In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Back to (Slut) School

Her title, not mine.

As if we didn’t have enough reasons to dislike the Independent Women’s Forum, head anti-feminist wingnut Charlotte Allen quotes and links to a long rant about how girls are being turned into little prostitutes by the kids clothing departments.

Lingerie, size 6x, with a ‘back to school’ sign on it.

When did ‘toy’ lipstick become bright red and start lasting all day? Why would a six-year-old child need to carry a purse to school? Why is there makeup in it? Why does she know how to use it?

There are clothes in the little girls’ department that nobody would buy except Brooke Shields’ mother in “Pretty Baby.” Except. . . somebody’s mother IS buying them, and probably thinking “doesn’t she look pretty” in them.

Picture poor sleazed-up exploited JonBenet. That little girl breaks my heart.

Tiny little girls, wearing makeup and boobless versions of adult slinkwear. What kind of mother dresses her child like a bimbo?

Because that’s what these little girls look like, you know, when their mothers layer them oh-so-carefully in slinky satin underwear, croptops, hiphuggers (before they even have hips!) skirts that barely cover the subject, fishnet stockings, and HEELS. On a little child who has RECESS to deal with!

(I see London, I see France. . . .remember when the playground was the only place you could hear that?)

What is going through these mothers’ minds when they buy this sexy stuff for a seven-year-old child? Why don’t more schools forbid it? I don’t believe in censorship but clothing a little girl in Victoria’s Secret and sleaze is NOT right.

Come on, people. Please don’t send your tiny little girl to school in clothes that advertise something she doesn’t even know about yet. Dress her like a child, not a whorehouse intern.

Hooker with a Dora lunchbox. What’s wrong with this picture?

Now. Ask me what I think about beauty pageants for little children. Because they tell us more about the poor little kid’s mother than about anything else, don’t they.

That’s right. Call little girls sluts, and then blame mom.

Now, I agree that highly sexualized clothing is innapropriate for children. But is this the way we go about dealing with it? How about asking, “What is going on in our culture when we start sexualizing little girls?” Calling girls sluts because they dress a particular way isn’t going to accomplish much.


9 thoughts on Back to (Slut) School

  1. I agree with the overall point: we ought not sexualize children. Then again, Aldahlia’s point dashes the entire argument to bits. For someone who lurves the free market, this prescriptive scolding is window dressing.

  2. I missed it. Where did the author call little girls sluts? Beauty pagents, etc. “tell us more about the poor little kid’s mother than anything else”.

  3. I agree with the observations made. As far as the author’s delivery, well, I sensed the author was extremely nerved about what they were witnessing.

    As Lauren pointed out, the author is talking about children being sexualised. A trip to your local mall should give you first-hand observation experience of the types of clothing now available to younger generations. Shit, walk into any junior high school.

    My mom and I went to the mall several weeks back and she wanted to look in Victoria’s Secret for pajamas. I hadn’t been in that store in months, but I noticed the change instantly: no longer was it geared toward older folks (older being relative; 20-40s perhaps), but it seemed they were trying to reach the below-20 crowd.

    While blaming parents isn’t the way to go about making change, necessarily, I do wonder what runs through the minds of parents when their child walks out in super-short shorts and a halter top at the age of 10. I do wonder about the perpetuation of the beauty myth by encouraging young females to wear makeup, or emulating the images of mass media.

    I will always leave it to the individual to decide their life’s preferences (just as I’ll continue to do my sociological observations of their behaviours), but I ask: at what point is the dominant (highly sexualised) culture to blame?

  4. Yes, of course theoretically and holistically it’s society’s fault etc. etc., but society doesn’t dress these girls, their parents do. And until children are old enough to make their own fashion choices, it’s up to the parents to take responsibility for how they present their children to the world.

  5. Blaming mothers for the trend of slutty clothing for young girls is like poking a bee’s nest with a stick and then blaming the stick when you get covered in stings.

  6. What, Allen didn’t call for fathers to step in as Head of Household and exert their authority over their daughters’ wardrobes? Or would that also imply Daddy giving a shit about the day-to-day details of childrearing?

  7. Parents should not be dressing their children…it’s part of the creative process for a child to begin picking out their own clothes. What is with all these parents that spend an arm and a leg on their child’s wardrobe anyway? I am so sick of parents complaining about the grass stain on their kids *brand new* shirt. They’re kids! What do you expect?? The whole little girl wearing make-up thing is pretty unsettling as well…I don’t even remember registering what I looked like until I was about 13. Why do these parents seek to ruin their child’s innocence by instilling their own vain faults into them?

Comments are currently closed.