Why do we make good girls dress bad? - "Baby Porn Star" Fashions

National Post ^ | 08/11/03 | Barbara Kay

[camle]

nobody "Makes" anybody wear anything. it's a matter of choice. if a girl feels the need to dress like a slut, nobody's pointing a gun to her head...

[goldstategop]

Its the "Britney Spears" look.

[CCCV]

Excellent article! Can't think of anything.

[boxerblues]

A matter of choice?...what about the 5-6 yr olds who show up looking like they belong on a street corner, who bought they dang cloths.

[theDentist]

"Does the Times give fashion advice to streetwalkers?"

No, it takes "fashion" tips from them.

[mikesmad]

I am sick of trying to find my 6 year old daughter decent clothing. We are raising her to be a lady not a tramp.

All of you moms and dads who are dressing your preteen daughters to look like hookers and then shaking your heads when they start having sex before they are old enough to drive, get a clue.

[HowDidIGetHere?]

I have found appropriate clothing for my girls at Lands End. They seem to be the last place to find such old-fashioned things as tights, slips, Mary Janes and play clothes that can be handed down through numerous children.

Also, if you don't like it or find it just does not work for you, they will take it back. As an example, I bought a navy fleece coat for my daughter and found that it attracted every piece of lint and dog hair within 5 miles. It was unwearable. They exchanged it without question.

Hope this helps.

[68skylark]

It wasn't supposed to be like this. Feminism was supposed to free women to be themselves. . . .

People are quirky -- sometimes you give them freedom, and they don't use their freedom in ways they are "supposed to."

I have a theory that with the threat of sexual harassment lawsuits and other threats to curb male sexuality, women have to dress more and more provocative to get a reaction.

[Skooz]

nobody "Makes" anybody wear anything. it's a matter of choice.

The problem is that the choices are increasingly fewer.

A few weeks ago, we took our 12 year-old daughter to JC Penney to buy her some shirts. My wife spent almost an hour going through the Junior's section trying to find something decent.

She came out with one nice shirt. Literally everything else had some vile message on it. It was absurd. She actually complained to the manager, who told her that Penney had to compete with the other stores in the mall and that was their way of doing it.

We would have bought many other shirts if we could have found some without the "I Am a Young Teen Slut, Do Me Now" messages on them.

[mikesmad]

Are you a parent? If so, then quit being a part of your childrens peer group and act like a parent. There is no "choice" between dressing like a slut or dressing like a lady in my house. My daughter may pick the colors (with input from her mom and dad) of the lady like clothing we select for her.

My children don't have a choice to act like ladies and gentlemen, they don't have a choice to be polite, they don't have a choice to show respect, they don't have a choice of who their friends are, etc. Once they are adults and move out of my house then they can choose what to do. With our teaching and daily examples they should turn out to choose to continue to be ladies and gentlemen, polite, respectful, and have friends that are like them.

[Lady Jag]

My nieces say that, in some department stores they have no choice in the girls department; it is all provocative. They say their solution is to shop in the boys department. So on a trip to the local Wal-Mart, I walked through kids departments and I want to know who is trying to give our kids a message in fashion that I don't like at all.

[mikesmad]

Yes, we can find things also. But, it is like trying to find that gold nugget surrounded by tons of trash. When we finally find something decent that fits her it is almost a reason to celebrate with a party.

[Dems_R_Losers]

No kidding. I was recently in New York City and we went to a street fair on Madison Avenue. There, right in the shadow of Bergdorf Goodman, was a merchant selling t-shirts for teenage girls. They had some of the raunchiest slogans I have ever seen. And of course the girls, many accompanied by their mothers, were snapping them up!

I have talked to some of these "progressive" parents who say that this stuff actually "breaks down the taboos" so that kids are freer to explore their identities (i.e. their sexuality). Perhaps that is true, if you hold off until their teenage years and raise them properly until that time. But I seriously doubt that is what is happening.

I have a 6-year-old daughter and I also have had some trouble finding decent clothes, especially for church. She is attracted to some of the sluttier stuff she sees in the stores but is still obedient when I refuse to buy them. But I worry about the future when she is not so obedient.

[Texas Mom]

At her bat mitzvah, my daughter wore a simple empire waist dress with a white lace Peter Pan collar. We chose her outfit together on a shopping expedition for which she was kitted out in slimfit corduroys and a crisp rugby shirt. That was a compromise: Her real preference would have been baggy jeans and a fluorescent T-shirt. But whether dressed neatly or grungily, neither she nor I wanted her being looked at in a sexual way.

But I'll be willing to bet she had to look far and wide to find that simple waist dress with a white Peter Pan collar.

I have been on three shopping trips with my 10 year old granddaughter for school clothes and have wanted to have the guy by the throat who is designing and manufacturing these clothes for children. I got so tired of saying, "No you can't have that" three days and we got two pair of slacks a scort, and two shirts with a simple collar. I finally told her Mom I couldn't handle it anymore.. I bought her underware and left the clothes shopping to mom and the other grandma. I thought it would be fun to take he shopping. Boy was I mistaken.

[mikesmad]

But I worry about the future when she is not so obedient.

We explain to my 6 year old that we want her to grow up to be a lady like her mom. We constantly reinforce that what being a lady really means. Even at 6 she is pretty astute at what is acceptable and what is not. I am confident that if I control who her peer groups are she will turn out fine. This is one of the reasons we homeschool. I know it would be a lot harder if she was in public school.

[Kieri]

I have found appropriate clothing for my girls at Lands End. They seem to be the last place to find such old-fashioned things as tights, slips, Mary Janes and play clothes that can be handed down through numerous children

I bought my daughter's clothes there as long as I could, and then she turned 9.

My daughter is cursed with genes that make her long-waisted, short-legged, long-armed and given her an apple-shaped figure. Trying to find decent GIRLS clothes (not slut-wear) for her was already a nightmare, and then the trend went crop tops and hip-hugger. I did find a new "Torrid" store at the mall -- thank God -- that had clothes that would fit her and COVER her too. I paid through the nose, but it was worth it.

My daughter is outgoing and has a wonderful personality. I don't want to quash that by putting her in dowdy clothes, but both she and I AGREE that she's going to dress decently.

[StatesEnemy]

Feminism was supposed to free women to be themselves, not chattels to men.

Young women don't feel like 'chattel to men' when they dress provocatively.

They feel giddy with the power to turn heads.

[boris]

Just wait until Victoria's Secret starts a children's line.

I can just see it: "Vickie's Secret (tm)"...

--Boris

[demnomo]

I was at a mall (Ugh, I absolutely hate having to shop at one) the other day looking for a dress shirt for my fifteen-year-old son. A gaggle of adolescent girls (none looked older than my son) strode by wearing low-rise sweats and skimpy crop tops. One girl's pants had the word "juicy" plastered on her wiggling behind.

My son likes girls and will sometimes look them over, but even he thought that the "juicy" advertisement was really gross and out there. (He actually pointed it out to me!) Thank goodness he has a lovely girlfriend who dresses and acts like a young lady--emphasis on lady.

Any mother or father who allows their young daughters to wear garments with the words "Baby Porn Star," "Juicy," "Sex Kitten/Princess" and other bad taste phrases should be arrested for pimping their child.