Emily Yoffe writes an article lamenting that clothes for young girls have gotten kind of suggestive. Which is true, but is she really just noticing? It feels rather as if Wired had run an article this month headlined "Will File Sharing Take Off?"
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No news is good news?
25 Aug 2007 07:58 pm
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It feels rather as if Wired had run an article this month headlined "Will File Sharing Take Off?"
Haha! I thought the same thing. I mean, really-- "Kids these days! With the hippity-hop! And the girls in trousers!"
Emily is just in that 'growing up' stage when she has a young daughter on cusp of all those remarkable changes in their life. Almost all of them are scary to the parent.
As for me, when I graduated from high school, girls were, well, just girls. Nothing special I remember from the clothes they wore. Then, a little over a year after graduating I went back to the small town I graduated in (300 in graduating class). Lo and behold, the girls sure seemed to be looking more grown up and wearing clothes that the principal and teachers, I sure, would've banned in our class.
It's part of a series. The "boy, the college application process has gotten crazy!" column is scheduled for when Yoffe's daughter is a high school senior, and the "holy crap, weddings these days are really expensive and a nightmare to plan" column is on deck for a decade or so later.
I suspect John T. is right. We've probably missed the earlier installments on "boy, babies don't sleep much!" and "wow, toddlers are fast and wiggly!" On the other hand, that compensates the author for all the other pieces that maternal responsibilities prevent her from writing.
Have to agree with most commentators, but to comprehensively explain Yoffe you have to add to you model the basic liberal rule that "Generally, it's important not to criticize sexual expression, because it would play into the hands of the Ken Starrs and Jerry Falwells of the world. Only when our nearest and dearest are involved can this principle be violated. So columns of this type can only be written by parents of young girls, because everyone else is bound by the first sentence of this rule."
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1. It's school shopping time, and the subject is evergreen.
2. Her daughter is 11, so the situation is becoming particularly acute.
Gap Kids makes adorable, reasonably priced, high-quality clothing for girls from birth to about 4. Unfortunately, their clothes for girls 5 and up tend to be cheap-looking, expensive, and frumpy/overly trendy (somehow they manage to be both at the same time!). Now that my daughter is bigger, I've switched my allegiance to the Lands End catalogue. Even better, she's just started kindergarten at a private school with a uniform. Problem solved.
Posted by Amy P | August 25, 2007 8:58 PM