Society angers me
 

*rant on*

Okay, so, this happened the other day. I'm at home (which is normal, since I care for my son) when my 9-year-old sister-in-law comes home crying. Normally, I ignore her. She's a brat. She's willfully disbodient (it doesn't help that her mother doesn't seem to know the meaning of the word "discipline"), she's violent, she's out of control. So normally, I keep myself and my son out of the same room as her so I don't have to deal with her. But she never comes home crying. Well, she did this time. Since I'm not completely heartless, I ask her what's wrong. Apparently, some of the girls at her school, who were the same age as her, were making fun of her. Normally, I wouldn't care. Everyone gets made fun of at one point or another, that's a part of groing up. But then she told me why... They were making fun of her because... she doesn't wear a bra.

WTF?! Why should a nine-year-old need a bra?! If anything, it should be her making fun of them because they do wear bras. Nine-year-olds don't have breasts! (Well, some do, I suppose.) No, the only reason any of them wear bras is to "be cool." But why should the need bras to "be cool?"

Society. It's society that puts emphasis on having breasts. And it's that same society that produces fashion companies that make bras, bikinis, even "sexy" lingerie for pre-pubescent girls.

Fucking double standard. On one hand, this society will easily yell out, "Hey! Why are you looking at that 9-year-old in such an indecent manner! I hope you rot in prison!" At the same time, they'll also say, "While you're in prison, by this sexy low-cut top for your 9-year-old daughter."

Of course, what pisses me off even more is the parents that will actually go out and by these suggestive items of clothing for their little girls. What kind of self-respecting parent would buy a nine-year-old a bra?! It's one thing to allow your child to make their own dicisions when it comes to clothing, it's entirely another to allow them to go over the top.

*rant off*

Okay, now that I've bitched about it... what say you?

Oh, and I should mention that I'm currently living in SoCal. This may be a regional issue, so I don't want to seem that I'm bitching about all society.

My little sister was into bras by the age of 10... guess it's not just your area.

Still, though, it's horrid. Bras at age 9 or 10?! I can understand if the girl in question was actually maturing physically, but wanting a bra simply because it's "cool?" Wrong in so many ways.

Since when are 9 year olds nearing adulthood? Shouldn't they have to reach puberty first?

I was still climbing trees at the age of 15, so I guess I shouldn't say much about this issue... but I think it is ridiculous how especially the girls are being brought up to be nice little wannabe- sex icon consumers. I guess it started with the Barbie dolls and grew progressively worse from there.

There is a difference between adulthood and maturity. Except for facial hair, I reached physical maturity at age 12. But that in no way means that I reached adulthood. Adulthood didn't come until much later. To be honest, in this day and age I'm not sure what "adulthood" really means. Sure, I can take care of my own, but I've been doing so since I was 15, so that's not really saying much. I have to agree with your statement, "There is also that age and maturity are having less and less in common." It's sad, but it's true.

I think it's sad personally. When I was ten I HAD to start wearing bras because I was physically maturing. I hated it. At my school, it didn't matter if you were "cool" because of a bra, you were "cool" when you didn't have fuzzy legs anymore. To me girls are supposed to be these sex icons for men and such and to me it's wrong. And unless a girl is physically matured at nine years old she shouldn't have to be wearing a bra. It's dumb in my opinion.

*sighs* I've read a few news articles saying that girls who live with a NON RELATED adult male reach puberty much faster (2-4 YEARS earlier) than girls growing up with 2 "regular" parrents. Although they're not sure why (pheremones? arguments? a biological need to grow up/move out sooner? I've heard many possible reasons) Couple this with the fact that parrents dress their 8-13 year olds as sluts (WTF are 8-13 year olds doing in 2 piece bathing suits, etc?) and you have a recipe for disaster. I farking hate society.... Its SUCH a *TRIPPLE* standard.... Its saying 'make your daugher look like a porn star" and its saying "your married life wont work, get a divorce and move in with some new guy" and its saying "its not our fault that your daughter you dressed like a slut is a slut" I'm sorry if I offended anyone, but from every girl I've talked to on the subject... it seems like girls I went to high school with lost their virginity at least 2-3 years earlier than the guys, thats disturbing. On top of that... the fact that I'm 23 and almost 1/3rd of the girls in my HS graduating class are already parrents? WTF happened to "settle down, THEN have kids". Sheesh its creepy!

This is why I don't like kids. They're all logically deficient.

I do agree that society is in horrid shape because of these double standards. But, I can understand why this happened for two reasons, one: It is acceptable, like crimson tears said, if they do need a bra out of physical maturity, and two, you have to realize, kids will be kids, if there is something new out, then they have another reason to make fun of someone for having or not having it, it's just how kids are.

Now, as for the double standards, it is sickening that we have kids dressing in such provocative ways at younger and younger ages. Parents are negligent for buying these things for their children, and it's just another way for the corperations to team up with media outlets to convince people that they need these items in order to be socially acceptable. Sickening as it is, there is not much we can do about it.

I completely agree. I've never heard of anything so strange. Maybe society is breast-obsessed, but ahum, so am I. The girls in my school didnt wear bra's untill they needed them. Well... I'm not so sure really. It does seem strange parents actually buy them for their children. What is next, a nine year old in sexy lingerie? Very, very twisted. Who makes this sort of clothing, anyway? Children and pre-teens are becoming more and more sexualised it seems.

I had a bra at 10. I wanted to be a grown-up... I didn't need one.

I didn't turn in to a whore, or grow up too fast. I just wanted a bra.

i used to work at limited too, its like a store just for girls six to fifteen...

the amount of times id have mothers ask me where the thongs were for their pre-pubesent daughters was appaling...

that and the little ten year olds with the name brand purses and fake nails treating the sales girls like slaves was enough to make me go batty. HENCE QUITTING!! :)

Smart move. I probably would've gone insane from being subjected to all that.

Tell her that the cool kids are sluts if they tease her for not wearing one. The cool kids now days in elementary school wear mini skirts. Hell, I couldn't wear a mini skirt till 8th grade. And also, I started wearing a bra in 6th grade. This sorta issue here needs to be brought up to the teacher. And if you get anything other then "the girls will be put in detention and watched" get the mean bitch face on. Such harrasment is the equivalent now days of a guy being called tiny almost. And is it possible to help with the child's discipline? Have to add this-me no likey small children of such sort- I have an annoying neighbor gil

Wearing bras doesn't mean they're sluts. It means that their parents have allowed them to wear bras, it means that they're being told that they're supposed to wear bras. Don't you remember how this works? One kid learns that this is how it's "supposed to be", and pretty soon the whole class is mindlessly enforcing it. They're not sluts... They're mindless drones.

Exactly, and what are the parents?
Dronemasters...That's the best word I could find XD

No, thinking cap on, who controlled the drones in Star Wars? *duh duh duh do de duh do de duh de de de di de duh do de duh ---in replacement of the jeopardy theme song*

Ha ha, yeah. "We are the Borg. Resistance is futile."

:D

The social acceptance bit is very important. The hullaballoo surrounding bras is basically the same as the hullaballoo surrounding menstruation. In my elementary school days, the girl who got her period first was "the coolest."

One one level, yes, this is all related to society's push on girls to grow up more quickly and to present themselves as sex objects - a trend that I find sickening. But at the same time, 9- and 10-year-olds want to be grown up! They look up to and mimic the "big kids."

People with younger relatives have probably experienced this. In my 9-year-old cousin's eyes, I'm practically God. She thinks anything I do is "the coolest thing EVER!" Naturally, if I told her about bras, she'd want one. When you factor peer pressure in with that kind of influence, it's easy to see why little girls have these underwear/make-up obsessions.

I never cared for bras in elementary. Hell, I wore Levis that stopped at the belly button and cheap ass T-shirts. And I was the most hated girl in school. And for what? I'll never know. Basically, rich prepp school. Horse land with million dollar homes. Girls with ponies. Designer clothes at young age. Guys with palm pilots. The entire time there was hell. Parents made me go. If I though it would help, I'd have slit my wrists and ended it all there. But my want for revenge later in life kept me, though I've yet to have my revenge.