Thongs?
posted: Oct 29, 05:07 PM
So why do we live in a society where little girls shop at Jacob Connection, La Senza Girl, American Eagle and Garage? My 13 year old daughter takes me shopping with her on a regular basis. I think it may be her favorite extracurricular activity. When she’s not hormonal I must admit I enjoy the experience. These, exept for La Senza, are her favorite stops.
La Senza, for those of you who are innocent, is a lingerie store. Please note, my daughter doesn’t even want to shop there, so it’s a non-issue. She still considers lingerie “gross and icky”. No power struggles or temper tantrums yet. I suspect “yet” is the operative word. I laugh because I walk around stores with these cute, tiny unmentionables which most adult women would love to wear.
Anyway, back to my rant. These are the type of stores where one would expect to see older adolescent girls and twenty somethings shopping. I didn’t believe anyone actually fitted into a size 0. I thought that was a joke! I understand now these sizes are for the 10 and 11 year old girls.
I laughed the other day in A.E. (American Eagle) when this woman who was about my age, kept handing shirts over the dressing room door to “Kyle”. I don’t know, I thought Kyle was her husband or university age son. Duh! He finally opens the dressing room door and he was like, I don’t know, 10? How many men wear little baby shirts? It’s no wonder boys and men are developing eating disorders these days.
Hmmmm… thongs for pre-teens? (You wondered when I get to the subject line, right?) What’s that about? Oh, I know, the premature sexualization of little girls. Little girls should be sexy. Who said? I thought we all knew that men who were into Lolitas were a little scary.
I have no big issues with any of these stores except my not little girl body won’t fit into anything the first two and the last have in stock. This is sad. What’s sadder is that I care. Even I who recognizes women are made to feel their bodies are inadequate regrets I cannot go into these trendy, affordable stores and find clothes to fit.
By the way, there’s nothing wrong with the way I’m built, so this is not sour grapes. I like my body. I look like a woman, not a little girl.
My concern is the messages clothing manufacturers give to buyers. Sizes start at 0. “We believe you’ll fit into these teeny tiny little itty bitty scraps of fashion.” Sizes end at large or perhaps extra large in some stores. So you’re a tall, athletic 13 year old girl. How do you end up feeling if you need a medium or a large t-shirt or sweater? Not too good. This must be why girls as young as 11 are on diets. They worry because they can’t fit into the smaller sizes in adult clothing stores.
But…the clothes on the sale racks are all size 0, extra small, small and if one’s lucky medium. What is this telling us? I tell my daughter it tells us there are not too many girls and women out there who actually fit into the teeny sizes. ‘Cause these clothes are not cut for real women.
If you’re a parent of a teenager you will have noted childrens’ feet are longer than ours were. Note my use of the word longer rather than bigger. It’s all about how words make us feel about ourselves. I’ve promised my daughter that as soon as we wear the same size shoes her standard of foot wear will improve.
Uggs, Nike, 9West, Sketchers…of course, let me get my debit card! Mummy will get to wear the left overs. My daughter is not too tough on shoes, I can look forward to a pre-child shoe collection. Cool shoes, fashionable shoes, Imelda Marcos look out! The day is near. We have shared custody on a pair of Ugg look alikes. They are a mite too big for the “child” but not anything she’s going to lose sleep over. I’ve just decided, however, I’ll need to buy new jeans to wear with them. You know, straight legs. This, of course, will necessitate much angst as jean shopping, like swimsuit shopping, requires the participant to put herself out there and take emotional risk. You’ll be reading some more reflecting type posts after that event!
We need to question what is going on in the fashion industry. I have respect for a company like DOVE who promotes liking oneself. A company who wants to educate girls and women about the “smoke and mirrors” the media uses. Watch the Evolution movie link I attached to my first post. I thought I had an understanding of what techy people can do until I watched this movie. I underestimated the power of a good computer program!
G.