Marky Wrote:I find clothing is also a big factor into make children grow up way too fast. If you go into any clothing retailer and look at the outfits for children gosh they are more like adults than ever before. You can get push up bra's for 8 year olds..
Not really, at least not in the US. You generally have to go to specialty stores to get the clothes you're talking about. That's true even in Venice, CA (or was when I lived there which was the same time that the events from the movie "
Thirteen" were supposedly taking place, and something many seem to overlook is that those 2 girls in that movie and their crowd were rejected as sluts and worse by the majority of other kids). Sometimes something like that will come out at a regular retail store but the complaints usually get it removed pretty fast. I've even saw an uproar over a Sex and the City game placed on a top shelf in a children's aisle.
A lot of lies in the media over it, however. For example, they'll show "slutty costumes" for kids on Halloween and then everyone talks about how slutty all the kids are on Halloween as if they'd reacted poorly to a broadcast of War of the Worlds. Closer examination will show that the sites are either novelty shops or include costumes for all ages (that is, the story was deceptive). Obviously the ones tricked don't actually shop for costumes at say Walmart or K-Mart where they won't find costumes as trumpeted in the media, nor actually greet trick or treaters, for the vast majority are conservatively dressed in about the same costumes as when I was growing up (they tend to wear more lights and colors which I presume is to keep a car from hitting them in the dark) and are often very polite, too ('course they're often with parents who can take them home and/or take their candy away, too). (Granted, teenagers who take part do get wild, but it's well known Halloween is "dress as you aren't" night and the females aren't as promiscuous as they tend to dress anymore than the boys are as homicidal as they tend to dress.)
I think the most bizarre was when a thrift store I do business with was "exposed" selling erotic clothing for little girls. Luckily, no one who went to her her store (including me) believed it when it aired. I asked her about how they tricked her into saying what she was shown as saying and explained that the questions seemed reasonable, they took a 2-piece shirt and asked if it was appropriate and she said yes, and then the woman interviewing her asked "how about now" after showing them separate and she said no. But when it aired they gave her saying "yes" to a one piece of the shirt that would expose most of the girl and never showed that it was supposed to be worn with another shirt at all. She got some hostile visitors over that who had seen the report and came close to suing the news company over it but as it turned out she actually gained business because those of us who knew the store knew better than to believe that garbage whereas a few of those who went to complain quickly realized how they'd been played and ended up buying some things once they saw it wasn't an emporium of sin.
That said there's plenty of exposure to kids...from adult sources, which includes Victoria's Secret and alcohol aiming commercials at kids via YouTube (that is on the videos aimed at kids). But I'm sure tweens aren't shopping there, and even if their parents do for them (and just how many push ups will VS have for 11-year-olds?) then the rest of the community isn't going to react well.
And one last thing...school dress policies tend to be very strict, another reason to understand why retailers don't sell much that's shocking for kids, because otherwise how would they go dressed to school? (Though you can thank Britney Spears for many schools cracking down on the dress codes over 10 years ago, not that many had to.)