Sunday, November 22, 2015

My childhood crush crushed my heart

When I was 6 years old, I received an Aaron Carter CD. It quickly became my most prized possession and I listened to it every day. When I heard he was performing in Orlando for free, I quickly made plans to attend the show and knew that my younger self would be so proud. Of course, he performed the songs I loved as a child, but he also performed some new ones. He started by saying "you guys grew up, so now I'm growing up." I expected the lyrics to be more "adult" and to have a sexual tone, but what I heard was shocking. The new song he debuted was about a woman who's sex tape he had seen, and he was trying to find her to recreate it. Some lyrics were very unsettling: "don't care if you like it," "don't run away," and especially "you know you'll like it baby." I guess to Aaron Carter, growing up means sexualizing, abusing, and harassing women. As a fan for 15+ years, it's safe to say that "growing up" to me means moving on from Aaron Carter's disgusting, misogynistic world and teaching my younger self to demand respect.

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