besides the fact that Italian women are much more comfortable in their sexuality (and that is where that photo comes from) I think it would be nice if our society did cool down the sexualized nature of both boys and girls. We don’t seem to have a problem of bringing up boys to be cavemen, but when little girls (and their somewhat retarded mothers and fathers) respond accordingly then we get bent out of shape. Perhaps if society worked a little more on common respect and knowledge we would be a lot better off. Bring them up to understand right and wrong, love, sex, and honesty there would be a lot smaller market for panties that advertise. Of course, I don’t have kids, so it is easier for me to babble, but it seems like common sense.

The first time I pointed out some skanky lookin’ pre-teen to my husband and said, “I’d never let my daughter dress like that,” I was appalled at how much I sounded like my mother. But you’re dead on…I can’t tell you how many of my son’s friends in kindergarten dress like little tramps. And it’s not like they’re picking out all their own clothes at that age…someone is dressing them like this and that’s disgusting.

I don’t have a little girl though…I have a little boy. That means I have to deal with the impact these skanky outfits have on him and his perception of women. My son already knows that scantily clad women are “sexy” (even if he’s not sure what that means) and that being pretty gets a girl nearly anything she wants. I’m working hard to make sure his perceptions of women are also colored by the intelligent, funny, and creative women of the world. I’m desperately afraid of what will happen if he begins to treat women as objects of lust instead of individuals.

My mom showed me that girls can be sexy without being skanky and intelligence and sex appeal need not be mutually exclusive. Moms with daughters out there…tell me you’re trying to teach your daughters something similar!

@Kristen
You read my mind and wrote it much more eloquently than I could have…

You had me at Skankarella! Love it!

Wow. Your article was insanely biased, good for you! It is a common misconception… “Girls who’s parents dress and tell them to dress badly are clearly going to dress badly for work in the future!” I don’t think you really understand what is going through a childs head when they are between the ages of 1-10. Do you really think they are concerned with attracting boys? Thats probably the least of their concerns. That being so, they aren’t going to make the connection that “Dressing Like This Makes Boys Look At Me.” Perhaps in like 5th grade, but honestly! A two year old being impressionable by what she wears way back when? She can most likely make her own decisions. Most young girls wouldn’t continue to dress in “tube tops” and “mini skirts”.

Like jim, I don’t have kids, so my room to speak up is limited, but I am an UNCLE (Best In The World, mind you) to a very smart 11 yr old girl (as smart as an 11-going-on-18 year old girl can be, anyway).
When she and her friend came to me, showing off their henna tattoos – especially proud of the one they put on their backside (“Just like Britney and [insert poor role model for young girls here]“), I just about shit a brick.
I had to explain why a “tramp stamp” wasn’t something an 11 year old girl should be putting on her body (henna notwithstanding).
Fortunately my brother is very honest and upfront with all his kids, so I didn’t feel bad about using words like “stripper”, “slut”, “degrading” when explaining what many boys thought when they saw girls that had those kinds of tattoos (telling them what *I* thought in particular).
The wide-eyed look of horror as they ran off to the bathroom to wash those “back tats” off was priceless.

I think you are either an unattractive woman, or you just want to play mini dictator on how people should dress and/or behave.

As long as we are not hurting each other by force, I don’t see any problems, in fact if it occurs as a result of the free choices of people, it is MORAL.

The world is filled with people who kill others, who rape others, who prevent the human spirit from reaching its potential by constantly suppressing free will.

You sound like a prude, who would rather criticize girls instead of encouraging self expression. You criticize other people heavily in order to place yourself in a holier than thou position, so that the voices of low self esteem in your mind are muffled, at least temporarily. That is, until you see the next pretty girl or woman, in which case your inner feelings of self-doubt will resurface and force you criticize them again.

You need psychiatric help. I dunno, maybe your mother never breast fed you, in which case your brain would be around 10-20% smaller than normal, or you were brought up to feel ashamed of your body. In either case, your infatuation with what other people are wearing doesn’t make the feminist movement seem all that worthwhile anymore now does it? You should develop some self-confidence.

The post was spot on and what some seem to forget is that dressing a 5 year old like a ‘skank’, isn’t the real issue.

Videos portray women as ‘things’ to be used and discarded like a used tissue by men ‘wannabes’.

How do you justify a 5 year old who can recite full lyrics, and act out the moves from a video that calls women whores, bitches and those are just the nice terms.

At that age they are highly impressionable and being told on a daily basis by their playmates and parents – you’re not worth anything unless you dress like this.

I think what many parents take as ‘cute’ on a video forget that it’s called entertainment for a reason – it’s not reality.

Dressing a child like a whore, allowing that same child to use the words from a video that is beyond that child’s understanding and then expecting the rest of the world to accept it is stupid.

Childhood is very short compared to being an adult, let a child remain a child for as long as possible is my opinion.

I think that little girls should stop dressing like skank grown up woman because,its not there fault its their mothers fault for letting them dress like a skank hochie.I think it should be a law that girls who are little those little girls in Beauty Pagents they shouldnt wear all those clingy dresses,gungs of make-up like their mothers,and should not wear a crown as big as them.But anyways getting back on track,I think it should be a law if you are a very little girl you should not be allowed to wear all that maek-up and short clothes like short,shorts and little cling(cling cling to you realy tightly)shirts.

Hey Kristen! Shut up and stop leaving comments! Nobody loves you! So get over it!

Amen. Amen. Amen.

My own kid wanted one of those shirts. How hard is it for a parent to say “no”? Not hard at all. She whined and pitched a fit and guess what? It was still no. And she lived.

The problem is that too many parents these days are trying to live vicariously through their children. I have friends who do this – if they couldn’t have it as children, you can damn well bet their children have it, whether they want it or not.

But the trashy dressing – that’s a product of the ‘burbs. Where I grew up, the girls there are still dressing appropriately and not pushing too many boundaries. Here in suburban hell, the girls look like mini streetwalkers. And worse, they start somewhere around 9. My sister, who lives in another suburban area hundreds of miles away, reports that girls in her class (4th graders) are wearing makeup and “hoochie” clothes. Where is the parental authority? Parents have taken the no-corporal-punishment to mean no consequences or boundaries. Uh, no. You’re doing your child a huge disservice if you don’t set and expect your child to adhere to some boundaries.

End of soapbox. :)

Wow, Brian, we need to have those parents arrested for pandering. The shirt on that little girl was sick. Great article. I have a 8 year old girl, and I couldn’t agree more with everything you said! I am already a Mazi, and proud of it. My husband is even worse than I am. He has decreed no nail polish until my daughter is 13.

in almost every society, accept ours, you become a man at 15 and a women at 14. This is becoming more and more true around the world, and is spreading to our culture. Parents may be freaking out but i for one am not. If you look at history, girls married at an early age, then it got slowly but surly later, now it is getting earlier again. It’s just the way it goes. If 11 year olds fucking is what it takes to reverse the cycle again, then let it be. If any of you dads were teenagers again you would agree, this is not a bad thing.

I’m 13 and I don’t even dress like that. The only time I wear really short stuff is in the summer and that’s it.