Wow, you got off fairly light. I spent a day at a local theme park here in Texas and there were girls as young as 12 wearing tight short shorts with the word FLIRT and others just as bad across the bottom.
Seems like a fahion trend tailor made for pedophiles but maybe I'm just a prude too...
No, you are on to something. Nakedness can have dignity, whether the body is young or old, in societies where it is the norm. And a nearly naked girl at a beach or other swimming place may look beautiful in an uncomplicated way. But what you are describing is more like pimping your own body by wearing clothes that advertise your flesh as if it were for sale. It's the pimpiness of the outfit you describe that makes me queasy about the presence of the parents.
My hypothesis: low expectations. See enough of your children's contemporaries flame out spectacularly, and just having a daughter who's willing to be seen in public with mom and dad feels like a huge win. Or so I can imagine.
Those are some seriously low expectations. Especially since Linda's word "pimping" struck me as a pretty apt description of what I felt I was watching.
And have they really already flamed out by 20? I'm asking.
Wow, you got off fairly light. I spent a day at a local theme park here in Texas and there were girls as young as 12 wearing tight short shorts with the word FLIRT and others just as bad across the bottom.
Seems like a fahion trend tailor made for pedophiles but maybe I'm just a prude too...
.... Seems like Ogged's carefully communicated ambivalence was rapidly parsed into monovalence...
Hmm. It could be like this: Juicy and her parents think that the weird-language-on-clothes trend ("porn star," "hottie," and so on) appropriates the terminology in a way that makes it innocuous.
"It doesn't mean that I'm a slut when I put on the shirt that says 'slut,'" Juicy says. "It's just a style, like English words in Japan. And stop staring at my ass, you perve."
"Juicy's right," say her parents. "We think that it's all one zany pop-culture in-joke. After all, she's with her parents, a desexualizing force if ever there was one. And stop staring at her ass, Humbert."
They might be wrong to think this, but it's not a completely insane thought, and it explains why they're cheerful and not pimps.
I think fontana is right about appropriating words and rendering them harmless. But it makes no sense to publicly label your butt "juicy" and then say "Stop staring at my ass."
I also agree there is no real pimping going on, just awful taste. What ever happened to parents who say "Young lady, you will not dress like a hooker on family outings, even as a zany pop-culture joke."
Yes, what did happen to those parents? And who knew "juicy" needed to be reappropriated? But you're right fontana, that's a credible defense (though I should point out that the underwear woman was definitely at least college age and JUICY looked to be above the age of consent as well--so the Humbert line isn't quite so effective). But there are lots of credible defenses we could spin. My sense of these specific situations was that they were just gross (ok ok, to be completely honest, JUICY's mom was gross, underwear woman's parents seemed more clueless than pimp-like).
The real question is: where is this cafe?
Posted by Lassen | Link to this comment | 07-14-03 2:17 PM
Wow, you got off fairly light. I spent a day at a local theme park here in Texas and there were girls as young as 12 wearing tight short shorts with the word FLIRT and others just as bad across the bottom.
Seems like a fahion trend tailor made for pedophiles but maybe I'm just a prude too...
Posted by Zygote | Link to this comment | 07-14-03 6:48 PM
No, you are on to something. Nakedness can have dignity, whether the body is young or old, in societies where it is the norm. And a nearly naked girl at a beach or other swimming place may look beautiful in an uncomplicated way. But what you are describing is more like pimping your own body by wearing clothes that advertise your flesh as if it were for sale. It's the pimpiness of the outfit you describe that makes me queasy about the presence of the parents.
Posted by Linda Cordilia | Link to this comment | 07-14-03 9:15 PM
My hypothesis: low expectations. See enough of your children's contemporaries flame out spectacularly, and just having a daughter who's willing to be seen in public with mom and dad feels like a huge win. Or so I can imagine.
Posted by BAA | Link to this comment | 07-14-03 11:05 PM
Those are some seriously low expectations. Especially since Linda's word "pimping" struck me as a pretty apt description of what I felt I was watching.
And have they really already flamed out by 20? I'm asking.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 07-14-03 11:22 PM
The real question is: where is this cafe?
Posted by: Lassen | Link
2
Wow, you got off fairly light. I spent a day at a local theme park here in Texas and there were girls as young as 12 wearing tight short shorts with the word FLIRT and others just as bad across the bottom.
Seems like a fahion trend tailor made for pedophiles but maybe I'm just a prude too...
.... Seems like Ogged's carefully communicated ambivalence was rapidly parsed into monovalence...
Posted by Anonymous | Link to this comment | 07-14-03 11:35 PM
Hmm. It could be like this: Juicy and her parents think that the weird-language-on-clothes trend ("porn star," "hottie," and so on) appropriates the terminology in a way that makes it innocuous.
"It doesn't mean that I'm a slut when I put on the shirt that says 'slut,'" Juicy says. "It's just a style, like English words in Japan. And stop staring at my ass, you perve."
"Juicy's right," say her parents. "We think that it's all one zany pop-culture in-joke. After all, she's with her parents, a desexualizing force if ever there was one. And stop staring at her ass, Humbert."
They might be wrong to think this, but it's not a completely insane thought, and it explains why they're cheerful and not pimps.
Posted by fontana "juicy" labs | Link to this comment | 07-15-03 6:56 AM
I think fontana is right about appropriating words and rendering them harmless. But it makes no sense to publicly label your butt "juicy" and then say "Stop staring at my ass."
I also agree there is no real pimping going on, just awful taste. What ever happened to parents who say "Young lady, you will not dress like a hooker on family outings, even as a zany pop-culture joke."
Posted by Linda | Link to this comment | 07-15-03 10:58 AM
Yes, what did happen to those parents? And who knew "juicy" needed to be reappropriated? But you're right fontana, that's a credible defense (though I should point out that the underwear woman was definitely at least college age and JUICY looked to be above the age of consent as well--so the Humbert line isn't quite so effective). But there are lots of credible defenses we could spin. My sense of these specific situations was that they were just gross (ok ok, to be completely honest, JUICY's mom was gross, underwear woman's parents seemed more clueless than pimp-like).
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 07-15-03 11:26 AM
I just wanted to call you a perve, that's all.
Posted by Fontana Labs | Link to this comment | 07-15-03 12:38 PM