HYPER-SEXUALIZING
GIRLS
By
Marsha West
March
7, 2008
NewsWithViews.com
I
grew up in an era when girls were not pampered the way they are today.
My sister and I helped around the house from the time I can remember.
We did everything from vacuuming and ironing, to cleaning up the kitchen
after meals. Even my younger brother washed and dried the dishes. Everyone
pitched in to help.
Mom
rarely pampered her girls, except for the occasional bubble bath. We
weren�t allowed to wear make-up and nail polish until we hit the teen
years -- except on Halloween. My sister and I would dress up like gypsies
(no offense to gypsies intended) and Mom would break out the costume
jewelry, paint our faces with rouge (blush), lipstick, and press a �beauty
mark� into our faces with eyebrow pencil.
Growing
up I was a tomboy. Back then I cared little about clothes or how my
hair looked. What mattered most to me was playing softball, tetherball,
hide and seek and climbing trees and fences.
But
I also had a girlie-girl side. I loved playing with dolls! In the 1950�s
and 60�s dolls were made for children, hence their bodies were not �mature�
like a modern Barbie doll. My grandma�s loving hands made most of my
doll clothes. In those days parents would have disapproved of sexy undergarments
and lingerie for their daughter�s dolls. By today�s standards my favorite
doll was a plain Jane, but I loved her just the same!
Now
fast forward to 2008. Surprisingly the left-leaning New York Times published
an article by Camille Sweeney, Never Too Young for That First Pedicure.
[1] The
article reported on a disturbing trend to hyper-sexualize girls. To
that end, most spas now offer treatments for youngsters, which includes
make-up, manicures and pedicures.
The
portrait Sweeney paints of the modern adolescent isn�t a very pretty
one. Little girls are becoming self-focused and vain before they even
reach their teenage years! The reason this is happening is that our
culture emphasizes a person�s outer beauty, not their inner beauty.
The Bible tells us that true beauty is a matter of godly character.
�The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the
outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.� (1 Sam 16:7).
In
her article, Sweeny gives us the lowdown on some of the ways parents
and grandparents are spoiling girls.
For
starters,
�Eleanor was in the
bubble-gum-colored pedicure lounge of Dashing Diva, the Upper West Side
franchise of the international nail spa, with her 3 �-year-old sister
and a half-dozen or so friends. The girls were celebrating her birthday
with mani�s, pedi�s and mini-makeovers with light makeup and body art
glitter-applied stars, lightning bolts and, of course, hearts.
�Eleanor�s mother,
Anne O�Brien, stood watching and shrugged. �What can I say?� said Ms.
O�Brien, whose husband suggested the party. �She�s a girly girl. I�m
not quite sure how it happened. I didn�t get my first manicure until
I was 25.��
Anne O�Brien may
not be sure how it happened. But I think I know. Retailers. They�ll
do anything for a buck. Including peddling raunchy products to adolescents.
Sweeney
continues
�Cosmetic
companies and retailers increasingly aim their sophisticated products
and service packages squarely at 6- to 9-year-olds, who are being transformed
into savvy beauty consumers before they�re out of elementary school.�
How
sad.
Those
responsible for purchasing �beauty� products for girls should know better.
That would be parents. It�s the grown-ups who are allowing their daughters
to become �savvy beauty consumers.�
More.
�Sweet
& Sassy, a salon and party destination based in Texas for girls 5 to
11, includes pink limo service as a party add-on, which starts at $150
a ride. And Dashing Diva franchises often offer virgin Cosmos in martini
glasses along with their extra-virgin nail polish, free of a group of
chemicals called phthalates, for a round of services for a birthday
girl and her friends.�
Virgin
Cosmos in martini glasses? Extra-virgin nail polish? For 8-year-olds?
Has common sense left the building?
Sweeney
reports on �primping parties�
�At
Club Libby Lu, a mall-based chain and the most mainstream of the primping
party outlets, girls of any age can mix their own lip gloss and live
out their pop idol fantasies. Last year, the chain did about a million
makeovers in its 90 stores nationwide, said Ari Goldsmith, the director
of advertising and marketing.�
Makeovers
for youngsters? What�s next? Botox? Hair extensions?
Why
are so many parents complicit in this push to hyper-sexualize girls?
Answer: They�re impervious to the corruption of our culture. Instead
of protecting their child�s innocence, some parents are robbing them
of it. It�s painfully obvious that a large number of Moms and Dads don�t
have a problem with their kids being a part of the popular culture,
where anything goes, including turning children into sex objects. And
by the way, where are the women�s rights activists on this issue? Young
girls are demeaned and exploited for profit, and the collective voices
of the feminists are dead silent.
Really,
what it comes down to is this: Parents want their daughters to be part
of the �in crowd� -- no matter what the sacrificce. The sacrifice, I�m
afraid, is their virtue.
Is
there something wrong with raising young girls to be virtuous? Whatever
became of developing godly character in a child? In today�s popular
culture modesty and purity have become vile words.
For
me, one of the most disturbing aspects of this trend is the way parents
dress their young daughters (6-year-olds do not dress themselves). It�s
heartbreaking to see little girls in skintight low riders and crop tops
that expose their midriff. Moms and Dads should be savvy enough to understand
that evil forces are behind the hyper-sexualization of girls. Those
most responsible are the anti-God secular humanists. But is there any
doubt that perverts and pedophiles are part of the corrupting influence?
Sadly,
some of the high-powered executives that operate the multi-billion dollar
beauty and fashion industry are really nothing more than raunch peddlers.
Speaking
of peddling raunch, Victoria�s Secret (VS) top executive, Sharen Turney,
recently admitted that VS is �too sexy� for it�s own good and is planning
to �reinvent the sleepwear business and focus on product quality.�[2]
Why? Not because
Miss Turney has been struggling with her conscience. Truth be told,
the change of heart came about because of the bottom line. According
to AP �Same-store sales at Victoria's Secret fell 2 percent in 2007,
with sales in the fourth quarter dropping 8 percent.� As a result, the
queen of raunch lingerie is becoming more ladylike. From their plunging
sales it would appear that some women are no longer interested in wearing
undergarments designed for porn-stars. Sales suffer when consumers stop
purchasing a company�s products. Consumers have spoken. Is Miss Turney
really listening?
Perhaps
other retailers of women�s clothing whose sales have gone flat will
come to their senses and drop the sexy fashions they�re marketing to
youngsters. Unless parents refrain from buying their sleazy products
it�s about as likely to happen as a shark becoming an angelfish. There�s
always hope, though!
And
what, pray tell, is the Church doing to put a stop to the madness? The
sad fact is that many Christians have yielded to the culture. And those
that have are just as complicit in hyper-sexualizing youngsters as liberals
are. So I pose this question to followers of Jesus Christ: Why do you
suppose the world doesn�t believe what Christians have to say?
The
answer is that Christians don�t live what they say they believe. Instead
they live like the world.
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�The
Christian life,� says Warren Weirsbe, �is not a playground, but a battlefield.�
[Read Eph. 6:11-12] Those who commit to follow Jesus Christ have got
to get off the playground and make haste to the battlefield. Your children�s
future is at stake. And I�m not talking to you nominal
Christians. I�m talking to those who are serious about their commitment
to Christ. Yes, fighting the culture is an uphill fight. But we can
win some battles! "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed;
perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck
down, but not destroyed� (2 Corinthians 4:8-9).
So
what are you waiting for?!
Footnotes:
1,
Never
Too Young for That First Pedicure By Camille Sweeney Published:
February 28, 2008
2,
Has
Victoria's Secret become too sexy? The Associated Press 2/29/2008,
3:19 p.m. EST
