August 15, 2010

Just What Every Toddler Needs to go With Those Heels: Skinny Jeans!

As if high heels, padded kiddie bikinis, thong underwear, stripper poles, and denim diapers weren’t enough, parents are now able to buy their toddler their own pair of skinny jeans.

Skinny jeans are just the latest item in a larger cumulative force that is turning babies, toddlers and children into miniature adults, in large part through overt sexualization.

Between the celebration of gyrating 7-year-olds, Baby Gaga‘s featured on Youtube, sexy toy makeovers, virgin waxing, glammed up toddlers in fashion advertising, and clothing with sexualized content such as “I’m a boob man,” “Lock up your daughters” or “Does this diaper make my butt look big? girls and boys are being harried into premature adulthood by corporate marketing forces seeking profit.

Cross-posted at Elephant Journal.




October 8, 2008

More sexy girls…ugh!

On September 11 and September 24, I wrote about the gender socialization of young boys and girls, specifically the construction of sexuality.

One of my students turned this advertisement for House of Dereon’s (Beyonce and Solange Knowles’ clothing company) children’s line.  This is the first I had heard of it.  Apparently, it made a debut back in May and there are numerous responses to be found online that echo the same sentiment: disgust.

I can’t help but think of the obscene childhood photos of JonBenet Ramsey and the infamous spoof in, “Little Miss Sunshine.”