By Sue Bolton, Melbourne, Australia:
Group wants pin pulled on child beauty pageants
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Child beauty pageants, such as the ones featured on the reality TV show Toddlers and Tiaras, are big business in the United States. The industry is so big that it is expanding overseas. One of the biggest pageant companies, United Royalty plans to stage pageants in all states in Australia.
Parents who wish to enter their children in the pageants have to pay $295 just to enter the pageant, plus thousands of dollars on expensive dresses, hairstyles and cosmetics.
United Royalty intends to bring the six-year-old US star Eden Wood to Australia for the pageants. Media will have to pay $20,000 for an interview with her and $500 for a photo.
Melbourne mother Catherine Manning initiated the group Pull the Pin on Beauty Pageants for Children. It organised protests against beauty protests
sic; contests
in all capital cities on May 24.
Manning told Green Left Weekly the pageants were “toxic”. She said the pageants featured on Toddlers and Tiaras involve young girls with fake tans, painted nails, fake nails, hair pieces, waxed eyebrows and heavy make-up
Pull the Pin calls on governments to put age restrictions on pageant entry so children could decide for themselves if they wanted to take part.
The organisation also wants restrictions placed on cosmetic procedures such as waxing and spray tanning.
Mom defends Botox, bikini wax for 8-year-old: here.
USA: ‘Human Barbie’ Sarah Burge Gives 7-Year-Old Daughter Breast Implant Voucher (PHOTOS): here.
Clothing stores sell thongs for seven- to ten-year-old, some with slogans like “wink, wink” or “eye candy.” In child beauty pageants, girls as young as five wear fake teeth, make-up, and hair extensions, and are encouraged to flirt with the audience by batting their false-eyelash-laden eyes: here.
Britain: Retail giants and the entertainment industry could face tougher regulations under a government-commissioned inquiry into the sexualisation and commercialisation of childhood: here. See also here. And here.
Sexy babies: how sexualization hurts girls: here.
Trade in Russian and Ukrainian brides: here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Administrator on August 17, 2011 at 12:29 am said:
Mail is model hypocrite
The Daily Mail showed its hypocrisy once again recently.
In its online edition it showed its “Outrage over shocking images of the 10-YEAR-OLD model who has graced the pages of Vogue”.
It criticised the “provocative images of Thylane Lena-Rose Blondeau” who “reclines among leopard print pillows, her rouged lips pouting at the camera”.
It then showed its disgust by publishing four such large pictures of this young girl in various poses.
Many people are rightly concerned about the sexualisation of children under capitalism.
But no one should be fooled by the Daily Mail’s insincere peddling of this story.
Katherine Branney, East London
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=25724
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Administrator on August 17, 2011 at 2:23 pm said:
Kwart kledingaanbod voor meisjes van 10 tot 12 is seksueel getint
Een kwart van het kledingaanbod in België voor meisjes tussen tien en twaalf jaar is seksueel getint. Dat stelt communicatiewetenschapper Gun Bosserez.
Voor haar scriptieonderzoek bekeek Bosserez de kindercollectie van vier kledingketens. De ketens behoren op het gebied van omzet tot de top tien in België.
Maar liefst 26,7% van de jurkjes, shirts en broeken bleek op een of andere manier geseksualiseerd. Het gaat dan om kledij met suggestieve tekeningen of opschriften, kledij die borsten en billen benadrukt, seksueel getinte kledij en duplicaten van volwassen dameskledij.
Tijdens een tweede observatie vond Bosserez zelfs opgevulde bh’s voor kinderen.
Lichaam als object
“De geseksualiseerde kledij kan kinderen aanmoedigen om zich bezig te houden met thema’s waar ze mentaal of lichamelijk nog niet klaar voor zijn”, zegt Bosserez.
“Dat draagt bij aan een zekere zelf-objectivatie, waarbij de jonge meisjes hun lichaam zien als een object dat ze kunnen evalueren op basis van (seksuele) aantrekkelijkheid. De druk die met die zelf-objectivatie samengaat, kan meisjes vatbaarder maken voor het ontwikkelen van een laag zelfbeeld of eetstoornissen.”
Bron: Eos
http://www.hbvl.be/nieuws/wetenschap/aid1070581/kwart-kledingaanbod-voor-meisjes-van-10-tot-12-is-seksueel-getint.aspx
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