I remember reading somewhere that there might be a different story behind that picture. The mother of the girl who drew this picture works at Home Depot and the picture is from a story she told her daughter about a time she was working during a snowstorm and there were several people trying to buy the last snow shovel in stock. Devil's advocate says this picture might be a tragic (and hilarious) mistake in perception. Focus: I live in the cynical Northeast, so stage parents of this degree are kind of foreign to me. The only parents that even come close to this are the ones who insist on pulling their 8-year-olds out of school so they can spend more time auditioning for Broadway and other acting gigs around the area. I can't help but think that the people who Jonbenet their kids know that they are either going to make it big and thank their parents for pushing them so hard (.00000000001% chance) or make damn sure their offspring will peak at 10 (99.999999%...and so on chance). In my mind, this is child abuse.
Some days I lament the country I live in. Some days I applaud it. From what I know of Australian societal norms, this sort of thing does not happen in our country. Because, if it did, there's guaranteed to be a mob of incensed parents putting a stop to the whole thing (and probably starting a punch up, it's Constitutionally mandatory). If I'm wrong in that, I don't want to know. There's a reason for laws dealing with statutory rape and child pornography. And, without delving into it, that video could be looked at as a form of child pornography. Yes, it's just "dancing" and "wearing clothes" but there's a distinct and overt sexual subtext to it. None of those girls will understand that subtext. If they are aware of it at all, it will only be because they may be able to relay pre-taught information about it, not because they understand it. And there's no good reason why they should be able to understand it. Fingers can be pointed all over the place as to why this happens, but I think ultimately that the buck has to stop with the parents. And I say that as a parent myself. Screw peer pressure or others dismissing concerns, every parent has a requirement safeguard their children and be a positive influence on their development; at least until they are able to make informed decisions for themselves. If any of these girls were my child, there is no way I would allow them to be in that position. Anyone that does, in my view, fails as a parent.
I take it none of you have ever taken dance classes, or sent your daughters to them. Let me tell you, this is STANDARD. Take one washed up dancer, add a little capital to start a studio, and presto! Channeling all that "I coulda been somebody" energy into routines and outfits that are a little too old for the little girls doing them. I was highly parented (as an example, I was allowed to watch the NBC Nightly News, PBS, and Disney movies. Only. Until I was 12.) and even my mom got talked into letting me wear the tiniest, tightest pink and black spandex mini dress you've ever seen for a jazz dance performance when I was 10. And I went to a small town, relatively conservative dance studio run by a former member of England's Royal Ballet. It doesn't make it right, but you guys behaving as if this phenomenon of sexing up little girls is somehow new this year is pretty funny.
Like it or not, to some extent we're all influenced by the media, but if these parents possess just a hint of common sense or maybe if they stopped to think, they would have realized that they're sending their girls to dance, dressed as prostitutes.
On a funny note, me and my friends performed the Single Ladies dance in black leotards in front of the whole school for our final assembly. But that was funny, 'cause we're all dudes.
Those kids actually did a pretty solid dance routine, kudos to them. The wardrobe decision could have used a bit more thought. Beyonce didn't even dress that skimpy in her music video, but is it really any worse than parents buying their child a 2 piece swimsuit for the beach? The most disturbing part for me is that some people would applauding this video for different reasons. And that's the sad fact for why they can't innocently emulate a video they see on TV. Well I guess that and that they won't understand how provocative their dancing is. It's too bad that sometimes the best intentions lead to poor decisions. Such as exhibit B -
The video made CNN - with Dr. Phil commenting: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2010/05/14/ac.phil.dancers.cnn?hpt=C2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestof ... cnn?hpt=C2</a>
The Southpark episode dealing with children's sex education comes into mind on this discussion. Those kids dancing have no fucking concept of acting like a porn star or stripper. What we mean to say is this: "I am a disgusting dirty minded adult and I am turning children dancing and having fun into my own gross sexual fantasies." That's all I hear whenever adults talk about the supposed "sexualization" of children.
As a father, my main objective with my daughters is to protect them from scum. I trust my family and if my girls wanted to dress and dance like this at a family picnic, I'd wonder where they had learned but I wouldn't really have a problem with it. They're girls, they like to dance and dress up. I get it. But in a public forum or on the internet, I don't feel right about the possibility of them being fantasized about. And I would want to protect from that.
Ah, yes. Things like this keep my office in business. The fucked up thing is that pedos that haven't been caught will see this and it will probably become their go-to pornography. It isn't illegal, it isn't X-rated, it's little girls sexualized in whorish outfits dancing provocatively.
Yeah, I resent the idea that others would think I'm a pervert just for having the ability to interpret the girl's dance as sexualized or inappropriate. The assumption that a 6 year old girl is being asked to dress up in lingerie and dance around on a stage, while having no concept of the sexual connotations that such behavior would indicate if she was 15 years older makes the whole thing even more disturbing, because it means that somewhere there was an adult along the way who understood the sexual meaning of those dance moves and music was OK with training a 6 year old how to do it. Kids like to play. Yeah, I get it. Little boys often like to pretend they shot each other with toy guns and arrows, but that doesn't mean that they grasp the the gravity of what it means to kill someone. I personally believe that society is harmed when people simulate provocative behavior (sex, violence, or other) without considering the ramifications that a realistic act would entail. The fact that an adult put these kids in these outfits and dance routine makes it even more disturbing to me than if they were merely emulating the dance video on their own.
One of your comments is exactly what I am talking about. It is not lingerie it is a dance outfit. That is what dance outfits look like even for adults. Those girls have no idea what lingerie is. The only way to prevent kids from emulating what they see is to shut them in a room with no windows or media and basically raise them like that Genie girl. An ABC clip I saw showed clips of the girls talking and all they said is that they loved dancing and gave "220% percent" at that competition. That same clip also showed a scene from Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 (a movie loved by my little cousins) showing the same exact dance done by the chipettes. We can either tell our kids they are dancing like the music stars they like or tell them they cannot do something they find extremely fun for reasons they do not understand. I for one am not sitting down with a seven year old girl who is my daughter and telling her someone thinks she looks slutty (I will admit that the video is pushing it but I would no where near call it wrong) so she cannot dance. The people we need to be mad at are the disgusting assholes that shove their genitals into children. Those are the only people we should be mad at for exploiting children sexually. They are the only kind of people that exploit children sexually as far as I am concerned, no one else. I am not denying any future kids of mine safe fun (meaning no physical harm done to them, aka no sniffing glue) because some scumbag has a messed up sex drive. I am one of the most literal people anyone will probably ever meet. I do not look for subtlety or double meanings or anything like that ever. To me those are dance outfits and they are dancing and telling those girls any different is what will fuck them up in the head as far as I am concerned.
This is where you're missing the point, man. This isn't about dancing, or outfits. This is about age appropriateness. And this particular dancing/dress combination is not appropriate for fucking 7 years old. I don't give a shit what adult dancers wear, because they know what sexual connotation is behind the performance. These kids don't and that's where the issue is. Aaaaaand the survey says: Proper parenting techniques. I'm sorry we were looking for Proper parenting techniques. Yeah.. Better luck next time. I could say more on your post but it would all basically be about parents teaching their children what is appropriate behavior in public. To quote my favorite father, Al Bundy
Who the fuck decides this? You? Who the fuck are you, or anyone here for that matter, to tell these parents how to raise their kids? If my kid wants to dance like a music star they like and someone else wants to tell them no I am going to tell them to eat shit and die. If they go any further than that to the point where it is getting into mine and my own kids personal lives then that I am going to beat the ever loving shit out of them for not minding their own god damn business. Which I think most of the people on this thread should be doing, minding their own god damn business. Edit: Or if you want we can continue to sit here and say how sexy these kids should not be looking, fucking pedophiles.
I just got this rep: --------- God, I hope you never have little girls. Why welcome that type of attention at a competition (which is a magnet for pedophiles btw. #1 "excuse", because they were asking for it by dressing/acting provocatively). --------- Because I am not raising my kids differently because of an inhuman piece of shit who needs to be curb stomped. I do not know at what point in this country we started blaming pedophilia on anyone but actual pedophiles but I sure as hell hope we fix it soon. Blaming pedophilia on kids looking sexy is like saying women in college deserve to get raped because they wore a short skirt. "Your honor I couldn't help it. She wore such a short skirt that I was emotionally compelled to rape her." Edit:------ as opposed to "Your honor I couldn't help it. That kid was dressed in such a way that I was emotionally compelled to rape her" ----- Why the fuck do we accept the above excuse for pedophiles but not for rapists? Can someone please explain that to me? It sounds pretty dumb to me when we put them side by side.