I'm on a roll...forgive my "soapbox posts" in recent days, but this stuff is burdening my heart at the moment... blame it on the pregnancy hormones... I do. *wink** * *
Who decides when a girl should pass from girlhood into "preteen" into "teen?"
In a lot of cases, it's not the girl...it's the world of advertising and merchandising. In essence, the world.
Take a look at girls' clothing or girls' toys, and you'll see that the more mature styles are being aimed at younger and younger girls. I've seen the infamous half-sweater and flared jeans in sizes as small as 12 months.
Why??
Does a 12-month-old really want to be fashionable? Does she know what the word fashion means? And better yet can she even say the word yet?
Then look at Barbie dolls. I don't know if you've noticed, but Barbie has a nice curvy shape with very well-developed appendages. She wears the latest fashions, including makeup and jewelry, that make her rival any Super Model on a catwalk in Paris or Milan or New York.
Do you know what age group she is marketed for? Three- to five-year-olds.
Umm...last time I checked, wasn't she supposed to be a mature teenager or older? Does this age group really need to be playing with dolls with a storyline that involves teenagers?
Shouldn't she be aimed at the 10- to 12-year-olds instead?
According to Mattel, this age group is beyond playing with dolls. They're bored with her.
Okay, Mattel, my question is: Why?
Then my next question is to the parents: Why?
Perhaps because we encourage such play at a young age...an age when girls should be playing with Little People and baby dolls and mimicking Mommy...not some teenage doll with boy troubles.
Why does the world push kids to grow up so fast? And even more curious, why do parents allow it? Why aren't they putting the brakes on their girls, telling them to wait awhile before wanting to be all grown up, that there's plenty of time for thinking about boys and dating and wearing makeup?
They can always grow up...but they can never "grow down." You cannot recapture this time period with them...a time when they should be enjoying girlhood and innocence and imagination.
We let them wear the older fashions because it's "so darned cute." We let them play with dolls that should be on the runway of a Victoria's Secret fashion show because "they're going to do it anyway."
Instead of rock bands, they should be listening to nursery rhymes and children's songs that encourage them to stay little and innocent...and sweet.
It's such a short period of time in their lives...and they have all the rest of their lives to "be big."
* * *
Okay. Okay. I humbly yield my "box," and go back to my ramblings and photos and recipes. *wink*
1 comment:
There was a story on the TODAY show, after they finish the newsy part and get on to the talk show part, about new lines of makeup specifically marketed to girls as young as 5 or 6. The cosmetic companies will even do "makeup parties" for girls birthday parties or something like that. I think I started wearing makeup when I was 13 or 14, and even then sort of on the sly at first. I agree with you - it all seems really out of hand.
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