Comments on: Dimples Kids Spa, making your 6-year-old sexy as fuck.

By: Hecate

Hecate — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 04:07:21 +0000

The whole phenomenon makes me cringe too, Blaize. Good that you go with your daughters’ wishes. When I see anything like a ‘baby beauty pageant,’ or what you and ND describe, it reminds me of what my mother put me through. I’m pretty sure she knew that I was being sexually abused by my grandfather, yet she would still buy me some pretty awful, lacy, hoochie looking outfits… at 12. The fact that it was the ’80s’ didn’t help, but now that I think of it as an adult, it was like she was preparing me to be permanently submissive to the male gaze. I’m not sure I can begin to forgive her for that. I also remember when I was about 9 years old, and a day after suffering a particularly extreme episode of abuse, my mother took me over to see the ships at fleet week in Boston, and was commenting on all the sailors ‘checking me out.’ I was mortified and confused.

It’s horrifying to be a witness to women themselves being complicit in patriarchal oppression. Sadly, there are still many examples of this.

By: Blaize

Blaize — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 14:28:06 +0000

In our local mall there was a place that gratefully shut down a few years ago. It was a Hanna Montana inspired “make over” salon for little girls under 10. Luckily, it was something my daughters never wanted to do. I would see little girls going in as cute little girls and coming out as tiny hoochie mommas and it appalled me.

I happen to believe that girls should be allowed to be what they want to be and that feminism should not mean that you can’t still do things that make you feel girl (it is all in the reason your are doing it), but places like that demean more than they empower.

By: Kyrie

Kyrie — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:27:37 +0000

This reminds me of an episode of Toddlers in Tiaras (possibly the most horrifying show ever?) where a mother had her prepubescent daughter’s eyebrows waxed.

By: joy

joy — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 17:12:47 +0000

isme, yes, I am the worst nightmare of the P. Because they can't dismiss me as a ''militant lesbo'', ''bleeding-heart liberal arts major'', or ''hairy feminazi.'' (Even though I have been known to date women, am kind of a tree-hugger, and don't shave.) The best they can do is ''silly little girl,'' but that can only last for so long. The P's worst enemy is someone who knows what she's talking about, and isn't afraid to talk. My point was, I'm sure you grasped it but I wish to reiterate -- I wasn't trying to get all up in SR's grill and threaten hir. I was going more for ''explaining why I don't do the 'nice, quiet little girl' thing,'' not ''saying I'm going to come to SR's house and spray-paint it'' or whatever.

By: isme

isme — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 09:14:31 +0000

” people in general can find/see these “pretty princess” items in stores such as Walmart, Target, Toy Stores, and kid clothing stores ANYWAY. It doesn’t mean you have to buy them there or at all Sneeky… come on… Therefore, why not just create a store of their own with these things in it. They sell it everywhere else anyway.”

Erm…if the problem is dedicated stores for this sort of thing, than yes. If stores dedicated to this sort of thing are only a symptom of the problem, than no. I think the latter was what was aimed at.

“I’m not ghetto, gangster, or even particularly threatening at all. Just a short, gangly female person in flat shoes and glasses, trying to live a life free of a patriarchy which exasperates and oppresses her.”

That sort of makes you alot more threatening than the insufferable ghetto or gangster wannabes.

“By the way, SR, you should WRITE IN ALL CAPS LIKE THIS; we’ll be more likely to understand you if you do. :)”

Ouch :)

By: sneeky bunny

sneeky bunny — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 08:02:24 +0000

First, I love cupcakes. Second, my point, SR, was that the prevalence of Pretty Princess Crap ™ is part of the problem. You are the fish and the patriarchy is the water in which you swim as demonstrated by the fact that you take for granted that training little girls from birth to be pink bedecked ornaments is acceptable. The spa is just a more blatant and frankly creepier example of the same thing. I also suggest reading Feminism 101. You may disagree with some of the things stated there but it will give a good overview and be helpful to you should you choose to continue to participate on this blog.

By: Eirwen

Eirwen — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 07:30:28 +0000

@GXB: By the way, SR, you should WRITE IN ALL CAPS LIKE THIS; we’ll be more likely to understand you if you do. :)

Lol thanks for that, I actually woke the bf laughing at that one. That whole, “they’ll eventully come around to my way of thinking” thing is obnoxious.

By: polly

polly — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 06:49:40 +0000

SR, if you want people to be nice, start with yourself. Don’t sit there and say, “you made be be nasty, you horrible person, you”. Take some responsibility for yourself, don’t expect others to do it.

I also suspect you are a dude, BTW.

By: GXB

GXB — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 05:56:22 +0000

“I don’t know, lol… And no, no cupcake… ”

“Cupcake” is a gendered insult and in its entirety that comment of SR’s is one of the worst I have seen here (and it is at that point that I suddenly felt SR was most likely male). Though Joy is right as usual, it’s worth it for the crazy head-twisting about boners–>exploitation. By the way, SR, you should WRITE IN ALL CAPS LIKE THIS; we’ll be more likely to understand you if you do. :)

By: joy

joy — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 04:09:15 +0000

Also, I cannot let go of this/keep coming back to it because it seems like a perfect microcosm of mainstream thought regarding women.

Apparently, ”causing arousal/boners” = ”prostitute/whore.”
Thus, all practicing hetero women, or any random woman on the street as per the rules of male skeeviness, is a prostitute.

Give yourself a hand, ND, you’ve helped to prove Dworkin’s point. It’s illustrated here quite clearly.

And the fuss isn’t about ”making little girls into whores” or about anyone’s experience at a kids’ spa.
It’s about forcing children to practice and play out stereotypical gender roles in an extremely egregious way, therefore molding them into an uncomfortable prepackaged slot which is harmful to anyone, adult or child, who occupies it. Disney Princesses and all other manners of such trappings serve the same purpose, and thus they are equally problematic.

At least I think that’s what everyone’s been saying; it’s what I’ve been saying and feeling. Radical Feminist 101 stuff.