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Among pint-sized cheerleaders, itty-bitty beauty queens, and in the malls of America, the sassy-sexy look isn't just for teens anymore.
Some say younger girls are going shorter and barer -- taking their cues from characters like the Cheetah Girls, the Pussycat Dolls and the Bratz dolls -- and some observers are saying they've had enough.
Celia Rivenbark, a mom who hit her breaking point with the shrinking fashions, wrote a book called, "Stop Dressing Your Six Year Old Like a Skank."
"The moms are buying it, the dads are buying and maybe on some level the parents think, 'Oh that's cute, that's harmless, that's innocent' -- but I don't think it is," Rivenbank said. "The children are wearing them down."
And psychologist Dr. Jeff Gardere warns that how a child dresses as young as age three can have serious consequences.
"You can be doing real damage to your child," Gardere said. "They are forming their taste at a very young age. They can hurt their futures. They can hurt their reputations, their chances for success." (From LiveLeak)
Some say younger girls are going shorter and barer -- taking their cues from characters like the Cheetah Girls, the Pussycat Dolls and the Bratz dolls -- and some observers are saying they've had enough.
Celia Rivenbark, a mom who hit her breaking point with the shrinking fashions, wrote a book called, "Stop Dressing Your Six Year Old Like a Skank."
"The moms are buying it, the dads are buying and maybe on some level the parents think, 'Oh that's cute, that's harmless, that's innocent' -- but I don't think it is," Rivenbank said. "The children are wearing them down."
And psychologist Dr. Jeff Gardere warns that how a child dresses as young as age three can have serious consequences.
"You can be doing real damage to your child," Gardere said. "They are forming their taste at a very young age. They can hurt their futures. They can hurt their reputations, their chances for success." (From LiveLeak)
Put your daughter on the fast track to a body image disorder by sexualizing her at an early age with clothes made by a child in a 3rd world sweatshop.
Some people will do anything to make a buck.
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Kidding. I don't even have a daughter.
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I dress my mop like a woman and call her "girlfriend".
God I'm so lonely.
...and I'm glad you're not breeding BillOreilly.
but i agree it's pretty messed up how our fashion sense is going wayyy younger.
Stupid parents. :-|
Hello, dickwipe, YOU'RE THE FATHER. You don't HAVE to compete! You fucking say "No" and put a sweater on her. I doubt she has a job to get money to buy these clothes.
No fucking wonder 11 year olds are having sex. No wonder schools are giving out birth control.
...they can hurt their reputations, they can hurt their chances to success.
That's what they see on TV every day. And it's on TV every day because that's what people demand to see. And you're probably one of those people who likes to watch sexy girls dancing and stuff. Just a few years ago it was looked down upon, but nowadays it's ENCOURAGED with the whole feminist movement. Yea, sure. Go women empowerment, express yourself by dressing up like a skank.
The wonder of not having a daughter.
Reminds me of little miss sunshine. Except its more disturbing than creepily hilarious.
I'm appalled that you place the corporate-funded drivel that is television programming in line with feminism... because, clearly, it is anything BUT feminism. The shit that airs on TV and is sold in stores is made by rich, greedy, men (and to some extent women- KIMORA LEE SIMMONS I AM LOOKING AT YOU!!!) with little to no scruples, and an eye only for making money, not the empowerment of women or their self image... it is our fault as a culture for identifying with it and buying into the program in the first place... and we've been doing it for decades... chances are, the mothers of alot of these little lolitas could probably be mistaken for sex workers themselves.
That's probably because you don't hang around with Paris Hilton-type of party girls. Where have you been all these years? You don't remember the days when media started calling Madonna an ideal feminist, and that somehow got her kissing on stage with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera?? And the day after when people called it 'disgusting', other people defended the action by calling it a 'feminine expression'???
I've had the mortal displeasure of hanging around with a lot of brain-dead college girls, thanks to my party loving roomates. And these girls actually quoted Beyonce (the singer) to prove feminism to me. The whole argument started when they started driveling about what they learned in feminist class that afternoon and how they were 'oppressed' by the men all these years, and how it prevented the female gender to truly 'express' themselves.
The recent rise of 'expressive feminism' clearly had a huge impact on pop culture, and definitely are related to one another. The corporate world merely followed the trends, and all they did was identifying the market and going with the flow. In media, it is used as an excuse to further exploit the already lucrative idea of 'sex sells'. And as individuals, we are no longer allowed to tell them not to do it, because if you did, you'd be 'oppressing' women. And they've been selling sex for quite awhile, but the difference is that this time they've got the philosophic community on their side, so now you've got to argue against feminism when you're trying to limit them.
The MTV and the gangs did capitalize on this and thrived and using it as an excuse to start going with raunchier, naughtier shows without getting backlashed for being immoral. But the point is that the feminist idea was already there to embrace these things. And it was just a matter of time before major celebrities in popular culture started marketing themselves as 'newage feminists' and embraced this idea of woman 'expressing' herself with open arms, by justifying themselves from selling sex appeal, and just ran with it through mountains and oceans.
I mean, today's line of pop artists such as 'the pussy cat dolls' make the old 'spice girls' look like a bunch of Mormons in Halloween costumes. And I would've thought I would at least be 40 when I started talking about the big 'morality' subject and 'young people going too far'. But the transformation of attitude in popular opinion has been so rapid that even a person in their mid 20s like me are starting to fear if we really ARE that decadent.
So tell me, how are they not related?
p.s I'd like to see some female sifters' comments here to see what they have to say about the subject.
Wait, Choggie, I lost where sodomy comes into this...
I believe it is the role of a parent to protect their children from this.
Not having t.v. goes a long way and children benefit from making use of t.v. time in other ways, enormously.
Staying away from shopping malls, unless it's a real necessity, also helps. Kids always want what they can see. We could come away from every toy store we entered, having spent hundreds of dollars, if we agreed to every request while we were in there. Nine times out of ten, the requests don't continue after we've left, after we've said no, as compelling as they may be while we're in the store.
Choosing clothes with kids doesn't have to be a battle ground. Be creative with how you phrase what your boundaries are with clothes. You can be in control without coming off as a tyrant.
Talk to girls about image and media and how media manipulates kids into buying stuff they don't need. They get it.
The college girls legacy mentioned aside, I don't think any woman who considers herself a feminist thinks that looking sexy is going to improve her ability to express herself.
Being a feminist, for me, means that I understand the conditioning that I have been raised in, which defines my role as a woman, mother, wife and lover and rejecting or accepting any of those roles, consciously, according to whether they work for me, in becoming a fully realised human being.
"HEY LOOK !!!"
there's your feminism.
persephone, am I a "masculinist" then?
seems crazy that a movement which is about equality has such a polarised name, but anyways...
Indeed it is. Marketing aimed at children should be illegal. In the Canadian province of Quebec, at least, it is illegal.
no, that's marketing disguised as feminism.
High School Musical was the last straw. Has anyone seen this movie? It will transform your daughter's mind in one night!
My daughter has always been a modest young girl. She's always loved "Laura Ingells" and "Anne Shirley" as role models. All it took was one movie to make her want to wear short skirts and makeup.
"The college girls legacy mentioned aside, I don't think any woman who considers herself a feminist thinks that looking sexy is going to improve her ability to express herself."
I'd trust that you have a good grasp of yourself and what being a woman is about (I sure as heck don't...). But there are LOTS of college girls (at least demographically speaking, there are more young people than older people) out there who considers themselves feminists by basically going with whatever the general popular culture goes with (friends, Television, even college professors etc). And they probably don't have a clue as to what you're talking about here Persephone.
So in my opinion, you're an extreme minority. Not too many young people have the ability to think independently and come up with answers of their own, especially when already presented with an idea that everyone else is doing and seem so 'normal'.
@ berticus
I think you just summed up my 5 paragraph page into 1 sentence
http://www.videosift.com/video/Fantastic-Dove-Ad-Talk-to-Your-Daughter-Before-They-Do
That's odd. The many college-aged feminists I regularly encounter are invariably intelligent, articulate, earnest, and deeply committed to living with dignity and integrity. They are vastly capable when it comes to taking apart and doing away with the many jurassic social constructs their male peers have inherited as culture of privilege.
Either your 'observations' are your projections, legacy, or perhaps where you live is stupid.
Just know that there's a lot of people out there who are very different from your own world. Quite a shock once you find out how different they are in so many things, yet similar in so many other ways.
And keep the personal insults to a minimum shall we? This isn't another political debate.
It was like a light bulb went off in her head. All at once, she understood that, while it was “just fashion” to her and her friends, it invited a whole host of unintended – and creepy – feelings from older men.
Of course, there will be a day when that is the intended result, but, until then, I think she’s going to tone it down a bit.
Where the fuck did an 11 year old girl even get a mini skirt? In the end, parents have the ultimate control over what clothes their kids own (at least to a certain age) and should not have to battle with them over what they can get. You hold the checkbook, you make the rules.
FFS drill that into their head. Teach them the right things and remind them constantly. Include examples. Sit down and make sure they understand. Raise them right and you'll worry less in the end. It's ultimately their choice on what they want to like, but taking time to discuss things and let them see fashion in a different light might just change their mind on how they want to look, and maybe they'll understand that clothes don't have to mean status if you're a good person.
Hell I wouldn't want my kid hanging around bad influences like that anyway. It'll only end up hurting them. Anyway, that's my opinion on the matter. But what do I know. I'm not a parent. I do know I'll be raising my child with morals and value with a deep understanding of individuality and society.