Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Some Parents Still Letting Their Kids
Dress Up As Sluts For Halloween
From The WaPo:
Gabby Cirenza wanted to be a referee for Halloween. The outfit she liked had a micro-mini black skirt and a form-fitting black and white-striped spandex top held together with black laces running up the flesh-exposing sides. She looked admiringly at the thigh-high black go-go boots that could be bought as an accessory. And she thought the little bunny on the chest was cute.
"Absolutely not," said her mother, Cheryl. "That is so not happening."
Gabby is 11.
And the Playboy Racy Referee costume was only the latest that her mother had vetoed one pre-Halloween-crazed afternoon at Party City in Baileys Crossroads as too skimpy, too revealing, too suggestive .
Bawdy Halloween costumes, however, have become the season's hottest sellers in recent years. Not just for women, but for girls, too. And parents such as Cirenza don't like it.
[...]
Cheryl Cirenza shook her head in exasperated disbelief. "This is all so inappropriate. It's really disturbing," she said, eyeing a wall of such girl and preteen costumes as Major Flirt in army green, the bellybutton-baring Devilicious and a sassy, miniskirted French Maid, pink feather duster included. She'd just turned down her 13-year-old daughter's request for a Sexy Cop outfit. "When I was their age, I was a bunch of grapes."
But that was back in the days when Halloween was still a homemade kind of holiday, when an old sheet with eyeholes was a perfectly acceptable ghost and clumsily carved pumpkins on the front porch were about as elaborate as the decorations got. Now, Halloween is big business. Americans are expected to spend upwards of $5 billion this year on candy, ghoulish decorations and costumes. And the hottest trend in costumes, retailers say, is sexy. And young.
Fishnet tights, once associated with smoky cabarets or strip joints, now come in girls' sizes and cost $3.99.
[...]
Even little girl costumes show more leg and tummy than they used to. "They're just good sellers," [said
Joe Thaler, head of TransWorld Exhibits Inc., runs the annual Halloween Expo for big-box retailers.]
[...]
The Halloween costume trend is not only leading to tense mother-daughter standoffs, but it is also part of a far larger worry that young girls are becoming sexualized. Task forces of psychologists study the trend. Books and academic articles are being produced with such titles as the upcoming "So Sexy So Soon" and "From Barbie to Britney: The Sexualization of Childhood." And yet the costumes sell.
"Youth isn't being lived through anymore. It's being rushed through," Stephanie Terrazas, 20, said as she watched her 11-year-old sister pick out a "deluxe" sequined Dorothy dress that, unlike the chaste, high-necked one in the little girl size, was lower cut and had two strategically placed poofs of fabric.
Megan Smith, 16, perused the costumes at Party City with her father, Dan. She first tried on the Prisoner, a slinky spandex number with a little button at the throat and open chest like a '70s disco halter dress.
[...]
On another aisle, a frazzled Kathy Rafferty was doing her best to fend off her 6-year-old daughter Grace's choices. Grace liked the Mega Star costume, with a tiny bandeau top, bare midriff and low-slung sparkle pants. And she thought the Runway Diva in leopard skin, big sunglasses and knee-high boots was cool.
"Some of these are just incredibly sleazy. Nothing in here except Tinkerbell is innocent," Rafferty said. "Last year, Grace was a snow princess. Now, this is what she likes. I don't know what's happened."
[...]
Meanwhile, Shawn Bailey was trying not to lose it as her 11-year-old daughter Da'Nesha Holmes picked out a costume. Her son had found his Darth Vader costume, and her baby had her Baby Bratz pink kitty outfit. But Da'Nesha was too tall for most of the girl costumes, and her mother was having none of the rest. Bar Wench. Cocktail Hunny. The half-angel, half-devil Naughty Nice..
Da'Nesha pointed to Costume 529, Hot Flash, a nurse with thigh-high garters.
"No. You need something for you," Bailey said, sighing. "You're a little girl."
The rest of you, you parents who let your little girls dress up as Bar Wench, Cocktail Hunny or "Sally Slut" - just WTF are you thinking? Can't you let your kids be kids? Why the rush to push them into the Jon Benet routine? Are you afraid your child will "not like you" for letting them dress up like a slut? Well - you're the parent, you're supposed to be THE BOSS. So your kid is angry with you for making them dress up as a bunch of grapes instead of Dancing 'Ho - they'll get over it.
If you really want to achieve maximum shock-value, dress your kid up as a Cigarette! Oh, the nasty looks and comments you will get!
©2007
This isn't really a comment for this post, so you may not want to publish it.
I am considering creating a site (I already have an address) where I can list links to blogs that are from different ideas (not just coservative).
Because you have been doing this for a while, I'm wondering what your thoughts are on the success of such a site... or in other words... do you think bloggers would want to be listed there knowing that there are both conservative and liberal blogs to choose from.
My thought was that I know I personally have a hard time locating blogs without taking tons of time doing it. In this way... they would be located on one site (or at least many would). There would be no fee for this... but eventually I may add advertising to help pay for it.
Just looking for thoughts. If you like, you may email me at jillstar@gmail.com. Have a great day!
Go for it! (If you list me, list me as David Drake - thanks!)
Love the newest photos of Ellie. What a darling!
I think you are fine adding whomever and whatever links you want. This is not to be considered legal advice, or any other sort of advice. I will opt - for one of the few times in my life for the Liberal mantra of - "I am not responsible." heh! Good luck! Lemme know when its up and running.
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