I bought my son a baby doll when he was 3 and refused to allow war toys into the house. At the video store, my sons were restricted to PG films. It took me years to realize they were watching Disney at home and going on overnights with friends to shudder and squeal at Freddy, the slasher of Elm Street. And when I finally capitulated and bought a Nintendo system, I limited their games to Mario Brothers and other nonviolent fare. They happily practiced their hand-eye coordination in our living room and went to their friends' houses to apply it to Streetfighter and other murder and mayhem games.
Truth is, there's no way to protect our children from our culture.
There's no escape from its noise. Our best and only hope is to talk to our kids about what we think it all means, to raise a voice of reason above the din. So I tried that. It was, as they say, a teachable moment. I offered to buy it for him if he would first let me talk with him about the objectification of women.