Around here, we call the little girls who are allowed to dress, or whom their parents dress, provocatively as “prostitots”. And yet even the adult expert is wearing a revealing top in her photo. The best way to show our daughters and granddaughters to dress in a fun, but unrevealing way, is to dress that way ourselves. She mentioned kids imitate those they see. Well, with a cleavage baring top on, hopefully she doesn’t have a little girl just hoping to imitate mommy’s look. Get real ladies. We are creating the mess. If we don’t wear it, and if we don’t buy it for the kids, the industry will stop producing it.
One can wish, can’t they?

I totally agree. And we wonder why there are so many predators out there these days. Well stated article. Thanks for putting it back into the parents lap where it needs to be.

It all goes back to the family!!! We live in a society where kids are not being raised by their parents. Parents give in to stupid demands and have no backbone about raising their kids with any kind of morals. The parents themselves lose faith in God and in turn we don’t know what to teach our kids because we don’t know which end is up. We feel bad or simply don’t know what instruction about morals or self worth to give our kids…so we give in to whatever. This is the result of parents not having a moral compass.

We slowly give up on God and remove Him from every point of our society. We remove ourselves from any moral truth and suddenly we are surprised that kids clothing is aimed at sexualizing them? I’m not surprised at all! Our country will continue down this path until we return to God. We seriously need to wake up!!!! What part of SEXUALIZING OUR KIDS do we not understand?? Have we lost our minds? Are we satisfied that our culture is becoming like this?

This is a HUGE problem…because when our kids grow up..what do you think our society will be like then? They will be the adults and then you’ll have a real mess. Change begins with the parents.

Wow, more articles like this one and I might start really admiring Dr. Fulbright. (This one’s as good as her article about below-the-waist surgical enhancement.) She’s right on the button with this observation, and parents should sit up and take notice. However, I would add that there has to be a higher standard to follow, other than our own pesonal opinion, when it comes to appropriate dress/behavior for ourselves or our children. If there is no higher standard, what makes my opinion better than yours? I know it’s hard to be different sometimes, especially when our world can be so hostile today, and being OK with being different has always been a hard lesson for kids to learn. But it’s better to suffer for doing the right thing (or dressing the right way) than to suffer for doing the wrong thing. And, if we as parents, are not willing to suffer for what we believe in, how can we hope to encourage our children to do so?

Maybe they’re not sexualizing little girls. Maybe they’re just intending to sell the clothes to all those so-called adults who wear size 6 little girls’ clothes. (That was sarcasm, btw.) I’ve got 7 and 9-year-old daughters and I have no problem saying, “No, you’re not wearing that.” It takes *parenting* - that’s an active verb.

Ok, Here’s the frontpage scoop. Britney is not to blame, the designers are not to blame, the clothing stores are not the reason that children are dressing mose sexuallly provatively lately.

NO NO, The blame lies mainly and solely on the shoulders of the parents. If parents refused to purchase such trash, threw out the trashy cloths in the closet and blocked the videos, not the music, there would be no controvery.

The parents must be held responsible.

Dr. Fulbright:

With all due respect to you, I must tell you that this “sexualizing of young girls” has been going on long before the appearance of Brittany Spears. In fact, Brittany is a victim of it herself. I recall that in the middle to late 1960’s the “Free Love” hippie movement arose and girls were pressed to burn their bras and “let it all hang out”. They were duped into believing that free sexual expression with whomever and as many as partners as they wanted was natural and wonderful. This started a revolution of sorts and in its wake we were left with rampant syphillis, gonnereah (spelling?), herpies simplex, aids and other STD’s. The only “progress we have made is to move the sexualality explosion down to the next younger generations in JR. High and Elementary Schools. What we need is a return to decency and moral values. Have we gone too far? Become too sophisticated? Certainly that. Because we now teach people haow to enjoy all kinds of kinky sex and the books are not hidden from our young. Our biggest problem is that we have too much idle time on our hands because we ignore the needs of others and seek to satisfy our own desires. We are selfish, arrogant, greedy, and unconcerned and we seek only pleasure. Well there it is. Who will be the first person of influence with guts enough to speak up and try to start a moral decency movement? Will it be you?

THANK YOU! I am the mother of a seven year old. When she was three I started sewing her clothes in an attempt to keep her little. I now sew and sell the clothes at craft fairs and on the internet, because there are many parents like me. Our girls are only little once, they deserve the time to be innocent. I believe in dresses to the knee, shorts longer than an inch, shirts with BOTH sleeves and NO tube tops. If there are going to be words on my daughter’s clothes it will be “I love Ponies” or “Big Sister”. So many of us mothers are frusrated with the retail outlets because there are so few decent choices. I opted out of swimsuits this year. Cut outs? Backless? String bikini? On a seven year old? We did rash guard shirts and shorts. My daughter is still in braids and dirty knees, she doesn’t need to dress like an underage tramp. Mothers out there…rebel! Sew the clothes or support a decent boutiquer who believes that little girls deserve to be just that…little girls.

I totally agree with you. You need advice you can trust! Wise King Solomon wrote: “Rejoice, young man (or woman), in your youth, and let your heart do you good in the days of your young manhood, and walk in the ways of your heart and in the things seen by your eyes.” (Ecclesiastes 11:9) When you are young, life can be so interesting and exciting, and we want them to enjoy it. However, we encourage them to do so in a way that pleases Jehovah God. We always remind them that he can see what they are doing with their life and will judge them accordingly. How wise it is then, to follow Solomon’s further advice: “Remember, now, your Grand Creator in the days of your young manhood.”-Ecclesiastes 12:1. It is my earnest prayer that the information in our publication will help them to withstand the pressures and temptations facing today’ youth and will show you how to make decisions that are in harmony with God’s will. By doing so,they can make Jehovah’s heart rejoice-Proverbs 27:11. With your permission I would like to mail you free of charge a book that will help answer questions about………..*The opposite sex*Life Changes *Friendship Issues *School and Your Peers *Money Matters *Your Parents *Your Feelings *Recreation *Your Spiritual Growth
May I please? “Acquire wisdom, acquire understanding”-Proverbs 4:5. Would you welcome more information?

It’s no wonder why you hear of girls, barely in their teens in Massachussetts, getting pregnant. The clothes are not entirely to blame but they are a BIG part of the problem. Mothers trying to live through their Daughters are also corrupting themselves through them but letting them dress in such provocative manners. The only difference is that the Mothers understand the hidden meanings through their selections of clothing, a 10 year old girl can not let alone most 17 year old girls for than matter.

Finally, the general public seems to have awakened to the sexualization of our children, to include teenagers. Yet, while many voices poohpooh the trend (now years old), the ladies on FNC, and other stations , show a lot of leg and thigh and cleavage.

To an old woman, it is funny to see so many people throughout the nation who wear clothes down to here and up to there; who are plumped up in places I may not even know could be plumped up.There used ot be a saying that when clothes are skimpy, the economy is not at its best. It is repulsive to the same old woman to see, i.e. Barbara Walters, other old women and men who don’t age anymore. They don’t look the same if one compares their build or facial bone structure to earlier pictures, but the backs of their hands still give them away.

I really don’t believe what I see young girls wearing today. By the way they dress, they seem like they know all about sex and how to get it by dressing for it. It’s like they are asking for sex by showing off most of their bodies in public.
Personally, I think a lot of those young, half naked girls are asking for big trouble because of the high number of predators out there just waiting for the young, not-so-smart young girls to wander off by themselves.

I’m afraid for any girl dressing like the immoral and obscene Britneys and Madonnas out there who have no class or taste, and are teaching our young ladies to be cheap looking tramps, just like themselves.

It ain’t safe, girls, so don’t dress like those rich tramps. You don’t have enough money to protect yourselves like they do.

Why is it everyone quotes the bible in the foxnews health blogs? Not that I mind, I just find it weird to see it here and rarely anywhere else.

Anyways, I, too, blame the parents. Recently I was at an event where this 10 year old was running around in the shortest miniskirt I’ve ever seen. My response was: it’s no wonder these kids are being kidnapped and raped. You’re parading them around in stuff no decent woman would wear in public and enticing the wrong type of people. Smarten up, parents! Learn to say no to your kids.

I AGREE! When I see young girls dressed sexually, I don’t feel bad toward the girls…I think, “What the heck is her mother THINKING???” And shame on clothing companies–it’s not even cute to see little kids dressed inappropriately. I hope and pray things change. One thing I know…my daughter will never dress like “that” publicly. Thanks!

Yvonne! Come on! Your statement “There are lots of things you can do to make your child feel attractive” has to be one of the most over-the-top comments I have heard from a columnist in a long time. Feel attractive? For whom? Pedophiles? They are children for crying out loud! Your column was, for the most part, hitting the mark when you pointed out the sexualization of our nation’s daughters. I especially liked the point you made regarding who is ultimately responsible for this trend - not retailers, not the media, but parents. We make the decisions on what is appropriate for our kids to wear. We shouldn’t let the media or retailers make it for us. But beyond dressing children provocatively, we, as parents, need to be aware of the message we are sending our kids. By allowing them to dress in this way, we are saying to them their self worth, their identity are wrapped up in the clothes they wear. If they want people to pay attention to them, they need to dress in a way that garners attention, i.e like a little tart! No, instead, we need to be teaching the opposite lesson. The attention we want our kids to desire should come from their accomplishments and their actions. We want to teach people to see more than just a little hussy in a too-short mini-skirt, makeup and heels. What we really want is for people to see (and respect) our children as daughters and sisters with minds and hearts and feelings and not sex objects. Dressing our girls like tramps perpetuates stereotypes and subjects females to danger unnecessarilly. Parents need to explain to their children that some people WILL judge you by the clothes you wear, and not always favorably. Modesty, once abandoned, can never be regained. Let’s help our kids hang onto it for as long as possible. As the father of a twelve-year-old daughter, that’s what I want to intend to do.

Randy
Hit the nail on the head, it is soley the parents job! The retailers and manufacturers only design what is wanted and what is sold. SO STOP DRESSING YOUR DAUGHTERS LIKE SLUTS.

it is very bad, the way young girls are encouraged to be sexier. It should be the least of their worries at a time when home lives and school security are so unstable. I guess their mothers have low self esteem, and think the only remedy is to sexualize their daughters?

I totally agree with your commenst on turning kids to the sexual revolution in clothing. I believe that teaching appropriate starts at home.