Teenage Fashion: Too Sexy?
By Anne Paxton
The fashions of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilara have young girls dressing more and more provocatively each fashion season. I don’t want to sound like a prude, but in a bygone time when women grew up there was a gradual growth to their fashion maturity. There was an etiquette to fashion that women followed that has slowly broken down. It seems like every twelve year old I see is wearing a pair of low slung jeans and a midriff. Girls are being forced to emotionally mature too fast these days, but are they also maturing too quickly in their fashion sense too?
Every era has its rebellion. When women started to wear pants and burn their bras people thought society was going to come to an end. Now pants are commonplace and women wear bras optionally. I remember once as a kid I had wanted to wear an off the shoulder blouse. My mother almost hit the roof when I suggested it. “You are a young girl, not a hooker!” she lectured. I realized I wasn’t a whore and by today’s standard my choice of clothing would be considered chaste. These examples, which at one point were deemed “sinful” turned out to be simply fashion statements, not major social revolutions. So should we be worried about what young girls are wearing now?
We all want to grow up when we are young and when we’re older me look longingly to our youth. There don’t seem to be any fashions out there that promote clothes more suitable for children. To be considered “in” or “cool” at high school-even junior high!-a girl must be wear make-up, tight jeans, cropped shirts and sometime even high heels. Is no one paying attention? Are all parents giving in to their kids?
Discipline and attention are difficult things to balance when raising children without making them feel like they aren’t trusted. My mother kept a close watch my wardrobe lest I fall into the “bad” kids at school by wearing what she might have considered provocative clothing. I always resented her attention, but now I can see where she was coming from. Clothing is definitely a form of expression, but are these companies who sell these provocative clothes we see in ads in magazines really expressing the desires of young girls? Or are these companies pressing upon girls simply what they want them to buy. I’ll give you one guess… Every girl wants to be pretty, but it is important that girls learn at an early age what is pretty and what is vulgar. It is important for them to find out and wear the things they like, because they like them and not because some add told them they should like it. And it is our job, the older (and hopefully wiser) generation to set the examples for them and to pull in the reigns when these girls start to dress beyond their years. So much pressure is already placed upon young adolescent girls. Isn’t about time we make sure they not only act their age, but start dressing there age too?
Article courtesy of www.suite101.com.
