RAUNCH CULTURE & OUR DAUGHTERS

As the father of three girls, I'm particularly aware of the raunch culture exposed by Colleen Carroll Campbell:

Girls as young as five moan Britney’s racy lyrics, while their sisters in elementary and middle school copy Nicole’s compulsive dieting, Lindsay’s brazen flashing, and Paris’ sultry stare. Young women are now groomed from girlhood to arouse sexual attention by posting suggestive messages on their personal web pages and wearing the same risqué fashions as their Bratz dolls. Newsweek recently chronicled the rise of these “prosti-tots” – girls as young as seven “who dress like tarts” and dream of breast implants as high-school graduation gift.

Aspiring young exhibitionists can find role models everywhere these days, from the coeds who disrobe for “Girls Gone Wild” camera crews and publish pornographic pictures of themselves in student-run magazines, to mothers who take pole-dancing classes and wear the same see-through blouses and skin-tight jeans as their teenage daughters....

You can see them in the mall, tugging nervously at their skimpy shorts and halter tops, straining to see how men react to their little bellies flouncing out of low-slung jeans. They look more exploited than empowered as they fuss and cringe, adjust and squirm. How odd that in an age when girls have more athletic and academic opportunities than ever, girlhood has become a high-pressure dress-rehearsal for adult mating games.

How any father can let their daughters prance around like that is beyond me. Moms may not fully understand, but every dad knows what goes through the mind of boys and men when they see more than they need to see. It's time to put the kibosh on 'Bratz' dolls, et al, and actually try something normal and wholesome with little girls. They're little girls, and they don't need to own make-up (until their teen years, and then with great restraint), wear bustiers or generally dress like they're aspiring Hooters waitresses.

[Thanks to theosebes reader Mitch for the link]