Pushing grown-up sexuality on kids

Last Halloween, a 5-year-old girl dressed as a Bratz doll showed up at Gigi Durham's front door. Wearing a gauzy miniskirt and a tube top, the child tottered on platform shoes while carrying the doll that had inspired her racy get-up. "I had an instant dizzying flashback to an image of a child prostitute I had seen in Cambodia, dressed in a disturbingly similar outfit," Durham, a professor at the University of Iowa, writes in her new book, "The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It."

Playing dress-up is a normal part of childhood. But simply test-driving mommy's high heels now has to compete with sexually suggestive pint-size products from pole-dancing kits sold in the toy section to "Hooters Girl (in training)" T-shirts for toddlers to padded bras for 6-year-olds. And that's all long before the tweens and teens, where girls face the dizzying contradictions of a popular culture that salivates over youth and tells them "if you've got it, flaunt it," while sexual education in school, if it exists at all, too often consists of preaching "abstinence only."

In her new book, M. Gigi Durham, who heads the Iowa Center for Communication Study at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, critiques the many ways that young girls' sexuality is shaped and exploited by a marketplace where younger is better and the line between child porn and art gets ever blurrier.

[1noteasilyfooled]

It isn't "gay" parents doing this is it?

[Emmatg52]

Can anyone say "JonBenet Ramsey? I really couldn't believe parents would parade their child around looking like a hooker,.. But that might just have been their thing,..

[1noteasilyfooled]

Emmatg52 wrote:

Can anyone say "JonBenet Ramsey? I really couldn't believe parents would parade their child around looking like a hooker,.. But that might just have been their thing,..

Weren't the Ramsey's very devout christians?

[state RN]

I seen a little girl about 5-6 years old. Short skirt little but cheeks haning out. I thought I wonder if the mother knows, or realizes how bad this looks. Then I saw the mother, boobs haning out short skirt and I figured she just doesn't care. Maybe when her daughter gets pregnant at 13 she'll care, but then again, probably not.

[dante2810]

Family Values!!!! Family Values!!!! Family Values!!!

Oh sorry. I was almost believing the propaganda. Glad I was shaken back into reality by what I see the kids dressed like when I go to the mall. Whew...

[Norm]

They're so infatuated with sex that it's showing thru their children. That's all they think of is sex. The world is comming apart from greed, religious wars and all you hear from the pope is no on gay marriage. Why don't you talk about fixing the greed you idiot. They need homosexuals to blame things on to take the heat off of them. They're sexually screwed up themselves! LOL

[McMike]

I started getting called "fag" in the 2nd grade. How is teaching kids about homosexuality pushing a grown-up sexuality on them? I was called queer before I even knew what it was. Luckily I survived and I am damn sure what I faced isn't dealt by the religious right to other children who think suicide might be the 'right' answer.

[Blond Prince]

McMike wrote:

I started getting called "fag" in the 2nd grade. How is teaching kids about homosexuality pushing a grown-up sexuality on them? I was called queer before I even knew what it was. Luckily I survived and I am damn sure what I faced isn't dealt by the religious right to other children who think suicide might be the 'right' answer.

That's what many gay children have to suffer through because of the Falwells, Robertsons, and Hagees of this world.

I put the blame where it should go, and that is on the right wing Religious fanatics who use the Bible or other Religious texts to validate their hate

20 years from now, GLBT children won't have to suffer the kind of abuse that McMike was put through because America is changing for the better.

Don't you bigots bother to post to me anymore tonight. I have seen what you have done to GLBT children and I might not post so nicely back at you right now.

http://www.actupny.org/

The time for change has come, and the time for change is NOW.

http://youtube.com/watch...

[Emma]

My theory is that bratz weren't meant to be bad at all. In fact, Bratz used to be the new hip funky fresh doll on the block.(lol) And at first, Bratz's fashions weren't even that bad!

[LaurelBaby]

I'm 13 and I like wearing mini skirts. Is that bad? I like it becuse i have really nice legs. I see adults who have nice breasts wearing low tops to show off their breasts. Am I any different if i want to show off my legs? My bf likes me in mini skirts and i like wearing them.

[numiluxtom]

I got it .It's pretty easy to understand.
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[AscendedFalmer]

McMike wrote:

I started getting called "fag" in the 2nd grade. How is teaching kids about homosexuality pushing a grown-up sexuality on them? I was called queer before I even knew what it was. Luckily I survived and I am damn sure what I faced isn't dealt by the religious right to other children who think suicide might be the 'right' answer.

This story rings a ghastly familiar bell to me.