April 2, 2011 7:57 PM
Dressing girls like prostitutes
Dressing like little prostitots
Post-pill moms condone rather than condemn their daughters' foxy style
By Suzanne Fields
March 24, 2011Many Americans were disappointed when President Obama devoted a Saturday radio address to a celebration of the progress of women in society. Most of us were more interested to hear about the progress (or lack of it) in dealing with the crisis that threatens to become a new war in Libya. The president was excited about a new White House report on the status of women, the first such report in 48 years. John F. Kennedy assigned Eleanor Roosevelt to explore the subject on that occasion.
Mr. Obama told us that women earn more high school diplomas and college degrees than men, and the number of women in the work force almost equals the number of men. But women still don't hold as many power positions.
You might not have noticed this report's significance, however, because it was issued just before three of the most powerful women in the Obama administration - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; and Samantha Power, a senior director of the National Security Council - effectively persuaded the president to put America into the coalition against Moammar Gadhafi.
It was a throwaway speech but dear to the president's heart. He wants to see his two daughters grow up in a world "where there are no limits to what they can accomplish." Fair enough, but the growing problem for the female sex in this country is less political than cultural, and it starts in the home, not the White House. We're talking image rather than achievement.
The problem that needs our undivided attention could have fit under a chapter heading in Betty Friedan's celebrated 1960s best-seller, "The Feminine Mystique." You could call it the "The Sexual Sell." The sexual sell is seen first in little girls who graduate overnight from demure princess dresses to party dresses with what they imagine is cleavage, from playing dress-up in mom's shoes to wearing their own spike heels. Superficial sophistication is no longer a way for a child to try on different adult styles for size, but instead it rushes young women into a false feeling of safety that is sexually enticing, disarmingly seductive and potentially explosive.
The slinky dress on the preteen may be "cute" when she's hanging out with her girlfriends, but it quickly becomes "hot" on a teenager hanging out with boys, blurring the boundaries between innocence and sexuality.
"Why," asks Jennifer Moses in The Wall Street Journal, "do so many of us not only permit our teenage daughters to dress like this - like prostitutes, if we're being honest with ourselves - but pay for them to do it with our Amex cards?" The answer indicts a generation of mothers who grew up as the most liberated generation in history and are only now having second thoughts over what they want for their daughters.
Read more at The Washington Times
Posted in Girls, Mothering | Permalink
Comments
Great blog post! Teresa Tomeo covered this article on Catholic Connection last week. She is promoting JPII's Theology of the Body unbeknowingly.
Posted by: Julie | April 2, 2011 10:12 PM
How interesting to read this post this evening. After a day spent with Princesses with our three-year-old we ventured to the mall. While at the mall I see all sorts of pre-teen, tween, and even younger girls dresses in short shorts, dresses, and skirts. (Today the weather was rather warm) Then I overheard a teenager talking about the halter dress she was wearing and how her bra was showing. She went on to say that her mother commented on the lace that was sticking out the top of her dress and when she told her mom it was her bra she expected her mom to send her back upstairs to change. Instead her mom said it looked good. This was said to all her friends. I am sure reinforcing to those friends that it is such a cool, hip, good thing to show everyone in public your undergarments. I guess modesty was not a priority in that family.
Posted by: Elaine | April 2, 2011 10:33 PM
This fits so perfectly with what I saw at the grocery store yesterday. It was a person who looked like a parody of what a sexed up, pretend, teeny bopper prostitute would wear to an over the top costume party. A double take convinced me of the unfortunate truth. It was a real young girl, and when I said to my husband that sometimes a person can look like they must be part of some outrageous joke, he pointed out that he suspected that the woman with her was her mother and I had to agree it was true. I hate to say "what is this world coming to?" because it sounds so trite but... really!
Posted by: jane | April 3, 2011 12:55 AM
"Mr. Obama told us that women earn more high school diplomas and college degrees than men, and the number of women in the work force almost equals the number of men. But women still don't hold as many power positions."
- I'd have to look more at the statistics, but I wonder if more woman than men are earning diplomas because less men finishing highschool & college?
Posted by: Liz | April 3, 2011 9:11 AM
I'm sometimes flabbergasted at the clothing options for my almost 3 year old. Why in the world does a toddler need a mini skirt?
What's really disturbing to me are all the baby bikinis. I know a lot of people think they're "cute" but I find them really inappropriate.
Posted by: Lauren | April 3, 2011 10:49 AM
