"Corporate Paedophilia"

Go and grab a cup of tea, this is a long one...

Thank goodness someone's given it a name - and, trite as a catch phrase can be, "Corporate Paedophilia" is a lot easier to say than The "I'm really sick of seeing all that Skanky Ho crap in the shops, aren't you? And what's with all the suggestive posing of little girls?" Phenomena. I know some of us have been bemoaning the hideous 8-year-old bralettes in chain stores. At least we're not alone.

Thankfully, several people have written lucidly on this. To start, check out the summary of Dr Emma Rush's report from The Australia Institute (TAI), the media release, and the ammendment they made when they pulled some of the images of children from the report at the request of the parents.

Tigtog posted on the topic at Larvatus Prodeo (cross posted here) and her own site; there's an article on 'sexy kids' on the ABC site and a transcript from the 7:30 Report about the legal action against TAI by David Jones; a short but pertinent article I found interesting; and finally Phillip Adam's article from back in 2003.

The site that I pulled Adam's article from, Young Media, is a great resource, by the way.

To be able to see some images which have been talked about go to Tig's post, or try here, there, and everywhere (also try this and that). Most catalogue sites have been pulled, but even though the front page was pulled, once you've got a link to a specific page, you can see the whole collection. Some photos I think are fine; some I don't.

The P-word is certainly provocative - but as with many touchy topics, you have to overcompensate and make headlines in order to push the envelope. Perhaps there should be an alternative, but what should be used instead? Any ideas?

In the defense of some of the skanky merchandise, it has been pointed out that children like to copy their parents and role models. So why shouldn't they want to dress like, and imitate, their elders? Of course they want to, and they should. Role playing, and dress ups, are an enormous part of children learning who they are. However -

Dress ups are meant to be children dressing up in cast-offs, and playing pretend. Mum's old nightie, dad's old waistcoat, a policeman's hat, long sparkly gloves, enormous cloppy shoes, nanna's wigs, a tool belt, a hard hat, mum's cast off makeup that she's still got at the back of the draw (a big thrill when I was about 5 was getting some old makeup from a lady down the street. she was very groovy, and her makeup was amazing!).

You dress up, you play, and then you get back into your normal clothes. Children's clothes. You do not, by default, wear a tiny denim mini skirt which shows your knickers and a crop top which says something charming like "Get It Here", then pester mum endlessly for your own tweenie (I hate that word) makeup like the range you saw in K Mart.


Most of the stuff being written is about the objectification and sexualisation of little girls. What of little boys?

Well, I know that lately, walking into a chain store leaves me pretty cold. The girl's fashions are pink, pink with a bit more pink, oh, and would you like glitter with that? And don't forget the ponies. While the boys fashions are just fine, as long as you want khaki, mud, slime and puce, printed with tanks, helicopters, and violent robot-on-robot action.


I'm sick of seeing little boys in head-to-toe cammo. The Delightful Nanna(TM) found an old army jacket at the Salvos and it's going straight into the Dress Up Box because - it's a prop. You can pretend to be a soldier, little Dinghy, but you won't be dressing like one every day.

Reading 'Raising Boys' by Steve Biddulph recently reminded me of another thing which really gets my goat (btw, thanks again for the lend, DV). I remember when I was working in child care, there was one teacher who'd always, when she saw a little boy holding hands with a little girl, giggle like a freakin' schoolgirl and say, "Oooh, is X (little girl's name) your girlfriend?"

Little boys hold hands with little boys.
Little girls hold hands with little girls.
Little girls hold hands with little boys.
Little boys hold hands with little girls.
Can we get that straight?

It's about friendship. It's not about bloody sexual relationships. They'll come sooner than most parents want. Can children be children first? The realisation of gender occurs early enough, but the sexual connotations can occur much, much later, thank you very much. Realising that you're a girl like mummy or a boy like daddy doesn't mean that you need to be attractive to the opposite sex. It means you're a girl or a boy, now get on with being a child.

There's an older lady I know who always looks at the Dinghy and says things like, "Ooh, he's so sweet, I'll bet he gets all the girls when he's older." I know it all sounds innocent while they're babies, but I don't like it much when people flatter children like that. Giving and receiving compliments is an art we should all cultivate, and you can say a child has a lovely feature - but why add that this is the way they'll attract the opposite sex?

Why is that the way to define a baby? Why is that the way to define anyone???

I want to extend this to the way some boys get called "Little Man." I know some won't be with me on this one, but sometimes, I don't like it. My baby is a baby. He's not even a boy yet, although he is male. He's a baby. Then he'll be a toddler, a little boy, a boy, an older boy, hopefully never a tweenie (have I mentioned I hate that word?), a teenager, and finally, a man. But at the moment, I still dress him in handknits and booties. Because he's a baby.

Finally, someone found this horrid piece of clothing. I'm not going to put the image up here, it annoys me too much. I think it's urban kiddie culture gone too far, a shame, because some of it is clever and bloody funny. If you don't know what the acronym means, try here.

"In honour of all the beautiful mothers out there" - my arse.

Okay, enough rant. I like a good cathartic rant sometimes, and I hope you got something to think about out of it. Even if it is just, "Oh dear, Speedy is a humourless loony, isn't she?"

Heh. Bugger orf.