lock up your daughters

[jno]

Survey out today of 1000 teenage girls (15-19) shows: half see Abi Titmuss as the best role model, against 33% for Jordan, 9% for JK Rowling and 7% for Anita Roddick. 11% want to achieve something with their lives, 89% would prefer to be a celebrity. 63% wanted to be a glamour model more than anything else; 25% chose lap dancing and 3% chose teaching. So my question is: how fast is Britain going down the pan?

[Oneeyedvic]

I really can't beleive this is true.

Who commissioned the poll and who carried it out (eg The Sun Newspaper and MORI).

[londondave]

jno. that was only a 1000 girls, and the survey was probably taken in some rough inner city comprehensive schools. Don't worry about such things and stop reading the sun

[jno]

as usual with samples, it's not how big but what you do with it; 1,000 is quite a large size for a survey, but it depends how representative. It was done by or for - unclear which - thelab.tv (it isn't on their website; they seem to be mobile phone people) so I'm guessing it was not entirely scientific - but also not restricted to any particular class or area. Perhaps their mobile services are particularly likely to cause brain death? I should very much like to hope this is the explanation.

[jake-the-peg]

Hmm

As opposed to which particular golden age when teenage girls were sensible practical and full of wisdom?

[FP]

jake the peg, good point.    I can remember what I was like between 15-19.  I yearned to be a dancer or a model and was forced into doing a business studies course by my parents!!!  In a few years time the majority of these girls will be on ABank complaining like the rest of us!

[jno]

yesss... it wasn't the Abi Titmuss thing that surprised me, or even the teaching, so much as the lap dancing.

[silly moo]

Probably about as fast as everywhere else in the world.
Personally most young people I know have much more worthwhile ambitions, are nice, polite, friendly etc. etc., and I am not too worried about the future of Britain or the world.

[acw]

Don't forget that surveys generally only reveal what the commissioner wants them to!  After all, it's the same with scientific research.  How do you (everyone) think that the cigarette companies find research to say that smoking it healthy?  Who do you think commissioned the scientific research that backs up the posters in my local solarium (SUNBEDS ARE HEALTHY*)? 

jno your question surprises me!  Not much gets past you - I can't believe you've fallen for a slanted survey.  I

I'd also like to know what the options were?  If those were the only women to chose between, I'd have a tough time.  Also, Anita Roddick isn't in the news so much these days.  Perhaps a lot of girls hadn't heard of her.  I wonder if Cherie Blair had been an option if the votes would have changed?  And the desire to be a glamour model probably just reflects the fact that at 15-19, a lot of smaller girls are still praying they'll have a boob-growth spurt.  (Hell I'm 22 and I'm not giving up hope yet!!!)

* - Apparently they even cure obesity!

[Octavius]

My article in todays Metro says two-thirds for Jordan. 

I think it is the rich celeb lifestyle that young people crave.  If JK Rowling or Anita Roddick were on the front of Heat magazine every week driving in a flash car or dating a "hunk" celeb and hob-nobbing with the rich and famous, then I imagine they would become role models.

I'm sure it's not the attraction of Peter Andre that makes all those teenage girls want to be Jordan, but when we see tv programmes where she is shopping and spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on clothes and jewellery, or going on a luxury holiday and cruise, being photographed every nano-second, you can see the attraction for young impressionable girls - and it's not Jordan.

[KebabMeister]

Abi Titmuss and Jordan are perhaps the biggest mingers out.  Evil!

[Sasha13]

Going down the pan about as fast as the bottle of wine I've bought myself tonight.

[acw]

Oh dear Sasha! Better luck with your next purchase! 

 :-)

[jno]

acw, are you chatting? Watch it. An email notifies me of your every move.

[stevie21]

Down the pan? This sounds ideal !!

Also, 1000 is a small sample size for this type of survey, it's completely unreliable and is aimed solely at generating a headline rather than surveying opinions of note and import among today's yoof.

Imagine a world where 63% of women were glamour models and 25% lapdancers?? And you guys are complaining about this?
I despair.

[Octavius]

1000 may be a small number of yoofs voting for Jordan or Abi Titmus, but votes are casted on lesser numbers for global issues and one persons future life can be decided by 12 people in a jury.

It's a slice of life.

If I was a young(er) lad I would find the attraction of having loads of cash, a model on each arm, a flash car, a nice pad in several places, a yacht .....hang on, at 33.3 I would still like all that!!  Sod it, I want to be David Beckham please.

[acw]

Ok, perhaps I've missed the point.  I thought "going down the pan" meant "going down the toilet", as in JNO's question.  Therefore if wine is going down the pan, it must be bad.  jno - as questionmaster, perhaps you could clarify so I can better understand your question and the subsequent answers.  Thank you. 

[Octavius]

Yes acw - down the toilet pan

[jno]

yes acw that was what I meant; not sure whether sasha's wine is going directly there or being filtered through a middlewoman first.

[acw]

Thank you.  And at risk of sounding chatty- teehee!

Does anyone have any information yet on the full options available to the girls answering the survey?  If the options were "glamour model, lap dancer, teacher, sewage engineer, or funeral director" I would understand the answes better.  Admittedly from that list I'd still expect more than 3% to go for teaching.  Hmmm.