We all know that tween girls have access to clothes that are a far cry from the Grranimals (match a lion shirt with a lion skirt and off you go) options of my youth. They can wear clothes that emulate Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse with ease, which makes many adults cringe and wonder what the parents of that 9-year-old were thinking.
This bizarre turn of events is called to question by M. Gigi Durham in her new book, "The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It." This book examines how the sexuality of tween girls is being used by the marketplace to sell these girls an adult ideal.
Prof. Durham points out that the people in the United States are happy to view sexuality, but are loath to talk about the subject and I would agree that is crazy. With all of the focus on abstinence-only education (that fails miserably and only succeeds in increasing the amount of un-safe sex that the teens have) and a decided turn-away from parents wanting to have any real conversations about sex, all the while exposing kids to Seventeen magazine and Abercrombie and Fitch ads, what is a culture to do? It seems inevitable that, unlike most European countries, the US is going to have a problem with how kids view sex.
Little girls who are getting their nails done at Libby Lu and shopping at Limited Too look like little adults and that influences the way they see their bodies and how they think others should see them. This becomes more of a problem when there is no conversation about sexuality or realistic ideals of femininity happening with these children.
However, the sexualization of girls clothing is part of a much larger problem. In an interview with Salon, Prof. Durham says
...As women have made tremendous gains politically and in the workforce, grown women are moving away from this traditional model of femininity where women are supposed to be docile and passive. And little girls still conform to that very traditional ideal of femininity. So I think that increasing attention is being focused on little girls as embodying ideal femininity.
The gender boundaries for little kids are really strongly enforced. Baby girls are meant to wear pink while little boys are allowed the remainder of the rainbow and toy stores are organized according to gender. A little boy who wants a baby doll will have a difficult time finding one that is not absolutely encased in enough pink packaging and pink clothing to choke a feminist. It is clear that little girls are meant to be feminine in ways that adult women will no longer tolerate, at least as far as manufacturers are concerned.
I think that we need to go back to Grranimals. That way everyone just has to match two hippos and no one cares what you look like.
I appreciate your comments that this is as much a gender/feminism issue as it is an issue of overt sexualization of little girls. Once little girls are put into the pink & glittery corner, it is only a short hop over to fake fingernails and sequined bras. Children's clothing designers need to know that parents want their kids to look like children, not shrunken teenagers.
I think little girls should wear nothink so we can see there little pussy's xx