Abercrombie Padded Bikini Top for Young Girls

4/18/2012

Going off the theme of the black female body for young girls, it is proving to be an issue in society today. There are multiple shops having "beauty parties" for young girls to learn how to put on make-up and every year the ages are getting younger and younger. By having girls wear make-up at such a young age is causing them to grow up faster then girls in previous decades. When I was growing up the only thing I was allowed to wear was lip gloss and I didn't start wear full make-up (eye liner, mascara, eye shadow, foundation) until I was a Junior in High School. I think the reason this has changed is because society has changed, the TV shows for young children have even changed (Hannah Montana, Shake it Up, etc), so therefore young girls want to grow up faster and wear make-up sooner because it makes them feel older. The thing that is disturbing about this is that if society has changed drastically since I was young, what is going to happen in 10 years or 20 years? This video about the Abercrombie Padded Bikini Top is a great example of this idea of society wanting young girls to grow up faster then they should. Looking back I loved my childhood of innocence but that is changing with today's society. Little girls shouldn't have to make sure their face and body looks perfect just yet, they need to just enjoy being a kid.
Do you think this idea of young girls growing up too fast is going to get worse or continue?
What should we do about it?

3 Comments

Christine Houle

5/1/2012 05:11:08 am

As long as the media continues to advertise beauty, makeup, and similar things to young girls, the influence is going to continue to worsen. There is a show, Toddlers and Tiaras, which is dedicated to little girls looking like super models. The parents of these children need to stop taking away their innocence. When I was a toddler I was playing with crayons and dolls. Nowadays children are using, not playing with, their parents makeup, jewelry, electronics etc. Society is affecting parenting skills. Young girls are influenced by the people around them, and their parents are often the ones around teaching them. Parents aren’t the only ones that are the problem. The media influences girls a great amount. If the advertisements don’t change, then the media influence won’t go away. It’s a viscous cycle that is hard to stop. The parents need to give out positive reinforcement and direct their children with good beliefs. It will teach children that there are more things to life than “things.” Happiness is the key to a good life, and what brings happiness are the people around you not the expensive items you bought at the store or how good looking your body is. If parents are able to give their children a life that doesn’t revolve around the beliefs of society, it will be a start to changing the hold society has on people.

Katie Kieft

5/1/2012 06:55:40 am

What I think is more problematic than the sexualization of young girls are the driving forces behind it. What is this sexualization a symptom of? Why is the portrayal of young girl as sexual beings, which they now are - whether we like it or not - so appealing to many, including the girls themselves? It is my opinion that it stems from the desire to dominate the female body and push them into a dictated role. However, playing 'devil's advocate', the push against the sexualization of young girls could also be seen as a type of sexual control of their bodies as it seems to enforce the importance of female purity - ultimately asserting that the power that women hold lies between their legs. I'm not saying that it is morally okay for young girls to be wearing padded bikini tops or to be having sex, but I think that its interesting the way that the focus of the "too much, too young" attitude prevalent within our society about adolescent sexuality is on girls. What about the males? What affect does the sexual portrayals within the media have on them?

Monica Wisniewski

5/1/2012 11:44:40 pm

I think its incredibly frustrating to see the forced maturing of these young girls into women roles that they are not ready for. Several stories throughout Evans' book refer to girls that are not quite in control of their bodies do to their age and lack of experience. I feel that in this way she is commenting on the absurdity to push girls into a direction that they are not ready for yet, and I think that she demonstrates that in several stories throughout her text (Virgins, Robert E. Lee is Dead, Wherever you go there you are). Evans goes further however by not making judgments on the characters that are influenced by these types of pressures. She writes the characters in a way that express the position that sometimes it just is what it is. I think that this is an important stance to take since it recognizes that something is not necessarily "right" or "wrong" but that there are all kinds of people undergoing all kinds of experiences.

Abercrombie Padded Bikini Top for Young Girls

Leave a Reply.

Someone Ought to Tell Her There's Nowhere to Go

Megan Peters

Archives