March 22, 2008

Dressing your Children Ethically

Specifically, dressing your daughters.

Although the question of young-girl fashion in the age of Bratz is not an issue upon which I myself have a fully formulated opinion, I totally appreciated this little mini article, the title of which you will enjoy, especially if you are Beck: "Dear Moms: Your 6-year old Daughter's Ass is Not Juicy."

Now, I think the question of children and their sexuality is a complicated one, and in my (as I said, not fully formulated) thinking on this issue, I'd say that your child probably will be interested in sex and sexuality regardless of whether or not you buy them low-rise jeans. What I feel more strongly about is that there's enough of life spent worrying if your jeans make your butt look good or whether or not you should get your hair highlighted, and whether or not people are looking at your jeans or your highlights, and that commodification and stylization is something that you should probably not have to be worrying about when you are still learning how to read and play four-square.

2 comments:

Beck said...

Oh, that's STRANGE - my brother and I were talking about little kids in Juicy sweatpants just this afternoon!
I think there's a whole world of difference between acknowleding that my children are, in their way, sexual beings - and buying them clothing that sexualizes them in adult's eyes. I'm VERY conservative in how I dress my kids, and while I don't expect everyone to be as hypermodest as we are, it's heartening to see parents thinking about this issue.
(and I loved the article you linked to at my place - thanks for telling me about it!)

Roxanne said...

I, too think it is crazy how little girls are dressing. I saw it so much as a teacher, they dress a certain way and then are not at all ready for the attention it brings. It just seems to me they should be running around and playing not worrying about fashion, looking like a clebrity or model- do not even get me started on the self image and eating issues this can create! intersting food for thought. Also, I think a lot of people blame the "culture" and let their kids dress a certain way but we are the adults adn we need to say no when we know it is best (maybe not in the kid's eyes) and explain to kids the reasons. Easy for me to say as Anni is not begging for make up and low cut tops yet....oh Vey!!