Eh, Brett Anderson milked the am-I-gay-straight-bi-or-just-helping-sell-the-NME angle for years. Sexual ambiguity is nothing new. I tend to agree with XJETGIRLX: it’s not what they do that’s icky, it’s the shamelessly manipulative nature of it.
Changed a lot in recent years. When I first discovered ageofconsent.com about 5 years ago, many southern states had it at 15 or below, New Mexico had 13, and Delaware had 12, but only if the girl was not a virgin (?!?). Almost all of these have moved up to 16 now, I think the lone holdout is Hawaii.
So, I checked out the link, read the bio’s and photo-album, journal etc. They seem to be a couple of pretty smart and fairly mature young women who know what’s up.
Leave 'em be…
I’ve seen those pics on a newsgroup.
Woohah!
By crikey. They sure didn’t look as young as they apparently are. Both by attitude and just how they look.
Wonder what their music is like.
Uhm…they’re both female. Do you REALLY think being underage is the problem people might have with it?
Unless things are a LOT more liberal in Russia then in America (which I doubt), I have a feeling the same-sex aspect is bigger. And unless they’re a LOT more conservative (which I also doubt)…they’re not underage to begin with. (Quick check: they’re not.)
And people generally talk about who famous people are screwing anyway.
Certainly, it shouldn’t be a big deal, but to imply that it’d only be a big deal if they’re underage is naive.
According to the page,
That would make one of them 18, and the other two months shy of her 18th birthday.
Okay neutron star, I stand corrected. They are not THAT young. Nevertheless, I still find this to be “shameless exploitation.”
I’m not clueless. I’m sure there are lots of couples, gay and straight who are quite young and do a lot more than kiss. And frankly, I could give a rats ass about that. But I’ll bet not many of them get their picture taken in an intimate moment and have it posted on the Internet. By adults. Who are profiting from the younger person’s career and any controversy that may ensue.
And Bryan Eckers, what amuses me are smug jackasses who think I care about their outrage more than the 6 billion or so other people on the planet.
And to everyone else who missed the point entirely (which is about 89% of the posters to this thread) what bothered me was not that they were kissing, but that an adult overseeing their career took a picture of it and posted it on the Internet. Arden Ranger, do you really think your daughter having a spontaneous photo of her kissing her girlfriend in her room is equivalent to THIS?!
shrug It will be when it gets on her website, I suppose, since I took the picture and I’m the one putting her site together for her.
But if those two are of legal age in their home country then I still can’t see where the exploitation is coming from.
Isn’t that just a little strange? I’d be willing to be that kids today know more about sex at any age than their forebears, yet we’re RAISING the age of consent? What’s the point?
Hmm, Lizard sex sells and people are buying. There’s nothing new about that. Frankly, I find Anne Geddies photos of what look to be dead babies more disturbing than the subject of your OP.
The girls are old enough to think for themselves in many ways, and while its possible that they’re naive and being wholly exploited, I sincerely doubt it. I suppose you’re also bothered by that film made a number of years ago about the two lesbian (or at least bi-curious) high school teenagers. After all, that was made by adults.
It’s a maiden-aunt kiss anyway. Happens to be on the lips but looks like no spit is involved. In European countries, girls who are buddies kiss like this as a matter of simple friendship and no romance is implied. Same with holding hands. No big whoop.
Lizard, do you object to movies and telivision shows which depict teen-age romances, complete with kissing?
Is this exploitation? I don’t think so. It’s pretty well known that they’re lovers, and they make no qualms about it. At one music awards ceremony they made a point in kissing passionately.
They live in Russia, and their main market is there and Eastern Europe. It ain’t easy to find one of their albums in the US, for instance.
They perform catchy Russian pop/techno. They have a few English songs. I’ve seen a couple of their music videos, and even made a thread a while back concerning the legality of one (one of the members was topless and making out in the video; this was filmed before either was 18, so I was wondering what legality the video would have in the US).
AFAIK, there isn’t too much controversy over them in their native Russia, although Tattoo (translation of name) have gained a generous amount of fame.
I can be almost certain that the ‘exploitation’ of the two girls was done with the full consent and approval of the girls themselves, who apparently have no problems whatsoever with their ‘gimmick’. From what I’ve read about them elsewhere on the 'net, the whole lesbian lover thing is faked by them for the sake of attention and sales.
If it’s not faked, maybe they’re just really into each other.
Do you suppose that porn stars really love each other just because they’re having sex then, and that all female porn stars REALLY love anal sex and if they do a lesbian scene that they REALLY are lesbians…? Not trying to be snide here, but entertainers are in the business of putting on an act…
Weren’t Sonny and Cher married?
These kids are close enough to adults and most likely past the age of consent so what’s the story?
C’mon, I’m not that naive, just less cynical than yourself. Also, I tend not to put stock in e-rumors, and something tells me that being a lesbian isn’t too shocking in a nation that just a few years ago had a kook like Zhirinovsky gaining popularity and where traffic fines can be bribed off for just a few dollars.
AFAIK, they actually made the video a couple of years ago, when they were both 15. In the UK, this would be underage, and the producers of such a video could perhaps have faced prosecution.
The exploitation (if it can be termed that) was done with their full consent, but at that age can one legally give such consent? That said, Dominique Swain was 15 IIRC when she appeared in Lolita.
On the whole, I thought this video was beautiful, and artistic, I just wish they could have used 18-year-old girls because I had the uneasy feeling that it verged on child porn.
Look, all I’m saying is, they make a big show about them kissing each other and so forth, when they’re on stage they tend to dance around in underwear and white t-shirts with no bra and so forth, so to my perception, they’re milking the titillation factor for all they can get; I would think that if they were really lovers they wouldn’t market their relationship as a selling point. Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe they really are lesbian teenagers in love and they are just being opportunistic by flaunting their sexuality this way.