Parents, don't dress your kids like tramps

[CW&M Mom]

Have you seen this on Facebook? It's an excellent commentary on how it is up to parents...to make sure their children (and girls in particular) are dressed appropriately.

Parents, don't dress your girls like tramps - CNN.com

Grand Rapids, Michigan (CNN) -- I saw someone at the airport the other day who really caught my eye.
Her beautiful, long blond hair was braided back a la Bo Derek in the movie "10" (or for the younger set, Christina Aguilera during her "Xtina" phase). Her lips were pink and shiny from the gloss, and her earrings dangled playfully from her lobes.
You can tell she had been vacationing somewhere warm, because you could see her deep tan around her midriff thanks to the halter top and the tight sweatpants that rested just a little low on her waist. The icing on the cake? The word "Juicy" was written on her backside.
Yeah, that 8-year-old girl was something to see all right. ... I hope her parents are proud. Their daughter was the sexiest girl in the terminal, and she's not even in middle school yet.
Abercrombie & Fitch came under fire this spring for introducing the "Ashley," a push-up bra for girls who normally are too young to have anything to push up. Originally it was marketed for girls as young as 7, but after public outcry, it raised its intended audience to the wise old age of 12. I wonder how do people initiate a conversation in the office about the undeveloped chest of elementary school girls without someone nearby thinking they're pedophiles?

What kind of PowerPoint presentation was shown to the Abercrombie executives that persuaded them to green light such a product?

I mean, that is the purpose of a push-up bra, right? To enhance sex appeal by lifting up, pushing together and basically showcasing the wearer's breasts. Now, thanks to AF Kids, girls don't have to wait until high school to feel self-conscious about their, uhm, girls. They can start almost as soon as they're potty trained. Maybe this fall the retailer should consider keeping a plastic surgeon on site for free consultations.
We've been here with Abercrombie before -- if you recall, about 10 years ago they sold thongs for 10-year-olds -- but they're hardly alone in pitching inappropriate clothing to young girls. Four years ago the popular "Bratz" franchise introduced padded bras called "bralettes" for girls as young as six. That was also around the time the good folks at Wal-Mart rolled out a pair of pink panties in its junior department with the phrase "Who Needs Credit Cards" printed on the front.
I guess I've been out-of-the-loop and didn't realize there's been an ongoing stampede of 10-year-old girls driving to the mall with their tiny fists full of cash demanding sexier apparel.
What's that you say? Ten-year-olds can't drive? They don't have money, either? Well, how else are they getting ahold of these push-up bras and whore-friendly panties?
Their parents?
Noooo, couldn't be.
What adult who wants a daughter to grow up with high self-esteem would even consider purchasing such items? What parent is looking at their sweet, little girl thinking, "She would be perfect if she just had a little bit more up top."
And then I remember the little girl at the airport. And the girls we've all seen at the mall. And the kiddie beauty pageants.
And then I realize as creepy as it is to think a store like Abercrombie is offering something like the "Ashley", the fact remains that sex only sells because people are buying it. No successful retailer would consider introducing an item like a padded bikini top for kindergartners if they didn't think people would buy it.
If they didn't think parents would buy it, which raises the question: What in the hell is wrong with us?
It's easy to blast companies for introducing the sexy wear, but our ire really should be directed at the parents who think low rise jeans for a second grader is cute. They are the ones who are spending the money to fuel this budding trend. They are the ones who are suppose to decide what's appropriate for their young children to wear, not executives looking to brew up controversy or turn a profit.
I get it, Rihanna's really popular. But that's a pretty weak reason for someone to dress their little girl like her.
I don't care how popular Lil' Wayne is, my son knows I would break both of his legs long before I would allow him to walk out of the house with his pants falling off his butt. Such a stance doesn't always makes me popular -- and the house does get tense from time to time -- but I'm his father, not his friend.
Friends bow to peer pressure. Parents say, "No, and that's the end of it."
The way I see it, my son can go to therapy later if my strict rules have scarred him. But I have peace knowing he'll be able to afford therapy as an adult because I didn't allow him to wear or do whatever he wanted as a kid.
Maybe I'm a Tiger Dad.
Maybe I should mind my own business.
Or maybe I'm just a concerned parent worried about little girls like the one I saw at the airport.
In 2007, the American Psychological Association's Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls issued a report linking early sexualization with three of the most common mental-health problems of girls and women: eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression. There's nothing inherently wrong with parents wanting to appease their daughters by buying them the latest fashions. But is getting cool points today worth the harm dressing little girls like prostitutes could cause tomorrow?
A line needs to be drawn, but not by Abercrombie. Not by Britney Spears. And not by these little girls who don't know better and desperately need their parents to be parents and not 40-year-old BFFs.


The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of LZ Granderson.





Thoughts? View points? If you choose to dress your children modestly...where do you find appropriate clothing?

[gctattoo]

My mom always told me that I could wear anything I wanted, I just wasn't leaving the house. And so yes, I dressed pretty trampy around my house when I was a teenager. I didn't look like a nun or anything though when I did leave the house. She wasn't too strict about it, at least not when I was 16/17.

My DD will not be wearing suggestive clothing. I really don't care what she does to her hair, but clothes are where I draw the line. She's only four so I have at least a little while until we have our first fight about it.

[loladooder99]

I was always sad that I didn't have a girl but this is one issue I wont have to worry about lol.

[motherofmolly]

will never happen in my house. never. i have scissors and a portable fire pit. clothes like that come in my house, they get cut up and burned ...of course that is if i can not return them for cash.

we as parents have to raise our children correctly. we (this includes me) do not wear short shorts, crotch grabbes, tight jeans, low cut shirts, mid drifs and white beater tshirts...no see thru shirts and no "vulgar or inappropriate" wording on clothing either. my mil purchased clothes for my 3 year old that was never worn. dh wouldnt tell her why, so i told her.

[ELLE-TN]

my dad told me not to advertise it if it wasn't for sale

[CW&M Mom]

will never happen in my house. never. i have scissors and a portable fire pit. clothes like that come in my house, they get cut up and burned ...of course that is if i can not return them for cash.

we as parents have to raise our children correctly. we (this includes me) do not wear short shorts, crotch grabbes, tight jeans, low cut shirts, mid drifs and white beater tshirts...no see thru shirts and no "vulgar or inappropriate" wording on clothing either. my mil purchased clothes for my 3 year old that was never worn. dh wouldnt tell her why, so i told her.

Same basic rules here too. It often means I have to purchase shirts for my daughter a size bigger then she should need. example she should be able to wear a 7/8 but I mostly have to purchase 9/10 to keep them modest.

I don't even grasp the wife beater shirts (as we call them). why? why? why?

[hburnette3]

Same basic rules here too. It often means I have to purchase shirts for my daughter a size bigger then she should need. example she should be able to wear a 7/8 but I mostly have to purchase 9/10 to keep them modest.

I don't even grasp the wife beater shirts (as we call them). why? why? why?

I don't mind DD wearing a wife beater.
I try not to use that term around her though!! I just call it a tank top when I'm talking to her!!!

[CW&M Mom]

I don't mind DD wearing a wife beater.
I try not to use that term around her though!! I just call it a tank top when I'm talking to her!!!

I thought those were typically boy shirts...but I have no brothers...so what do I know

[mom25grls]

I have 5 daughters, all older now, but when they were little there were definitely rules. If I didn't like it or daddy made a comment it went out. HOWEVER....we bought their clothes with them, shopped with them and did NOT give them 'the card' and tell them go get their school clothes. In fact, summer shorts were cut offs of their too short winter jeans...and I did the cutting. If I couldn't find something, say a dress, that I liked I made it for them. (Thank GOD I can sew, saved in a lot of ways!)

Last I knew parents were supposed to supervise and parent...now days with the kind of clothes out there I wonder who exactly is LETTING these kids wear those clothes.

[Smee]

I hate hate hate the sexualization of kids. I detest clothing that has print across the butt like "juicy." Still, the writer of this piece seems creepy to me, himself. Dangly earrings, halters and lip gloss don't even ping my radar. I guess I'd have to see the halter, but if it's what I'm envisioning, my "ewwww" response is directed at the guy who is seeing this girl and thinking tramp and sexy. Full make up, do me heels, push up bras, thongs peeking out of low riders, hell no. Gloss, a halter, dangly earrings, and braids on a little girl? They seem like very little-girl things to do. My super duper conservative 60's and 70's era parents which included my fundamentalist Christian modesty preaching mother allowed halters and lip gloss (but no earrings of any type). Maybe the halters I'm thinking of are different from what has this guy's tighty whiteys all in a wad.

The apparent disgust over the braids in her blonde hair really rubs me the wrong way, too.