Skip to footer

Selena Gomez rejects rebellious lifestyle, so far

Selena Gomez tells Teen Vogue she's always going to be a 'good girl,' but the lyrics to her recent hit 'Come and get it' and the lurid photo spread inside the magazine tell a different story. Which is the real Selena Gomez?

|
Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa/AP
Selena Gomez reveals she plans to stay a 'good girl' in an interview with Teen Vogue. Here, Selena Gomez performs in Frankfurt, Germany Saturday Sept. 14.
  • By Estey Silva Contributor

With so many child stars going off the deep end these days (ahem, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Lindsay Lohan, etc.), it makes you wonder, who’s next?! And how are we going to explain all of this poor decision making to our daughters, whose behavior always seems linked to the stars' to some degree?

Thankfully, it looks like the next train wreck won’t be Selena Gomez. According to the December 2013/January 2014 issue of Teen Vogue, she said, I’m the girl you “take home to your parents, not for the night.”  How refreshing – finally, a Disney heiress who purposefully orients herself towards a more worthwhile track. “But how long will Selena Gomez's squeaky-clean image last?” the cynic in me asks.

Selena became famous by first appearing in Barney and Friends (1999), and then Disney channel’s Wizards of Waverly Place (2007). Her fame really got kicked up a notch when she dated Justin Bieber from 2010 to 2012. Their on-again, off-again relationship echoes the ups and downs of many high school and college relationships, making them a relatable pair.

But, but, but . . . what about all her sexy photo shoots and suggestive lyrics? Ninety-five percent of her recent No. 1 Billboard hit “Come and Get it” is this line: “When you’re ready come and get it” (implicitly referring to sex). A photo spread on the Teen Vogue website has her wearing tiny cutoff jean shorts and a plunging neckline. What are we supposed to believe? Is she really as wholesome a role model as her quotes make her out to be, or do the pictures and lyrics speak for themselves? Is she just being manipulated into another marketing machine, just like her Disney peers?

Is it all a marketing ploy? Who is Selena Gomez, really? It’s hard (impossible?) to tell. Her image is too well-crafted to really know who she is, exactly.

One thing’s certain – people (especially teenage girls) are paying attention to Selena. She’s often at the top of Google and Yahoo searches, and she’s currently on a world concert tour. Whatever she does next, we’ll be watching – and hoping, perhaps against all hope – that she’ll continue being the sweet, conscientious girl she seems to be so far.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Selena Gomez rejects rebellious lifestyle, so far
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/Modern-Parenthood/2013/1105/Selena-Gomez-rejects-rebellious-lifestyle-so-far
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe