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NEXTopia
Welcome to NEXTopia, a Web diary in which NEXT writers — and readers — share their evolving thoughts on a variety of issues. The opinions you read below are those of the individual writers, not necessarily those representing The Seattle Times.
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May 21, 2004
| Go Ella! |
Way to go, Ella Gunderson. As reported in a Seattle Times article, this 11-year-old girl wrote a letter to Nordstrom criticizing fashion choices for young girls being limited to "sexy" clothing.
I myself have been amazed at the fashions stores have made available for young girls -- almost as amazed as at the fact their parents buy them. I mean, g-string underwear for 8-year-olds? I suppose that was so their underwear didn't show over their low-rider skin tight jeans.
I found part of the article disturbing though. It was the part where Gigi Solis Schanen, the New York-based fashion editor for Seventeen magazine, stated, "If modesty is what she is looking for, it's going to come full force in the fall...The '50s sexy-librarian look is in."
Oh, fabulous! Just what we need -- "sexy" librarian tweens.
I'm not saying we should hold clothes burning rallies, or that I think 8-year-old girls are running out and having sex just because they dress "sexy". But I do think it is important to know the difference between sexy and beautiful, between cheap and feminine, between healthy pride in one's own appearance and an unhealthy need for attention, between pride in one's body and an unhealthy concern with one's appearance.
We need to cultivate such awareness in girls, and in boys, especially during the difficult social, emotional and identity changes of the tween and teen years. Otherwise, our overly image-conscious and sex-driven culture may contribute to today's children having problems with eating and weight disorders, self-esteem issues and depression, increasingly younger and more frequent cases of teen pregnancy and social diseases, and unhealthy relationships.
Of course, as Ella proves, not all children are blithely unaware of the images and expectations being pushed on them. Reading the statements of her mother, I'm guessing some of that has to do with her parents. But not all children are Ella Gunderson.
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| Posted by Randy Henderson at May 21, 2004 11:56 AM |
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