It’s not okay when the word “hooker” is the first to come to mind…
…when you’re looking at photos of preschoolers. Beyonce is a massively successful pop singer and she has a clothing company called House of Dereon. Via Melissa Clouthier’s blog, this is from the new ads for Beyonce’s “children’s” line:
Well if that doesn’t just scream class, good taste, innocence, and childhood, I really don’t know what does. This makes me want to have many girl babies, so I can dress them up like whores and make Beyonce more wealthy than she already is. It’s a win-win for everybody.
What makes this especially touching is that I remember seeing Beyonce in an interview years ago, talking about how she was all about empowering young women to be independent, self-sufficient, and smart. I’m guessing she’s been hanging out with rappers too often and has somehow decided that the path to female independence starts in preschool and involves 5-inch stilettos, heavy makeup, and feather boas.
It’s a clever approach, which most of us never would have thought of. That’s why WE aren’t multimillionaires and Beyonce is. Lesson learned.
Malkin has the full ad. Be prepared to be blown away by the wholesome cuteness of 4-year-olds looking like they’re in need of pimps.
Really cool book:
“Stop Dressing Your Six-Year-Old Like A Skank”
May 14th, 2008 at 3:57 pmESTI believe the word is “prostitots.”
May 14th, 2008 at 3:59 pmEST…from a “pop-tart”…disgusting.
May 14th, 2008 at 4:03 pmESTYup, prostitot. That’s just Jon-Benet pornographic right there.
My 11 year old scoffs at this crap — “I’m too smart to dress like a prostitot, Mom”
and my personal favorite:
“Boys don’t like it when you butt crack echoes when they yell, Mom.”
She is well and truly covered, and she will continue to be so until she’s out of my house. We BOTH agree on that, and even if we didn’t “the one who does the payin’ does the sayin’ ” in our house.
HA!
May 14th, 2008 at 4:03 pmESTHeather, sounds like you’ve got a smart one there. I wouldn’t worry about any kid who could come up with that butt crack comment. She’ll do fine in this big dumb world.
May 14th, 2008 at 4:07 pmESTI understand the motivation behind selling this crap - I don’t like it and it disgusts me, but I understand the supply part of supply/demand. What I can’t grog at all is the demand half of the equation. Why on earth would a parent would knowingly buy this stuff and let their little ones wear it???
May 14th, 2008 at 4:11 pmESTUnbelievable…if I had a Macy’s around here I’d complain to the store manager and let him know “the market is speakin’” (I have 7 and 5 y.o. girls). I’m still trying to deal with the size 4/5 low-rise pants at Target that my 5 yr old cannot wear w/ her Tinkerbell briefs. Even my 7 y.o.’s Osh Kosh jeans appear to be cut like “skinny jeans.” Sexualizing little girls makes me soooo pissed.
May 14th, 2008 at 4:16 pmESTI guess I won’t be shopping at Macy’s anytime soon!
My daughter is 4, and I don’t think she’d even LIKE any of these clothes. She’s more of a Princess fan right now. We shop mostly at Target, OshKosh and Gymboree for her clothes (with the occasional splurge at Janie & Jack).
AccioChocolate, which Target jeans are you having a problem with? I’m curious… the last pair I bought for my daughter there was a Genuine Kids OshKosh - the classic 5-pocket - and it fits great and has an adjustable waist, too. Though I am still shopping in the “toddler” section because my daughter wears 5T jeans.
May 14th, 2008 at 4:25 pmESTExcuse my failure to understand “their” culture but it’s simple. Sheep mentality, if Beyonce is pushing it the demand will be there simply because Beyonce is pushing it. She could wear dog crap spray painted gold around her neck and it would be an instant hit. Culture wars, they’z a comin’
May 14th, 2008 at 4:30 pmESTThe little one on the right looks like a mini-Huggy Bear from Starsky and Hutch. That’s just WRONG.
May 14th, 2008 at 4:34 pmESTSharkman, you took the words right outta my head.
May 14th, 2008 at 4:41 pmESTMakes you want to slap the crap out of some parents.
Set your calendars, because in ten years these same parents will be wailing about how their kids are out of control and how their kids treat them like they’re stupid and worthless. They’ll just be doing what you trained ‘em to do, sister.
There’s a very useful word in the English language and if it’s used often enough and persistently enough, kids stand a fighting chance of making something out of themselves someday. The word?
“NO!”
Now, each one of you owes me $35 for the parenting lesson. It’s ok if you don’t have it on you, I’ll start a tab.
May 14th, 2008 at 5:08 pmESTHeather, not only will your little classy girl do well in the big dumb world, like Bad Penny said, but she has the makings of a fine commenter right here on Rachel’s blog!
May 14th, 2008 at 5:11 pmESTBad Penny:
Becca (NOT Becky) knows her mind, she also knows when to pick her battles, and resigned herself to that pretty much from birth. No amount of horrific slutty advertising will change her mind, it just makes her annoyed at the sluttily-attired girls around her.
It’s partly her intrinsic intelligence, and partly she’s just gotten too lazy to argue with me over something she already sees as ridiculous, cuz’ as
Charybdis E. Scylla Says:
There’s no point in arguing with “NO”!
Besides, she’d rather have more stuff for her motorcycle, guitar, snowmobile, etc … farm girl, dontcha know.
May 14th, 2008 at 5:15 pmESTSharkman - that’s just scary. I kept thinking, that outfit looks familiar but couldn’t place it. You nailed it.
May 14th, 2008 at 5:21 pmESTHoney, I shrunk the hookers.
May 14th, 2008 at 5:36 pmESTCan someone explain to me how parents can be outraged at the idea of pedophiles spending happy time with pictures of children when they themselves are dressing their little girls up like this (a pedophile’s wet dream)? Isn’t there some kind of hypocrisy/double standard being applied here?
(I’m not saying anybody here is guilty of this, but given the very large public outcry against pedophilia, why are many parents dressing their children like hookers and hoodlums?)
May 14th, 2008 at 5:50 pmESTMy daughter is only 4 months old so I don’t have to worry about this shit yet but watching the persistent Whoreification of the Western Woman is more than mildly disturbing.
I think I’ll have to shop for my daughter at good will to keep people from asking how much for an hour.
I wonder if this trend has any discernible relationship to the Pussification of the Western Male… maybe beta males are so passive and wimpish that women have to be even more brazen to get them to attempt to date them.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:00 pmESThM:
For the love of god be careful where you go with this — I can already hear the extremist libs screaming about their right to dress their children as they wish and not have to worry about them being victimized ….
Sigh. It just makes me so sad. I would just die if I had failed my girls and they ended up on “Springer”. I am by no means a perfect parent, and all three of my kids are frequently annoyed with my “edicts” regarding their welfare, but I AM their parent, and not their friend.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:03 pmESTGood Lord. I bet in 15 years any little girl who wore those clothes will be on Maury or Jerry Springer yelling, “What-EVAH! I do what I want!”
What’s next? Temporary Tramp Stamp tattoos above the cracks of their asses?
May 14th, 2008 at 6:04 pmESTBeyonce should be ashamed of herself.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:11 pmESTdoanli:
That’s what I said here, in the commentary section of Macy’s website — the company selling this “clothing line”.
http://www.federated-fds.com
Grin.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:15 pmESTIt could be worse.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:17 pmESTDeanna:
It’s the Circo brand from Target. I bought several pairs of khakis w/ adjustable waists for her school uniform. Probably low-rise was an exaggeration, but they are definitely what I would have called “hip-huggers” back in the 70’s (OMG, I am dating myself there.) I agree that their OshKosh Genuine Kids line are fine (thankfully).
May 14th, 2008 at 6:24 pmESTMoms it’s easy, just say no. Practice, “No, I won’t buy clothes that make you look like you have had a very hard life, you’re only 5.” Throw in, “maybe when you’re 25 and acted like a whore for twenty years.”
Sharkman, the girl on the right does look like a pimp with that hat.
I’m one of those jerks who judges people partly on what they wear. I thought that’s what they want me to do. That’s why they go for the shock value to show what rebels/sluts/punks/goths/ they really are.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:28 pmESTFor some reason looking at that photo made me replay the theme song to Shaft in my head.
Clearly I need counseling.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:31 pmESTSome of ‘em will recover just fine. They’ll rebel against their skanky parents by becoming upstanding citizens.
And while they’re studying and getting their 4.0’s instead of slutting around and getting knocked up and addicted, their parents will be wondering what they did wrong raising them…
May 14th, 2008 at 6:48 pmESTWait a minute, this has got to be a joke. The stillettos, the boa, the pimp hat, tight pants with kneepads(?), heavy make-up, gangsta cap. Come on, this is a joke and I fell for it.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:50 pmESTSeems to me, the ‘No’ needed to happen about 4 years and nine months earlier!
Are little girls really asking for this, or is it the product of the ‘baby as fashion accessory’ culture?
Maybe I’m just hopelessly naive and geeky, but the only way I can imagine a little one asking to be dressed that way is if it represented her only concept of beauty and accomplishment — horrible! There is a difference between reproduction and parenting, isn’t there?
Don’t know about the toddler set — the low-rise trend in the run-by-sick-perverts children’s fashion industry hit late for us, Thank God! — but we solved the problem of jeans for my horseback riding adolescent with good, old-fashioned Wrangler’s. We get hers at Tractor Supply :).
May 14th, 2008 at 6:59 pmESTOMG:
I just read the link provided by Moron Pundit:
Pussification of the Western Male
and spontaneously gave birth to the author’s child.
WOW!
My apologies to Mrs. Kim …
May 14th, 2008 at 7:10 pmESTAnd these mothers are shocked when their daughters turn up pregnant at 16……
May 14th, 2008 at 7:19 pmESTMom’s don’t buy this stuff for your little one’s now. There is plenty of time when they’re older to look and act like whores.
May 14th, 2008 at 7:28 pmESTA couple of years ago I was in Walmart around Halloween… and saw a very revealing toddler-girl’s costume called “Harem Girl.” WTF? Did they seriously not know what a HAREM is? Why the hell would I want to attract pervs to my daughter by putting her in something that provocative?
People are stupid.
May 14th, 2008 at 7:38 pmESTHonestly, how stupid are these people who think this is OK? This had to go through how many people to make it to the stores, right? Is everyone of them batshit crazy?
Honestly, I just can’t see it. It has to be a big joke. People CAN’T be that fucking dense.
Sorry ’bout the potty words, but I have two young girls (and three boys) and this stuff really drives me nuts.
May 14th, 2008 at 7:46 pmESTThe only good thing I can say about those outfits pictured is at least they aren’t showing much skin. But that’s the only good thing I can say. It’s tacky, like someone ate up 70’s and 80’s fashion then vomited them up onto a design sketch. And the girl on the right does rather look like a pimp from 70’s blaxploitation, only missing the cane to make the ensamble complete.
The other thing I have to wonder is how do so many of you fine, upstanding citizens who populate this board know what whores dress like?
May 14th, 2008 at 7:57 pmESTThey can scream all they want. I just find it both tragic and somehow hilarious at the same time that parents will rail against pedophilia and pedophiles while simultaneously providing monkey spanking fuel to the pedophile down the street by buying their children clothes a downtown New York City hooker would be uncomfortable wearing.
By hilarious I mean they’re standing three feet from the forest’s edge and can’t see one damn tree. I in no way think pedophilia is funny.
May 14th, 2008 at 8:22 pmESTThey look like David Archuletta fans. :p
May 14th, 2008 at 8:22 pmESTWow… just wow.
On top of all the above, how bad is it for kids of this age to wear HIGH HEELS? Seems like they could do some serious damage to their knees/hips/backs at that age.
AccioChocolate… love the name. Brilliant.
May 14th, 2008 at 8:45 pmESTThey look like they’ve spent the afternoon playing dress-up out of a trunk of mommy’s old eveningwear, in the attic. And if that was what it was, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. The problem is parents who don’t know the difference between playing ‘grown-up’ in the safety of the home and dressing that way on the street.
Of course the REAL problem is the clothes that teen girls wear, which have about the same amount of fabric. Someday I will get a t-shirt made that says “Honey, if it ain’t for sale, why are you advertising?”
I sometimes think that teenage girls should be given a password to a porn site featuring hardcore pictures of sodomy and other such charming practices, with the advice “This is what dressing like you are in heat makes guys think of doing to you. Is that what you want?”
The ones that answer “Yes” could be sent to a convent school.
I’m 46. Constant exposure to nubile female flesh that seems to be on offer is a source of low level tension that I don’t want. It gives me MOST unsavory fantasies that I would rather live without
May 14th, 2008 at 8:50 pmESTIf you think thats bad, try finding modest clothing for a young teen, especially one who has cultivated a distate for that kind of clothing on her own. Long feminine skirts and modest tops are not to be found even in Target or Walmart or anywhere else for a young lady. I have been resorting to finding old patterns from the 80s a la Laura Ashley and even period clothing just so my daughter can retain some dignity. People laughed when the FDLS women came out wearing “prairie clothing” but Im telling you thats what you have to wear in order to keep oneself in decent coverage.
May 14th, 2008 at 9:56 pmESTIt must be said, no self-respecting adult woman would be seen dead in clothes like this, either. Slut/Hooker factor aside, they’re just ridiculous!
May 14th, 2008 at 11:09 pmESTI like the leopard print hat tipped to the side…that little girl kind of looks like Huggy Bear, remember him?
May 14th, 2008 at 11:18 pmESTI agree it’s awful. But, just for accuracy’s sake, House of Dereon (or House of Diarrhea as it should be known) is Beyonce’s mother’s line.
May 14th, 2008 at 11:37 pmESTI often shop with my 15-year-old sister, and trust me, we have to really hunt to find what we want. She is a very athletic girl (softball catcher) with a dynamite figure who also happens to not want to dress like a hooker. Somehow, we manage to strike that fine line between “trendy” and “whore”, but it’s a whole lot harder than it should be.
And I refuse to let her shop at Abercrombie & Fitch. We spend a lot of time at American Eagle.
May 14th, 2008 at 11:42 pmESTkatielenn wrote:
And these mothers are shocked when their daughters turn up pregnant at 16…
No, dammit, they aren’t.
Shortly after her mom died and her dad was overwhelmed, my niece fell in with a bad crowd at school — you know, the ones who spell the N-word with a “z” on the end? She managed to get herself knocked up a couple of weeks before her fifteenth birthday. For a while she deluded herself that her babydaddy “loved” her. She even lived with him for the better part of a year … him, and his mother, and his mother’s three other kids by different absent fathers. His mother was delighted with the arrangement, because she had just gotten herself knocked up yet again — “Now we can be like twins!”
My niece finally wised up and ditched the worthless clown after a couple of years. (He never paid any support for her infant daughter, and she caught him cheating on her a couple of times.) She’s pretty much turned her life around, but of course the entire rest of her life has been derailed from what it might have been.
(Where was I during all this? On the other side of the continent, alas. My wife and I tried to get her to come live with us, but no luck.)
So yes, there are custardbrains who would buy this crap for their kids and think it’s cool. Readers of this blog aren’t exactly in the targeted demographic.
May 15th, 2008 at 2:17 amESTI’m soooooooo glad my kid’s a boy!
May 15th, 2008 at 7:44 amESTI have to wonder if this isn’t some reciprocal stage to balance out all the 25-yr-old emo girls who still wear Hello Kitty. Childhood should not be hawt.
May 15th, 2008 at 8:10 amESTGranted that I don’t get out a whole lot and don’t have a clue about fashion, even I can tell that someone was smoking crack when they designed those clothes for four year olds. What the hell were they thinking?? Or were they?
Erin_Coda, again, taking into consideration that I don’t get out much, what the hell is an emo girl?
May 15th, 2008 at 8:47 amESTAll right, but remember, you asked.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:03 amESTOh good lord. I don’t know whether to thank you for that, mightysamurai, or kick your ass. I think I’ll go crank up some Ratt and try to get those images out of my head. Anyone got brain bleach for sale?
May 15th, 2008 at 9:11 amESTSorry to let you know temp tramp stamps are already at Toys-R-Us.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:16 amESThttp://www.cockeyed.com/citizen/lowerback/lowerback.shtml
So wrong on so many levels. That makes my head hurt.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:29 amESTYes, I seem to have that effect on people. : )
May 15th, 2008 at 9:53 amESTNote– the Emo video is not entirely work safe. Oh my poor boss.
May 15th, 2008 at 10:10 amESTSharon Ferguson - You might have some luck with the clothing manufacturers who sell on eBay. I’m not TOO familiar with them, but my wife buys things like Renaissance Faire clothes online, and I’m pretty sure some of them also make more normal clothing as well. Plus, there are undoubtedly others who don’t make the stuff that she buys, but would be more in line with everyday clothing.
May 15th, 2008 at 10:31 amESTIs that little black girl wearing platform heels?! It would be a shame for such a little kid to shred the ligaments in her ankles.
May 15th, 2008 at 10:57 amESTI second what MargieinMI said - I’m so grateful that my only child is a boy. And God help him if he ever brings home a girl dressed like that! (He’s 11)
May 15th, 2008 at 11:09 amESTNothing like pandering to the pedophile “community.”
“It must be alright if even Macy’s thinks little girls are sexy.”
I’d love to see some folks go into Macy’s and stand by the Kiddi PornWear with signs…
“For your daughter’s inner slut.”
“Give her a headstart. Make her look like a whore now.”
“Why not put a sign on your little girl that says, KIDNAP ME?”
May 15th, 2008 at 11:31 amESTYou’d think that wouldn’t be necessary, what with some of the shirts actually declaring it themselves. Seriously, who sees a shirt that says “Juicy” and thinks, My four year old would look great in that!
I have niece who is almost four. If my sister ever decided to dress her in any clothing like this I’d kick her ass.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:41 amESTIf I had kids, this kind of stuff would make me really scared for the future of my kids, both male and female. Yikes.
May 16th, 2008 at 11:09 pmESTNot long ago I was in a pizza place and stood behind a girl who looked about twelve. She wore a pair of pants that said “Juicy” across her ass. I was speechless.
May 17th, 2008 at 12:47 amESTAw, c’mon. Everyone bemoans this ’sexualization’ of young girls but puberty is rather inevitable.
May 18th, 2008 at 8:53 amESTAlot of girls look forward to implants almost as much as they look forward to selecting their first divorce lawyer and then having the implants removed.
A pair of pants with ‘hooker ‘n heat’ and a tee shirt with ‘Sex Kitten: Stroke me and I’ll Purr’ on a pre-teen is in keeping with the Mother-Daughter Spa Specials and lessons on how to wear makeup and how to flirt. Its the modern day equivalent of a mother teaching a daughter how to bake a cake!
Take the overt “pricing” of very young girls such as the bride-bidding in Irish Travellers communities in the USA: those tiny tots will wear off-the-shoulder evening gowns specially made for them at Neimann Marcus and have lessons in how to ’strut their stuff’.
Everyone may go around pooh poohing this premature sexualization but the Gypsies know what sets the price of a female.
Most mothers know that if they dress their daughter stylishly she is more likely to be happily divorced later in life and free of any financial need to be yoked to a man.
“…talking about how she was all about empowering young women to be independent, self-sufficient, and smart…”
I don’t see “sexless” in that list!
“path to female independence starts in preschool”
May 22nd, 2008 at 2:00 amESTIt does! And while it may not involve “5-inch stilettos” per se it involves an awareness of fashion and current marketing trends. That is why teen furniture features brass poles. Style trumps functionality. Sexuality trumps bland ignorance.
“It’s not okay when the word “hooker” is the first to come to mind…”
No, but if the first thing to come to mind is “top-flight call girl” rather than ’streetwalker’ then the clothes, brass poles and beauty salon treatments have been successful.
June 6th, 2008 at 5:22 pmEST