LZ Granderson writes an op-ed suggesting that it's parents' fault that kids are being sexualized earlier and earlier. He focuses on how people damn fashion and designer labels for putting out push-up bras for 12 year olds, but should really be damning the people who buy the push-up bras for their 12 year olds, who really don't have anything to push up. For example, he describes seeing a pretty young thing dressed to kill, with a midriff-baring top, low riding sweats with "Juicy" on the seat…and who was only about eight years old.
Yeah, that 8-year-old girl was something to see all right. ... I hope her parents are proud. Their daughter was the sexiest girl in the terminal, and she's not even in middle school yet.
The man has the right idea.
It's easy to blast companies for introducing the sexy wear, but our ire really should be directed at the parents who think low rise jeans for a second grader is cute. They are the ones who are spending the money to fuel this budding trend. They are the ones who are suppose to decide what's appropriate for their young children to wear, not executives looking to brew up controversy or turn a profit.
I get it, Rihanna's really popular. But that's a pretty weak reason for someone to dress their little girl like her.
I don't care how popular Lil' Wayne is, my son knows I would break both of his legs long before I would allow him to walk out of the house with his pants falling off his butt. Such a stance doesn't always makes me popular -- and the house does get tense from time to time -- but I'm his father, not his friend.
That's sadly becoming a unique way to raise children.
I not only don't disagree with him, I think he doesn't go far enough in castigating the parents who prefer to be their children's best friends. Those parents are raising a generation of whiny, insecure, bullying, lazy…I could go on all night, describing the children those parents are releasing into the world with the adults.
I parent more like Ganderson, and like I assume he's doing, I'm working on raising future adults. I don't care if my kids like me or not. I don't even care if they tell me they hate me. I know better, and I will know better when the time comes to tell them that no, my daughter can't go to school looking like she works at a brothel, and my son had better not look like he's just about to go to one (or worse—has just left one).
Parents love their kids. That goes without saying. Even the selfish, stupid, immature parents love their kids.
Good parents love their kids enough to set boundaries, and trust that Twain was onto something.
Granderson is sooooo effing right.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing I'm tired of is teachers (I mean, GOOD teachers) being blamed for students not achieving in their classes. Part of school "failure" has to be the parents' responsibility...I have seen cases where there is a very anti-learning mentality and culture (and it's not just in the economically disadvantaged areas: in the wealthy town where I grew up, it was "cool" to be the C and D student who partied all weekend. My parents expected far more of me (and anyway, I really DIDN'T want the party life style) so I was the uncool swot who stayed home and earned As...but then again, I'm now a tenured prof making close to 60K a year and probably hating my job less than the average person)