Thursday, April 22, 2004

PROSTITOT BACKLASH

We've all seen the pre-teen/early teen girls in their Christina-Britney costumes, heavy makeup, tight clothes midrifs everywhere. (Back in my day girls were doing essentially the same thing dressing as Madonna.) But other pre-teens have coined a term for them, and the backlash has begun against the...Prostitots:
"They're called 'prostitots,'" said Anna Miressi, a Kingston, N.Y., high school freshman who claims the term is commonly used among her peers. "It's those girls at the mall with the tight jeans and belly shirts. They're in between the age group of 10 to 13 or 14." ...

The 15-year-old prefers a less revealing wardrobe, which includes "jeans that fit me but that are not so tight that I can bounce a ping-pong ball off my butt."

Miressi has no body piercings or tattoos, and her makeup includes eyeliner — "just on the top lid" — mascara, shimmery eye shadow and Chapstick.

"I try to look as natural as I can because I really don't like the whole heavy black eyeliner thing," she said.

Miressa is part of a trend amongst the young reacting against it all.
Having teens reach out to teens is one of the best ways to combat the emotionless sexual imagery they see in the media, said [Rutgers' Susan] Wilson, whose organization's Web site SEX, ETC. encourages teens to talk through the adult experiences and expectations they have.

About 32,000 teens a day log on to the site, which includes stories written by teens on sexual health issues such as: "Hooking Up: Harmless Fun or Health Risk?" "Older Guys: Dreamy or Dangerous?" and "Sexy Teens on TV: Is That All There Is?"

"We hear from kids from all over the country that the stories have convinced them to choose abstinence," Wilson said. "There's no moralizing or preaching — it's teens talking to teens."

As a father of two girls, all of this causes my worry antenna to go into red alert.

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