The world is changing quickly. Comments that were perfectly fine a decade ago, would cause outrage today. The Jonas Brothers grew up in the spotlight, during the early 2000s and as Nick recently pointed out, the way they were treated wouldn’t fly now.
What is he talking about? Get ready to find out exactly why Nick Jonas is disappointed with how the the Jonas Brothers were treated as teens.
The Jonas Brothers and their purity rings
When the Jonas Brothers were young, they became headline sensations once the world realized they wore purity rings. “The funny thing is, we were never going to talk about it,” Joe said in an interview, as reported by W magazine. “Of course, you have three young boys wearing rings on their fingers, and everyone is like, are they married already?”
Joe went on to describe how they were told that if they didn’t explain the rings, people would just assume they were in a cult. Finally, the Jonas Brothers revealed that the rings symbolized their commitment to save sex for after marriage. After that, the rings were all anyone wanted to talk about.
Why did the Jonas Brothers wear purity rings?
Growing up as the children of a pastor, the Jonas Brothers were used to being in the spotlight. Joe explained to Vulture:
“To some extent, I was used to growing up in the public. I was a pastor’s kids, so eyes were always on me, even then. I sat in the first pew of the church, and I had to wear a suit every Sunday, because my parents wanted me to be this role model that I didn’t always want to be.”
This kind of pressure meant that when a member of the church suggested purity rings, the Jonas Brothers were expected to follow suit. Nick explained on Reddit, during an Ask Me Anything session:
“There was a person in the church who at one point demanded that all the kids in the youth group put these purity rings on and make this commitment, so without a full understanding of what we were stepping into, we all made this commitment.”
The Jonas Brothers were homeschooled, so the church probably made up most of their social circle. When everyone around you believes something, it’s only natural that you’d agree.
Why Nick Jonas was disappointed with how people treated them
When asked about their thoughts on the purity rings, now that they’re adults, Nick told Harper’s Bazaar,
“The very simple answer is that it was incredibly annoying, and then it became a defining factor of who we were as a band, which was disappointing. I was just trying to navigate love, and romance, and what sex even meant to me, at a sensitive age.
The question should have been: Is it appropriate for people to talk about a 16 year old’s sex life? It’s absolutely not- and it wouldn’t necessarily fly today.”
“It definitely wouldn’t,” Joe agreed.
And they have a very good point. It’s not appropriate for adults to be asking about a teen’s sex life in such a public manner. That kind of pressure at a young age, when you’re still figuring things out, is not healthy.
It’s one thing for a parent to have a direct conversation about sensitive topics in private, but it’s completely different to take that conversation and hold it up for the world to examine, and give their opinion on.
Let’s hope that we’ve learned our lesson, and that future young stars can avoid this problem.
