THE RANT: Just when did our daughters start dressing like hookers?

Capital Hill Blue ^ | July 8, 2002 | Doug Thompson

[Stand Watch Listen]

God knows I’m not a prude. As a teenager, I hid Playboys under my mattress, ogled the lingerie ads in the Sears Catalog and even knew about the secret place at my high school where you could look into the girls’ locker room shower.

On most Saturday nights, I was in the back seat of my ’57 Ford at the Autodrome drive-in in Radford, Virginia, wrestling with some young lady, trying to score the teenage sexual equivalent of a home run (funny how we learned early on to equate sports and sex).

In the immortal words of Meatloaf in his anthem to raging teenage hormones, the goal was to “see paradise by the dashboard light.”

Memories of those angst-filled days came back over the 4th of July weekend while sitting under a refreshment stand tent at a carnival in East St. Louis, Illinois, watching too many young girls parade by in the accepted attire of the times.

After an hour of so of this, I had to wonder: How in the hell does a teenage boy today keep his hormones under control? Lord, I had enough trouble when a glimpse of young female leg above the knee would satisfy the lustful cravings of a young man’s desire.

But now, with bare-midriff tops, low slung jeans, low-cut haltertops, thongs and see through blouses, there ain’t a hell of a lot left to the imagination.

We’re not talking about just 17, 18 or 19 year old hardbodies here, but 12 and 13 year olds wearing shorts low enough for the tops of thongs to show and blouses with enough open buttons to show what they may one day have to show.

Add to that enough navel, nose and eyebrow rings to start a jewelry store and you start to wonder just when it became acceptable for young women to dress like hookers.

Like most men, I enjoy looking at sexy young things, although at my age, “young” begins at about age 45. But I wonder if young girls shouldn’t at least go through puberty before letting all that they may or may not have hang out for public view.

Should a 15-year-old girl be parading around in public wearing jeans cut so low that they require shaving of pubic hair or shorts that ride high enough in back to show off butt cheeks? Are parents allowing this or are these nymphets changing into their CFM attire after they leave home?

If current teenage attire can shock even a dirty old man like me, has it gone to far?

I don’t have an answer. I do find it unsettling. If I had a teenage daughter right now, I’d probably lock her away until a safer age, say about 30 or maybe even 40.

[goldstategop]

Yes the good old double standard with a twist.

[lady lawyer]

Another reason, I think, that the feminists have applauded immorality is that the majority of the vocal feminist movement -- such as NOW -- is lesbian. They want to break down traditional morality to clear the way for acceptance of their deviant lifestyle.

[Drew68]

Believe me, it gets worse in college. I can't count the number of girls who show up FOR CLASSES in either pajamas, lounging pants, or flimsy tops with no bra underneath.

Damn, I miss college...

Though in reality many of the girls where I went to college would show up for classes looking about as unattractive as possible because they just got out of bed, were hungover or both.

Girls who used to spend an hour primping and preening every morning in high school would come to college and do just the opposite. Many of them just pulled their hair back into a ponytail, brushed the moss of their teeth and showed up for class in the same t-shirt and boxer shorts that they slept in.

[mindprism.com]

What boys really want is sex -- period.

I think it goes to something else too. If sex is like 'owning' someone for even that brief period, and the conquest of sex is an affirmation that 'you CAN succeed and are not at anothers mercy'... I think you see what I am talking about:

The bigger the lure the hungrier the fish.

So all these people are right about this being womens libs fault - the removal of the 'slut' stigmata has a secondary impact. The males become more taunted (regardless).

So this whole fashion/attitude thing is like S&M on the psycho-sexual level.

[goodieD]

I find it hard to go shopping for my 4 year old these days.. even the youngest girls departments have slutty clothes. But I'm sure there are plenty on here who will call us prudes.. well so be it. If prude means I have some standards that I want to pass on to my daughters. If you dress like a slut, you will be treated like one.

[bourbon]

The women's lib movement did a good job of identifying problems and unfairness.

For the record, so did the women's lib movement's largely male intellectual forebearers. Claims by the 60's feminists that they created a philosophy of women's liberation ex nihilo are both arrogant and historically unfounded.

[Rainmist]

I just remembered the other day when I was in Abercrombie and Fitch with my daughter. She likes the clothes, but I wash them and they are mostly cheaply made. The salesgirls were wearing low-cut shirts with their cleavage hanging out. They didn't look like any of the store's shirts. I was embarrassed to have them walking around us, what with my daughter being with me. Then I remembered the catalog and figured they were applying it to their stores too. As we were leaving, I made a comment about never having had a retail job where you could have your boobs hanging out for everyone to gape at. My daughter said " I know, Mom, that was really gross ".

[Paul Atreides]

Though I have no children, I do most of my shopping for clothing on the computer.

[Paul Atreides]

What is funny is how a lot of girls dress slutty and then get angry when guys look at them.

[timestax]

If somebody doesn't like it they don't have to keep looking at them. It's still a free country, for a litle while longer at least.

[timestax]

little while

[goodieD]

That reminds me of the old joke:
What's the difference between a slut and a B*tch?
A slut sleeps with everyone
A b*tch sleeps with everyone but YOU.

[goodieD]

Exactly! If a girl dresses like a whore, it's "freedom of expression", If a man stares, it's "sexual harrassment"

[Vicki]

My 19 year old son reluctantly went to a club with his girlfriend. Let me preface this by saying he's a healthy teenage boy who take notice of girls, but he said he was disgusted by the girls and guys in this club.

He said one girl had a very short skirt on with a thong underneath. How did he know? Because she bent over to grab her ankles while "dancing". He refuses to go back.

In my area, we have three sailors who raped a 14 year old girl. She's in the hospital with internal injuries. These creeps deserve to be locked away, but other 14 year olds interviewed admitted lying about their age and going to hotel rooms to party with sailors. Where are the parents??

[Conservative til I die]

So by your logic 100 years from now when full public nudity is in, it's just gonna be some fuddy duddies who want to go back to the old days when kids dressed like whores. Great.

[DAnconia55]

I wonder if today's (generally fat) moms are simply living vicariously through the notion that their daughter is attracting the attention of men that the mother knows she would never be able to attract.

Man, I hope you have asbestos underwear......

[DAnconia55]

The guys will use them, but they will not stay with them. But, the girls have no concept of tomorrow.

Part of the problem is you older types have logical disconnects.

What makes you think the young women of today WANT us guys to stay with them? Or that they aren't wanting to 'use'(actually this concept no longer exists...) us?
The world has changed.

And IMO, in a good way.

[goldstategop]

The argument's made women should be able to dress as they please. No one's ever made the argument for a man to be able to dress so as to draw attention to his anatomy in public. Interesting how men are expected not to be boy toys while the girls get to have all the fun.

[goldstategop]

I'm fashion challenged. In the old days a woman would shop good fitting clothes for a man, but its taken something of a back seat considering women have pushed the clothing envelope where they themselves are concerned a tad too far.