Hoes from the Crib ** Too Sexy Too Soon
“Do not prostitute your daughter, to cause her to be a whore…” Wayeeqra/Leviticus 19:29
“Little girls can get a jump start on their strut and be top-models-in-training before they leave the crib”
- Bobbi Thomas
The Today Show
| A powerful report on how marketers are selling a grown-up, sexy image to pre-teen girls. Then we check in with boys to find out what they think about girls dressing sexy. |
| CBC MARKETPLACE: YOUR FINANCES » MARKETING TO KIDS Buying into Sexy: The sexing up of tweens Broadcast: January 9, 2005
When you were nine, what did you want? A Barbie doll? A train set? These days, young boys and girls are hungry for something else: padded bras and flirting tips, video games with bikini-clad babes and music videos that feature plenty of sexual innuendo. Sex has always sold, but now it’s children that are buying. Tweens, kids aged eight to 14, are a hot target for companies. And now more than ever, sex is being used to get their dollars. Tweens are being bombarded with sexy images by the makers of clothes, toys, video games, music videos -- all aimed at getting this freshly- coveted demographic to buy, buy and buy some more. To get a sense of their world, we spend a day with 12-year-old Amanda.
“Tweens, we don’t want to be kids anymore,” she says. “But I guess we also don’t want to have all this responsibility, we just want to have fun.” We decide to tally up how many sexed-up images Amanda sees in an average day. We wake her up at her mom’s house at 7:00 to start our count. Her bedroom is bright pink, from the walls to the bedspread. Plastic stars dangle from the ceiling. “I think that whole glittery thing is still a little bit of the child in her,” says Amanda’s mom, Alma. “She’s still got a bit of that, but now … it’s more of a sexy look. "I think it’s just the influence of pop stars . I don’t think it’s that she wants to look sexy. Not for boys. I don't think she's even noticed boys yet.”[but have they (and even the men) noticed her???]
Early in the day, from tween magazines, the internet and television, our count of sexy images is already at 126. Then Amanda heads out shopping with two friends, Natasha and Alexia. At the mall, there are entire chains devoted to tween shoppers: stores full of racy clothing, make-up and even lingerie for girls who may not have hit puberty. “When you're that young, you don't really need a bra,” says Amanda. “I guess it just makes them feel more mature.” Alexia picks up a tiny pink bra. She holds it up to her chest to show how small it is. Amanda jokes that the La Senza bra wouldn’t fit her three-year-old cousin.
After the shopping trip we ask the girls why they like to buy sexy clothes. “You get more attention,” says Amanda. “And strange guys come up to you and try and get you to go to nightclubs.” “A lot of guys stare,” adds Natasha. Alexia brings up another tween fad: "sex bracelets." They’re cheap, colourful jelly bracelets that Alexia says carry sexual connotations: “Pink means ‘kiss,’ blue means ‘blow job’ and white means 'lap dance' ... [this is a shame, an abomination before YAH]!!! If a guy pulls it off you, it means you have to do it. But most girls don’t do the stuff. They just wear them for fun [playing with fire and will very soon get burned]. I think they look cool and they’re like fun to play with.”
Wearing so-called “sex bracelets” doesn’t mean kids are having sex. In fact, the "secret meanings" allegedly embedded in the bracelets seem to be believed more by adults than by the kids themselves [my point exactly, can we say PEDOPHILE???]. That said, the bracelet phenomenon is another example of how kids’ sexual awareness is high. “I feel there’s pressure because everyone else wears [sexy clothes]," says Amanda. "You don’t want to be left out,” says Alexia. “Yeah, yeah. And you don't want to be a loner,” adds Amanda. “Some parents don’t want their children dressing that way,” says Alexia. “But then I find that just makes kids want to do it more,” quips Amanda. “If you chain your children too much they’ll just do it anyway ‘cause they’re trying to get you angry,” adds Alexia. “People change in the washrooms at school when they get there,” says Amanda. “That’s what I used to do,” says Alexia. |
An advertisement for a pre-teen girls clothing company.
Amanda, 12, says 'You get more attention' when you wear sexy clothes. 
This padded bra from La Senza Girl is size “30 AA.” (The national average bra size is “36 C.”) Amanda jokes that it wouldn't fit her three-year-old cousin.
Amanda, Natasha and Alexia 
Swedish makers of a bra-like top for girls aged 1-2 have withdrawn the product in Norway, stating that it was "a bit too similar to an adult top." Similar clothing for children is still available in the United States.
The Norwegian Minister of Children and Family Affairs said, "It's remarkably daft to make bra-like bikinis for 1-year-olds." And we couldn't agree more. Making bra-like bikini-tops for little kids is an intellectually void idea and leads to disgusting mental images. Furthermore, this kiddy bra is just another example of the sexualization of young children. There is a fine line between letting children play with makeup or bonding with them at day spas and putting them into clothes that are obviously meant for fully developed adults and the Swedish company, Lindex, has definitely crossed that line. It's the parents who are to blame for this, because they do the shopping. Lindex said it would remove the tops after an internal review.
We don't like playing moral police, and we don't like telling anyone what clothing to buy. However, it is impossible to avoid what is happening in our culture. Girls are bombarded by messages of physical perfection every day, and wearing skimpy clothes just serves to enhance their insecurities. Five-year old Mary wears a bra top and realizes - from her naturally thinner peers - that her stomach is too big for it. Let the dieting begin. The last thing any kid should be thinking about is the shape of her body. Yet, girls as young as seven or eight are already worried about their breast size, and seriously beg their parents to get implants by the legal implantation age of 18.
Society is becoming far too sexualized in general, and this is compounded by the fact that girls every year are reaching puberty earlier and earlier than previous generations. Obviously sexy clothing sends out the wrong message and only serves to make children adults before they're ready.
This matters to us as college students because many of our physical insecurities stem from childhood issues. It matters because many of us will be parents one day and will have to make similar choices. It matters because we're the next generation, and we will make the decisions for future generations. And we can choose whether our children concentrate on their looks - or on their other virtues.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Parents say kid's thong is just plain wrong
Clothier selling skimpy skivvies for girls 10 and older
By VIKKI ORTIZ
Journal Sentinel
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Trick or treat 2004: 'Pimp and Ho' kids
2004 08 25
Provocative costumes for children spark outrage among some parents
By Joe Kovacs
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com 
If you attend a Halloween event this year, don't be surprised if you run into a child dressed as a pimp or prostitute, as a California company is selling "Child Pimp & Ho Costumes."
Los Angeles-based Brands On Sale began selling the $40- $60 outfits for children last year, but the company says there wasn't much publicity originally.
Now, the items are a hot topic with word spreading on the Internet.
"I am completely appalled that people would expose children to this disgusting sin by selling or even buying these costumes. It just makes me sick," Heather Church of Haines City, Fla., tells WorldNetDaily. "It makes me sick because it is endorsing this sin as acceptable, and gives exposes innocent children to evil."
Some comments posted among online messageboards include:
"Yikes! I thought that was a joke at first."
"This world is a messed up place. What's next? Four-year-olds dressing like Playboy bunnies?"
"This means little considering how easy it is for kids now days to become desensitized to the vice of society after watching late-night TV."
"Not to be an old square, but that's just not right. Although, come to think of it, I definitely remember trick-or-treating with the Flanigan girls one year when they were dressed up as prostitutes. I was probably 10, which would make them 11 and 12. I can't remember what I was dressed up as that year. Probably a serial killer. I had one of those creepy, clear plastic masks that bank robbers wear. Ah, Halloween. It really is the work of the devil, isn't it?"
"I much prefer the costume featuring the butcher-knife-in-the-head look."
"Kinda gives new meaning to 'trick or treat.'"
In the face of the criticism, Brands On Sale costume creator Johnathon Weeks says "we're not telling everyone to buy them," admitting they're for "unique customers."
"If they want, they can purchase a devil costume, or a ghoul or ghost costume – I don't care," he tells WorldNetDaily. "But it does not promote prostitution or sexual exploitation. It's just a costume for kids to dress up and pretend."
Weeks says real pimps these days don't look like the colorful costumes he's selling.
"If you think about a real pimp, they're not in flamboyant suits. Kids don't even know that the word pimp means – regarding soliciting women for sex. They think being 'pimp' means having big, fancy cars and homes."
The dictionary defines "pimp" as a man who acts as an agent for prostitutes and lives off their earnings, while "ho" is a slang synonym for "whore."
But Weeks says television shows like MTV's "Pimp My Ride" and celebrities like Snoop Dogg have made the terms more mainstream and less offensive.
He points out parents, not children, need to approve of the costume purchases, since they have to submit their credit card information.
Even dogs can be pimped up
"The 'Ho' costume is just there for excitement," says Weeks, claiming it looks more like a 1920s-era flapper.
Though less than 500 of the pimp and ho costumes have been sold, 90 percent of them have been shipped to California, New York and Florida.
He says his company, which sells up to 100,000 costumes annually, looks to provide everyone with a chance to dress up.
"We have Jesus costumes, Moses costumes, and coming soon we'll offer the infant pimp."
Article From: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40152
Receive The Wisdom...
bravenet.com