my church, I
have a strong passion for young people and the issues and struggles they deal
with. They need guidance. They need positive role models. And they need alternatives to what the media
is currently offering them.
If you’d like more information on my young adult urban
fantasy Shadow Eyes, the first of a
planned series, see the synopsis below or find it on any of the following sites
as well as other major book websites:
http://www.amazon.com
http://www.goodreads.com
Also, watch the trailer on YouTube, check out my Blog or find me, Dusty Crabtree on Facebook or Twitter
Shadow Eyes Synopsis:
Iris
Kohl lives in a world populated by murky shadows that surround, harass, and
entice unsuspecting individuals toward evil.
But she is the only one who can see them. She’s had this ability to see the shadows, as
well as brilliantly glowing light figures, ever since an obscure, tragic
incident on her fourteenth birthday three years earlier.
Although
she’s learned to cope, the view of her world begins to shift upon the arrival
of three mysterious characters. First, a
handsome new teacher whose presence scares away shadows; second, a new friend
with an awe-inspiring aura; and third, a mysterious and alluring new student
whom Iris has a hard time resisting despite already having a boyfriend.
As the shadows
invade and terrorize her own life and family, she must ultimately revisit the
most horrific event of her life in order to learn her true identity and become
the hero she was meant to be.
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