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.

[bourbon]

I think one of the greatest ironies of our time is that -- in the name of women's liberation -- our young women are being trained to act like the fantasies of the most selfish, irresponsible men. Someday, they will wake up old, used, and alone. It remains a man's world in that sense.

right on, LL. As Camile Paglia is fond of saying (and I'm paraphrasing), in a sexually lawless world men win every time.

[Wyatt's Torch]

The completely loosening of morality has produced a generation that freely uses all manner of drugs and practice free, unattached sex. This is the new generation. Hope you like it. The next generation should be really interesting, indeed, if the nation is still around.

Given that the teenagers of today are the kids of parents who came of age in the 70's, this isn't too surprising. But, like me, the next generation of kids will be kids of parents who grew up in the 80's when "Preppie" was "in" and it was "morning in America again". These things always go in cycles.

[mhking]

if a dad puts his foot down and says 'no' emphatically and doesn't allow it, then he will create tension with his daughter.

The problem is that too many parents try to be friends with their children first, as opposed to being parents. If you parent your children and not expect nor accept others doing so, you circumvent a large part of that problem.

Will it alleviate tension in the household? Not completely, but that is part of what you signed up for when you became a parent in the first place.

[stands2reason]

And that means, what, that they don't dress like hookers? I don't understand. That refutes the author's opinion in what way exactly?

[mhking]

How can you fight fashion??

The word "No" goes a long way toward "fighting fashion."

[goldstategop]

More to the point, men see no reason to value a woman and treat her like a lady if she doesn't value herself and demonstrate she deserves to be treated like a lady. It used to be women who set the boundaries for men. Now its anything goes and both men and women are paying the price for it.

[BikerNYC]

Just when did our daughters start dressing like hookers?

Perhaps when hookers started dressing like our daughters.

[AmericanInTokyo]

America to me is always a land of stark contradictions. Maybe it is because we are FREE.

I dunno. "God Bless America" / hot national outrage at atheists on the one hand, and impressionable pre-teens strutting out of the house listening to filthy rap lyrics, dressed like porno actresses. What is wrong with this picture?

[goldstategop]

I'd say we have the freedom of vice without the responsibility of virtue to keep it from getting out of hand. That's what wrong with our national condition.

[Don Myers]

"These things always go in cycles."

Let us hope that the next generation will be better, not worse.

[Drew68]

I went to the DMV the other day to get a copy of my driving record (spotless, btw). There were many teens there to get licenses and permits. There was a girl with her mother standing in line in front of me. The girl was there to get her driving permit. This would have made her 15 years old. She barely looked that.

Anyways, this fifteen year-old girl sported two tattoos. One of a butterfly on the small of her back, the other of a palm-sized flower on her right breast. They were both easy to see as she was wearing a halter top that tied in the back and super low-cut jeans exposing her thong panties creeping up from the wasteband. Nothing was left to the imagination.

Now I have nothing against tattoos or *adult* women dressing sexy but the girl was fifteen for crying out loud!!! She still had braces!

[MileHi]

next to her, they were too much male "eye candy" for your eyes.

If you saw my wife you would know that no one there was much competition. She is also feminine and dainty. She would look great in a gunny sack and has never needed to parade herself to get more attention than she cares for.

[stands2reason]

Don't forget the cut-up, off the shoulder "Flashdance" sweatshirt and purple eyeshadow!

[maxwell]

Perhaps when hookers started dressing like our daughters.

Bwahaha...

[WKB]

I went to a LL baseball game last night. The "little" girl (12-13) taking money at the gate showed her under wear when she turned to collect from me. I had some of the same thoughts as this writer. "Why do parents allow this?"

[AmericanInTokyo]

God Bless America /sarc

[Rainmist]

The mothers definately look the other way. It's just too hard to say " no " for a lot of parents these days. Mr. Mist and I have a daughter who is 13. Over the years I have made well placed comments about how to conduct herself in manner and dress. She is all about class now. She watches the Style channel and dresses in a mix of prep and fashion. She'd never call herself a prep, tho, she's not snobby. Standing next to her 12 year old cousin ( who has an affection for blue eyeshadow ), she blows her off the map. Wear baby tees and butt shorts ? Not my girl. She wouldn't be caught dead in " skank wear ". Even if she did want to dress that way, her Daddy and I would have something to say about it. " NO ".

[goldstategop]

I take your word for it. That being said, its sad to see the lengths to which women go today to catch a man.

[Looking for Diogenes]

Girls were dressing like sluts when Madonna was singing "Like a virgin" in 1984.

It started earlier than that.

When my grandmother, in about 1920, was going to visit her future mother-in-law for the first time, my grandfather had to tell her to roll her stockings up; the 'flapper' fashion of the time was to roll them down to the knee.

In the 18th Century, extreme decolletage was fashionable, even baring the nipples.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.

[bourbon]

what I want to know is why, on the one hand, it is censurable for young women with nice bodies to wear revealing clothes, but, on the other hand, it is act of "empowerment" for aged/obese/pregnant women to wear similarly revealing clothes.

Why one and not the other? I suspect that we have feminism to thank for this idiotic double standard.