The delusion that beauty is goodness.

“Why do you want to eat healthy?”

 “So you don’t get fat,”

“How do you feel about people who are overweight?”

“I feel sad about them.”

These are answers from 5-8 year old girls. Five to eight. The number of eating disorder hospitalizations for kids under age 12 has more than doubled between 2000 and 2006, according to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) and nearly half of the 3- to 6-year-old are worried about being fat. In the fact, we “allow” little girls being injected with Botox, being alright with the concept of 10-year-old girls made up to look like a sexy adults posing for cameras and in front of a live audience with their cute dresses. We are constantly making everything be about the way someone looks so where is the surprise that younger and younger kids turn out to feel sick with this society?  Photographing a pre-pubescent girl topless with make-up and heels isn’t edgy. It’s wrong. When you learn from a very young age that sexiness is valued and best, this message is engrained in your brain for the long haul. Studies have demonstrated time and time again that viewing sexualized images can have a lasting effect on young girls. 

The American Psychological Association found that viewing sexualized images promotes “appearance and physical attractiveness” as key values for young girls and was also linked to low self-esteem, eating disorders, and depression. That’s for viewing sexualized images. What if you’re the subject of the sexualized images? Girls should learn that their value comes from what’s on the inside rather than high heels, make-up, expensive clothes and the perfect sultry pout. They even have pole dancing classes for three year olds… Seriously, excuse me, but what the hell. What did I do when I was three? Definitely did not attend to pole dancing classes! I did what every kid did when we still had some sense in our heads. I ran around the fields and roads, took a peak under every rock and behind the trees, held butterflies in my hands, chased all kind of animals just to have a closer look, climbed to the trees and fell down, ate myself sick with candy and enjoyed being carefree when I had the chance. What went wrong in the last 20 years? 

Why are we doing this to our children?

 (Related articles from Care2, here, here and here)

: Do You REALLY want your 3 year old to do this? :

: Necessary? :