Me & The Toronto Star: A Writers Rant

So today I was skimming through the Toronto Star, and I came upon a piece that faired to be (dare I say it) potentially interesting: Robert Cribb, a columnist for the Star, was sent to take his six year old daughter out shopping to your average little kid stores (H&M, Gap Kids, Joe Fresh, the Lollipop Guild's Factor Warehouse) to show the differences between the clothes that little girls like...and the ones that their fathers would have them wear.
Okay, I thought to myself, this can go either one of two ways: they'll make an interesting piece of out something that could be nothing; show how little girls are obsessed with looking older and older while their fathers would have them stay young (and then subsequently look at how some older women try to dress younger...coincidence?). Or they could go for something explosive and analyze the little girls crop top choices and show how perhaps, we're allowing our daughters and little sisters to become too sexualized at a young age. That, or they could do a cop out and make it a Three Stooges-style fluff piece that could have it's own laugh track for every time a 'Oh no! Alexandra wants a mini skirt but Dad doesn't like it! Oh Dad, you just don't get fashion!!' moment occurs.
Guess which angle they went with?
Now, I'm not saying that I expect A LOT from the Star...but at the same time I'm not saying that they're anything from an established and well read publication...what I AM saying is that by going with the later option, making this almost-interesting story into a cringe inducing mish-mash of clashing pants preferences between a father -daughter duo that is as generic as it is unoriginal, the Star has made me loose a little respect for it. Why? Because they didn't take it far enough.
As I've mentioned before, I feel that our jobs as writers, columnists, journalists, etc is to make people think. After reading this story, I can honestly say that the only thought it inspired was something along the lines of 'I really have to go read something with substance' (so I guess you could say that through literary inaction, the Star DID kind of make me think by pushing me to read something GOOD, but I really don't think that's the goal here).
The Star had a perfectly good opportunity to present the public with something really worth discussing, something that I don't think enough people are talking about, and that is the sexualization of little girls, and specifically the psychology behind it all, from the marketing of it, to it's sources, to the mind set of the poor tots themselves. Perhaps that's a large area to cover, but at the very least they could have published a snippet of it, along with a link to their blog so readers could further read about it.
Personally, I believe that if you're going to do something, you shouldn't do it half assed. You should go all out, go all the way, and push things to the greatest extent that you can take them to. This is what the Star failed to do. When faced with the decision to create something intellectual or something that was pure people-pleasing at it's core, they took the easy route, knowing it wouldn't require too much effort, and they wouldn't get any heat for it later (imagine the angry letters the editor would get if we even from the H&M loving Moms if for a second it was insinuated that perhaps a mini skirt the size of a napkin isn't the most decent thing for a first grader to be wearing).
Now, I just have one thought left for the Toronto Star. I don't want to have to be literally crude and put everything down to it's simplest form and appeal to the lowest common denominator of readers....but since that's what the Star seems to like to do I have no choice:
Dear Toronto Star, please commence in 'growing a pair' and get back to me when you're ready to do some REAL journalism.
Thank you, and I hope you enjoy your recently acquired audience of people with an elementary school education.

(If you want to read the Star article that's under fire, click here and prepare to be horrified).

Me and My Philosophy: Making You Think.

So I have a personal philosophy when it comes to writing. I feel that many people think that for the most part, a writers job is 'easy' or could be done by anyone, but for me I don't think that statement could be farther from the truth. It takes a certain kind of person to be able to coherently and eloquently translate their thoughts, philosophies, ideas, etc into written word that can not only be read by other people, but that can be truly absorbed and taken into consideration. And that's where my philosophy stems from: the fact that if you are a writer, your job isn't necessarily to write, it's to make people think.
Today, we live in a world where not enough people think for themselves. Because of the internet, we have an endless myriad of sources to get our ideas from, and while this is a great thing (imagine the digital think tank we've created), this also means that people have gotten sloppy when it comes to forming their own opinions. After awhile, people stop researching events and people for themselves, and rely on bloggers to get all their information and opinions from. And while I'm not trying to degrade blogging by any means, I am saying that there is a dark side to the fact that we have so many sources from which to draw from, which is where the problem lies: there are so many places to get knowledge that people stop hunting and settle for just one.
Now, I'm not trying to say that I wouldn't be honored if the only blog you read was mine. On the contrary, that would be outstanding, but at the same time, I would only hope that my reading my blog, you weren't just taking everything I saw and repeating it when certain subjects came up.
I feel like this happens a lot, that people are starting to become opinion parrots, taking what someone else researched and thought of and making it their own idea as well. This is a problem.
In order for the world to work, we have to have a society where everyone has an opinion that is based from their own philosophies, ideas, research, experience, and beliefs. When you take someone else's opinion and allow them to think for you, you're really taking away your own worth as an intelligent, thoughtful human being.
At the end of the day, you might not agree with what I say. You might think that I'm completely and utterly wrong, and that I'm somewhat of an idiot, or a liberal, or a neo hippie, or anything from the book of conservative insults that people tout with them and whip out whenever confronted with something new(zing). As long as what I said inspired you to write your own rebuttal, or do your own research, or watch a documentary on the subject, as long as what I said inspired you to think,that it sparked an original thought to pass through your head, then I consider that the biggest reward to what I do. I will have considered my piece a success, my job well done, and my philosophy achieved.