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.

In light of the recall for padded kiddie bikinis (via Salon Broadsheet):

Today in dispatches from obvious-land: 7-year-olds don’t need padded bikinis. That’s what the British clothing line Primark learned after it was lambasted by children’s advocacy organizations for introducing a sparkly pink-and-gold bikini, complete with cleavage-boosting cups for the tween set. Primark removed the top from the racks yesterday, apologizing and donating any profits from the teeny-weeny bikinis to a children’s charity.

I turn your attention to these past posts on the same subject matter:

September 11, 2008:

Selling adult sexuality to toddlers

September 24, 2008:

Virgin waxing and botox babies: the cash keeps flowing

Sexy Girls, Sexual Boys

October 8, 2008

More sexy girls…ugh!

High heels for infants have arrived! Heelarious was launched 14 weeks ago and has lowered the bar of female sexuality even lower. I can take a joke. The creators claim that they are in the name of good fun. I know these are suppossed to be charming, sweet and just plain heelarious (cough) but when stripper poles are marketed at Tesco in the UK and aimed at prepubescent girls and thongs are marketed to 6-year olds and the Bratz fill the shelves at toy stores, I can’t ignore the connection between these products and the larger cultural framework in which the hypersexualization of young girls is all pervasive.

For a complete reading, check out Durham’s, “The Lolita Effect.”