Parents of Girls - Is this an issue at your house?
Is it me or are stores that sell to pre-teens, teens and young women pushing the envelope more and more on their ads? This is nothing new (I'm looking at you Abercrombie & Fitch) but this one caught my eye and I thought it just too much.
I don't have a daughter so maybe I'm overreacting. (Also are thigh-high stockings in vogue for young girls?)
I don't have a daughter so maybe I'm overreacting. (Also are thigh-high stockings in vogue for young girls?)
Comments
Mom4
I was so happy when the UW gymnastics team got a new coach. The floor routines went from something more appropriate at Deju Vu to fun athletic routines.
HP
I AM a parent of a girl (and a boy), but I really don't think it's about that. Anyone with eyes should find this ad loathsome.
We jumped the shark long ago on how badly we exploit our young. Sex sells. Always has, always will, especially in youth fashion. If mommies and daddies didn't buy this stuff to adorn their trophy daughters and sons in, pseudo- pedophile designers like Calvin Klein wouldn't push it. And yes, he's gay, and? Swanky Mr. Polo designs like a age-old pervert, constantly featuring Lolita-like, half-naked nubile young girls in his ads. It's not new. He's been doing it since the 80's. Sorry, but I'm old school; way old school. No short shorts or plunging neck lines on my girl, and no sexism or lewd behavior from my boy. Not in my house. And I don't give a sh*t how the neighbors dress their kids.
WSDWG
"Radical" (hardback) by Michelle Rhee, B&N sales rank: 29,972
Whimper, whimper. Chuckle, chuckle.
WSDWG
That being said, the short shorts are around in the summertime- albeit longer than many of her friends - but still shorter than we wore when we were her age. Cleavage is also an issue with a lot of the girls that we see - totally inappropriate at their age (at any age if you ask me :) - and garnering the wrong kind of attention.
Surrounded by so many of these images, kids are bound to get desensitized and believe that everyone is dressing like that so why not them?
All we can do as parents is point out what negative attention versus positive attention and hit repeat so it sinks in. Eventually, I believe teaching them self-respect will win out.
-Parent of a High-School Girl in a High-Sex age
Immodesty isn't stylish. Never has been; never will be.
I have two daughters (college age now) and have never had much of an issue with their taste in clothing. In fact I've been quite pleased that there have usually been a lot of options available that suited both my and their sense of what was cute and appropriate. But yeah, the ads, ew.
Helen Schinske
Tara
Talk to them about great ways to dress using color or jewelry. Show them great fashion icons like Jackie Kennedy or Coco Chanel. In terms of someone closer to their age, show them the Obama daughters. They are beautiful and stylish without being crass.
I always dread the spring because, as I live near Roosevelt AND they don't enforce their so-called dress code, you see a lot of skin and cleavage which I think is inappropriate for school.
I hope someone has good advice for Tara. Barbies had their own set of issues when I was a kid -- but Bratz dolls strike me as 10 times worse.
http://www.Huffingtonpost.com/joyce-mcfadden/female-sexuality_b_2611596.html
-public school parent
We avoided all media when the kids were younger. No TV, movies, computers, videos, etc. except for when at Grandma's house. We never went to Toys R Us or go catalogs with plastic toys. We hung out with other families of like minds. So Barbies, Bratz, etc didn't end up being an issue.
Now that my daughter is in public high school she talks about the 'rachets' at school (boys and girls who are loud, obnoxious and dress like the model in that ad) and she does not wish to emulate them.
HP
American Apparel is not the only advertiser who uses very young models.
( check out the age of the model on the cover of Vogue)
I think advertising gives us a great opportunity to discuss how the media tries to influence our decisions and perception.
Children also mimic their parents. Adults will pass their own neuroses about appearance onto their kids.
Neither of my kids attended schools with dress codes any more elaborate than " thou shalt not wear anything that will endanger oneself nor others".
While some kids went through stages where they dressed trashily, it lost its appeal when it didnt shock as much as expected.
My perspective as a woman who grew very large breasts overnight at the age of 15, was that I just wanted to look like everyone else. The only thing that fit me was tshirts because they stretched. What was I supposed to do with them? Clothes that my friends wore looked different on me. That wasnt my fault.
I think people should worry more about the behavior of their boys, than worry about what girls are wearing.
I struggle with this as I want her to be strong and independent and make her own path in the world (she considers herself outside the norm in many ways) but she looks 25 and is in that insane boy-crazy phase all teenage girls go thru so really truly doesn't understand why it's not ok that the 30 year old grocery store clerk hit on her - sighhh.... Ads like that one - are well - blood boiling to me. But yes, using sex as a sales tool is a concept as old as time. Sadly it works.
When I drive by Ballard High when school is getting out, I am completely blown away that some of the outfits the girls are wearing to school are allowed. It's shocking. Time for uniforms!
"My perspective as a woman who grew very large breasts overnight at the age of 15, was that I just wanted to look like everyone else. The only thing that fit me was tshirts because they stretched. What was I supposed to do with them? Clothes that my friends wore looked different on me. That wasnt my fault.
I think people should worry more about the behavior of their boys, than worry about what girls are wearing."
Sounds like if she were spotted outside of Roosevelt or Ballard today, she'd be judged right away by many commenters on this thread. I work in another district and one year during our excruciating review of the middle school dress code, several of us women noticed all of the recommended changes were targeted at female students. One person raised her hand and said, "How about we just make it against the rules to be a girl?"
American Apparel's ad campaign worked exactly as intended.
-RH
R.G.