Our homestead is for sale!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Stupidity never ceases to amaze me

A reader sent this email in reference to my Poor Little Girl post. I thought I would highlight it here as a classic example of how STUPID parents can be.

I remember one Halloween many years ago taking my children around the large block we lived on dressed as cowboys, kitty cats and the like seeing a little girl, with her mom, dressed as a playboy bunny, complete with ears and tail. Her little body suit was brief and tight and revealing and she couldn’t have been older than 8 or 9 years old. I wonder how she grew up.

I wonder too. Honest to goodness, don't these parents have any brains?

We have a neighbor who has no children of her own. A few years ago she worked at a local Head Start preschool. (I emphasize preschool. As in, under five years old.) One time just after Halloween she asked me, "Just what are Bratz dolls, anyway?" Turns out a number of mothers had dressed their little darlings like Bratz dolls for Halloween. (Between ourselves, my husband and I used to refer to them as Slutz dolls.)

The wonder about the commercial success of Bratz dolls is not just that they were popular; it's that the parents were buying this crap for their daughters. I don't get it. I absolutely don't get it. Why would parents buy their girls dolls that look like skanks? Much less willingly dress their daughters to look like members of the world's oldest profession?

Ironically some of what I address in The Simplicity Primer is just that - the stupid choices people make that will sabotage the chances of their children growing into stable, productive, balanced adults. Trust me, dressing your little darlings in cone bras or Playboy bunny outfits is not a smart choice. Duh!

Okay. I'll calm down now.


  1. You have full permission to rant on about this Patrice. There is a scary cognitive dissonance in play when you have someone wearing Madonna Cones who is also likely wearing "pull-ups".
    This is something that has driven both the Deacon's wife and me crazy for quite some time. These children are being robbed of the sweet gift of childhood and its accompanying innocence.

  2. Ha, that's what my husband and I call them too. There are so many supposed "little girl" toys that our daughter will never see.

  3. One of my friends is a teacher for Kindergarten and one of the children came to school wearing a t-shirt that has a arrow pointing down and says Free sausage! Hello, a parent bought and dressed their 4-5 year old in that then they wonder why their child cusses, hits or other non appropriate behaviors towards their parents and other children.

  4. Please don't ever calm down.


  5. Yeah, i completely agree with the other comments that encourage Patrice to remain in rant mode regarding this topic. We should all be upset about the sexualization of children. I see little difference between parents who dress their own children in these inappropriate ways and NAMBLA or child porn in general. It's all sick, twisted, and perverse. It's especially appalling and sick when parents do it to their little children.

    Speaking out against these types of things is the only way they will ever change.

    Anonymous Patriot

  6. The little girls who grow up dressing like Bratz dolls enter their teen years wearing "Adult" costumes a la "Sexy French Maid", "Sexy Vampire", or "Sexy Alice in Wonderland" - all of which feature skirts so short their underwear is barely covered, thigh-high stockings, low cut tops and hooker heels.

    I saw several costumes of that type on girls barely into their teens - and they wore them to the Church Fall Festival!

    This world is so messed up.

    Did you know that several TV shows (including Saturday Night Live) are presenting pedophilia as something to laugh about?

    It's the way homosexuality was brought into "the mainstream." You see, the strategy is to make jokes about it until most people feel comfortable enough to laugh. Then, they represent it in a way to elicit sympathy (Remember the movie Philadelphia?), and now, it's totally acceptable, and if you aren't accepting, then you're a "hater."

    And because too many people are not capable of thinking for themselves, the strategy works.

    It's sickening.

  7. Something in our culture has shifted dramatically. I have made a living the past decade as a musician/entertainer and I am guessing the parents are just going with the trend.

    About five years or so ago I remember asking my wife what was up with the slutty costumes on Halloween? (My wife tends to be more up on what's hip than myself). She agreed that costumes had become extremely skimpy, but had no explanation. We have looked for a reasonable answer and found none over thime as Halloween costumes have become even more outrageous. One possible answer I found suggested that Halloween has only had a market for the past generation and costume companies are merely trying to appeal to a market that has grown into adults. Personally, I think that is bunk. I believe it's just more profitable to use less material and stick a "sexy" label on this year's super hero costume.

    In addition, I see a lot of bachelorette parties (at least a dozen a week from April to September just this past year). What is up with young girls getting married decked out in phallus, playing "bachelorette card games" that attempt to compromise them with every male present, and just getting wasted? What I see now about 50-60 times a month would have been simply unacceptable behavior anywhere but a strip club ten years ago. I do understand that it's a reaction to the bachelor party of the days of Mad Men, women's lib and all...

    Still, it doesn't look like a step forward to me.

  8. I agree with the others, Patrice. Keep on ranting and posting about these types of inappropriate behaviors. Our culture has become far too desensitized (and far too sexualized) through constant inappropriate media exposure.

    I just think a lot of people are truly clueless about what is actually "appropriate" in this day and age. With your continued "rantings," I am hopeful that more people will take notice that, "Oh yeah, I guess it's really not a good idea to dress up my daughter like a Playboy Bunny."

    Truly, we live in a culture of utter stupidity on so many levels. It's so refreshing to come here and find common sense in such abundance!!

    Mara :)

  9. I think I've told this story here before, but this is an appropriate place to repeat it.

    My family took the rare occasion to eat at a trendy restaurant in the city awhile back.

    It had a lively happy hour bar. I was seeing these very provocatively dressed women come into the bar in singles and twos and threes.

    I remarked to my wife how shocking it was to see hookers just blatantly walking in and mingling with customers at this nice restaurant.

    She said, "Honey, those are just regular office girls coming in for a happy hour drink before going home."

    When I remarked that they sure looked like hookers to me, she said that's how singles dress these days.

    Patrice's article illustrates how young that is starting these days.

    Heaven help us.


  10. I agree with the comment by Glass Abattoir. Being a cake baker I try to stay on top of current trends in weddings. The current "wildly popular" cake involves placing a very large, creepily life-like penis on top of another cake. The penis is made from rice krispie treats, covered with flesh colored fondant and has a length of tubing threaded through it. The cake maker mixes up powdered sugar and warm water, then attaches a squeeze bulb to the tube and discreetly places it near the cake and covers it with something.

    The idea is that the bacherlorette will see her cake and be asked to pose with her head down near the penis. At this time her "friends" squeeze the bulb and spray her with the warm white liquid to celebrate her up and coming nuptials.

    No, I will not make these or any other naughty cakes, no matter how much someone offers to pay me. Sometimes I am speechless at the level people will stoop to these days in the name of entertainment.

  11. Grandma, I hesitated to print your comment because my kids read this blog, except it illustrates the depths to which our society has sunk. God help us all.

    - Patrice

  12. My children (2 boys & a girl)and I talk about appropriate clothing/actions all the time. Once when a neighbor had taken them shopping, my older two stood in front of the Bratz display, shaking their little heads (they were 6 & 9) and discussing how "inappropriately" the dolls were dressed!

    Needless to say, my daughter doesn't have a Bratz! I'm always shocked when other mothers are shocked that I've forbidden them!


    OMgosh! I cannot believe the cake described above...although sadly, I do :(

    I was able to gracefully bow out of a Bachelorette Party in Las Vegas. I was seriously worried about what I'd be asked to do (and would refuse), or just as bad in my opinion, what I would be asked to watch.

    Yes, this society has serious problems! So many of the young wives on this base dress very "interestingly." I would NEVER dress like that, even if I had a stellar figure, which so many of these half-naked women do not!

    I'm always introducing myself here as "old and old-school" and I have to say, I'm darn proud of it!!