Where Do Little Girls Learn To Dress?

I agree! It drives me crazy. A while back, Abercrombie and Fitch were offering little girls' underwear that said things like "cherry" on them and "sweet thing" which might have been innocent enough if the underwear themselves weren't thongs. Most of the actual girls that I see--elementary school and middle school--are not dressing like the Bratz. But I think that that might be because in my neighborhood, the parents would never let them. When I was a kid--a long, long time ago--I was so small that I was still wearing "little girl" clothes in junior high. We're talking Winnie the Pooh and Unicorns here. Most of the clothes we buy and that I see are a good middle ground. The clothes look stylish, but aren't little versions of "club clothes."

On the flip side, for older people, I kind of like the more revealing clothes. I just think it can encourage people to feel better about their bodies. Again, 20 years ago, when I was in college, we tended to hide in bulky clothes. I don't think that was good either. When this trend first started a few years ago, I thought the clothes were made for certain body types, but I've seen a lot of different body types in these clothes and I think they look good!

The whole thing is an interesting issue those--how we dress, how we encourage our kids to dress. Our clothes do send a message, whether we like it or not.

I just came back from brunch, during which my friends and I were having this exact discussion. I was showing my friend my hot socks with a cow print on them, and we were talking about how we used to have stretch pants and shoes with that print also. We realized we were dorky of course, but at the same time, aren't little kids supposed to be dorkily dressed? We were saying that our entire wardrobes consisted of velure turtlenecks and leggings, accompanied by ruffly dresses and lace socks. The stuff you see today is ridiculous, and it actually really scares me to think about the way kids will be dressing when I have my own children. I don't want my kids to be outkasts, but there is no way I am going to allow them to prance around like victoria's secret models. I agree that the toy manufacturers could play a role in this, but a tremendous responsibility also lies on the popular clothing companies.

I thought I was the only one who noticed the Bratz things. These days I'm seeing 8 year old girls with more makeup on than I've worn in my lifetime. It's absolutely disgusting. My little cousin wanted one of the dolls, and I was sure to let her know that as long as I was around, she would not lay a finger on one of those hooker dolls. And what's worse, they have a SHOW now. And did you see the baby versions of the Bratz dolls? It's even worse. I think we ought to contact MGA Entertainment.

When you leave the Bratz website, they give girls the message "Until next time, take care, keep it real, and above all else, be slutty!" Oh, I'm sorry. I misread - it says beautiful, as if THAT is the most important thing. What are they teaching these girls? Whatever happened to a nice little Cabbage Patch doll? Or a Tamagotchi? (Which are by the way, back! I want one!)
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Remember when you were a twelve and all you wanted was to be popular. You wanted to sit at the “cool kids” table and would do anything to get there. Maybe you considered yourself one of the elite and would do all you could to keep your thrown as one of the most popular.

There is an episode of Sex and the City that shows how girls today are trying to be more like older women. From throwing fabulous parties to having sex at the young age of 13 this show tries to uncover weather adults are trying to act like children or if the “children” are sacrificing their childhood for a more adult life. The shows answer: nothing is worth giving up your childhood. I saw this every day while growing up, from the pregnancy scandals in middle school to popular television, sex and dressing sexually was popular.

Take the Spice Girls for example. They were the number one group in the country when we were in elementary school. They wore hooker platform boots, short mini skirts and, ironically, sang about feminism. Their claim for “girl power” was overshadowed by songs of sex. But here is the thing: kids loved it, it doesn’t matter what the spice girls sang about, the sole fact that they were popular made girls want to be like them.

It is sad but if something is popular than young girls, who have a need to be popular will support it. If wearing legwarmers, side pony tails and large sweaters became popular I guarantee that the Limited-Too, and any other pre-teen store would gain a small fortune by girls attempting to the decade that we were born into. The sex and the city shows it: girls will do whatever they can to be popular. There, sex was popular, so the girls had sex. When throwing the largest and most extravagant party is popular, like in the show my My Super Sweet Sixteen, girls will spent thousands of dollars to defeat their peers in the war for the coolest party.

There is only one question: how far will girls go to achieve popularity.

The little girls are getting skimpier and skimpier. WE NEVER dressed like that at such an age. Some of us have never even reached the level of scandalous that these children have. I think that besides the dolls, the parents are to blame. You thinks those kids are making money somehow and going out by themselves and buying those clothes? No. The parents are giving them money to go buy whatever they want without setting limits. I bet some of the parents even go clothes shopping WITH their kids and ALLOW and PROMOTE the buying of such items. WHAT HAS THE WORLD COME TO? I am glad to know that our generation is intelligent and strict enough to know NOT TO LET YOUR KIDS WEAR THAT STUFF. It is disgusting.

Never Regret the Biggest Mistake of Your Life

There's a book/photoessay called "Girl Culture" by Lauren Greenfield. She took pictures of and interviewed girls of different ages to delve into the minds of females of our generation and even little kids. The book addresses peer pressure, rites of passage and other things that relate to one main aspect: body image. Some of the material shocked me, i.e. a picture of a 13 year old girl at a tanning salon and an interview with a 6 year old who tries to dress like and calls Britney Spears a ROLE MODEL! There were also interviews with a teenage mother and a topless dancer. All of it shows how fast young girls are growing up these days. I don't really see this happening among boys. I don't think there could be a more appropriate title for this work.

I totally agree that younger girls are dressing more scandelous then we used to. But then on the other hand older generations always look down on the younger generations and say that their clothes are getting more and more out of control. SO i really think it is all a matter of perspective. I mean I know when i was in high school the seniors thought as frosh we dressed so out of hand and the same was true when we were seniors. I really think it is just life...

It's just a simple comment. Has anyone seen the movie Love Actually? This idea reminded me of the scene when the mother (Emma Thompson) is wrapping a present for her daughter's best-friend. She says, "Now which doll shall we give Daisy's little friend Emily? The one that looks like a transvestite or the one that looks like a dominatrix?" I know that personally, I grew up with a huge collection of all sorts of dolls. But why are we surrounding young girls with this "ideal woman" in such revealing clothing? We tell young girls that Barbie is the most beautiful doll and they're just going to want to mimic her appearance.

When I was younger, my sister and I played with Barbies a little. The Barbies we had used to be my mom's and they didn't eve nhave boobs. We did have one Barbie with the honking breasts that all Barbies come with nowadays. If Barbies are now coming fully equipped with breasts of gigantic proportions, is Ken doll going to soon be fully eqipped?
Commenting on that "Love Actually" movie, Shutterbug. I hate the fact that they portray about a ten year old boy in love with a girl. What happened? Are kids soon going to be married out of Junior High? Another issue that I have had for a long time is having young music stars singing songs about waiting for Mr Right or their true love. Aren't they supposed to be going bowling or to the ice cream shop? In "Love Actually" the little girls sings the song "All I want for Christmas is You." What? She's like eleven! When I was eleven, all I wanted was a pair of ice skates and maybe some CDs.
There are a lot of forces out there working against well meaning parents. Even though it is ultimately the parents who could put a stop to all this, manufacturers of every item out there are trying to get America's children to grow up even faster than before.

I chose to write my third blog paper about this specific post. I was quite baffled during a recent shopping exploration to the King of Prussia Mall. It appears that girls are venturing into adult women's stores for certain sexy items that are not sold in the Limited Too.

I wished to purchase new underwear Victoria's Secret (I love their Pink collection). As I was just about to head to the check-out, I took notice of a girl of about 12 years old standing behind me. I was immediately stunned because this girl had some of the same underwear as I! My first instinct was to "take charge" as a mother and say, "Put that thong DOWN!" I could only wonder if her mother knew the substance of her scandalous purchases.

Okay, let me say that as a guy I DO see your point. But here are some random thoughts that crossed my mind when I read your blog and the comments.

1. One time, I unwillingly stumbled upon a near kiddie pr0n webzite. Beside the nudes, what was actually MORE shocking was that there were featured 5 - 8 year olds were wearing thongs and such sort of underwear. And still people complain about pedophiles! Sure, one cannot make that point that preteen thongs leads to MORE child molestors, but does it help? Of course, one might make the argument that the true pedophile prefers Winnie the Pooh underwear over thongs on kids any day, but then again ....
2. About the Bratz: I don't think we have them in Europe yet, but upon viewing them, they seemed to have definite African American facial features. Ish. I got the uncomfortable feeling that finally white liberals (I'm under the impression that BrynMawr qualifies as such, break it to me gently when it don't) had found a way to vent their long pent up racistic views.
3. I strongly suspect that most of those who play 'blame-the-manufacturer' in case of these dolls, also hold this line for true: 'guns don't kill people, people kill people'. Hmmm. Double standard anyone?
4. about the sluttiness in dressing: Over a decade now grown women have copied the dress style of little girls, from pigtails to too short, navel showing t-shirts. Is it so surprising that trend is reversed?

Peace unto you too.

After reading all the previous replies concerning girls and the way they should/ should not dress I would like to voice my opinion on the matter.
First of all, my mother had me when she was young so I always saw her as someone to confide in. When the topic of fashion came up I always had to have my way. My mom decided to let me buy my own clothes. She obviously made suggestions but I indulged my sweet tooth of belly tops, mini skirts and yes platform shoes. She never once told me I looked "slutty". Even if I think I did looking back now. She let me experiment and find out what is ok and not ok. I also have a 10 year old sister who LOVES her Bratz. She does not dress provocative in any way and is the only 10 year old I know of that can read a book of 1000 pages in two days. She tells me about boys and of course liking boys. Her toys have not altered her choice of garments.
Secondly, young girls should not be excluded from feeling love solely based on the reason that they are young because no matter your age you may feel affection for another person.
And also, about thongs. My mother knew I wore thongs when I was twelve! When I asked her if she was mad at me she did not understand why. There is NOTHING scandalous about a type of underwear. A thong is perceived by some people as a sexual object... but why? My mother was always very open about sex. Some parents believe that they could keep their children away from sex when in reality the mystery of it will drive them to it. Believe me that's what has happened to many of my friends who had sex at 14 or 15.

What makes a thong sexy? There is absolutely nothing that is sexual about it. By giving a piece of clothing that connotation influences the younger generation when they should have their own judgement on things of that personal matter. We should not tell our children what to think because nobody has the same exact views.

I dont know why the parents are so shocked at the thongs. They already have porn hair, dress like hookers and wear Tammy Faye makeup..did they really think theyd be wearing cotton bloomers? Maybe next theyll have the birth control patch.

Parents are the idiots that buy into all that crap...why blame a company for making a buck~they do not owe society anything.

I am a school teacher in the orange county school district, and I have to say that girls are dressing pretty racy these days. At fourth grade all of the girls get their first bra, as though it were a right of passage. By fifth grade, the grade I teach, the girls are dressing like bratz dolls. Some girls are still girls…this is true. However there are about six girls in my classroom who insist on wearing the shortest skirts they can find. When they sit down in class I can see what underwear they chose to wear that day with very little difficulty. Three of them are wearing traditional girl underwear (Disney prints, Kim Possible, or solid pastel colors and/or floral prints, etcetera) in cotton brief and bikini styles. The three others have their parents buying satin or silk panties in bright color and sexy prints (kissing lips, XO’s, hottie prints, lace and even sheer materials) in skimpy bikini and string bikini styles. One girl has been sporting a couple pieces of thong underwear as well.

These are 10 year old girls in short skirts and midriffs. They are growing up way too fast and intimidating the girls in the class who are choosing to stay with the innocence of their age. And these are the most popular girls, too. And the boys are competing for the image of womanhood that they see portrayed in these young girls in the classroom. It is so bad that two of the girls in my classroom, for example, fooled me during reading time. One girl asked to go see the health clerk, and another went to use the restroom. They both returned at the same time almost 10 minutes later. I asked them what they were up to and they said nothing, but had clearly applied new eye makeup and lip gloss. They were giggling and talking throughout reading and since both girls were sporting high heels I was given many of the usual glimpses of panty crotch up their short skirts. What I was shocked to notice was that the girls must have switched underpants in the restroom or something, because Kim was wearing a the light purple satin panties with bright pink lace leg bands that Jenny was now sporting up her skirt earlier in the day and Kim must have been wearing Jenny’s Care bear panties. This is really out of control. The real tip of the iceberg was that I intercepted a note between the two girls, where Jenny wrote in gel pen: They feel rilly (spelled wrong) nice!! I feel pretty and sexy in them to! I wish my mom would let me wear some like these. Her friend’s response in pencil was: I know! They are soooo cool. When Kent (a boy in the classroom) and me were kissing in the closet the other day I let him see them and touch me in them. I think he liked them to. I have more and I will bring some for you to wear just when you are at school!!

The parents are to blame, because I see this similar behavior with the moms. Mothers in their early to late thirties come walking into parent conferences, often sporting heels and short skirts or they look like they just rolled out of bed. I remember last year a mother came in and sat across from me in one of the student chairs at one of the student tables during our conference. Not only could I easily see her dark blue lace bra through her tight white top, her skirt was so short and her heels so high, that I was looking up her skirt at her sheer pink panty the entire conference. And, she kept her legs together the whole time. What is worse is that at one point she noticed that I noticed and smiled at me.

So, I see many of the parents as poor role models of appropriate behavior for their sons and daughters.

First of all the clothes that we wear (i'm 13 by the way) are not an influence from-
bratz
stippers
dance clubs
anythign YOU might think
They are from
our style
what we like
whats comfortable
Go take a look at the following stores
abercrobie
aeropastele
hollister
ltd. 2
delias
american eagle outfitters
adults probally thought that you probally wore "strippy"/"inapropriatte" clothes (as YOU say????!!!!)
in your time
GET AS GRIP
what annoys me the most, is that you blame it on a _______ doll are you kiiding me?-pathetic!