Oh. My. Word. The first time I watched this I sat in stunned silence. Every time I have watched it since, I have cried. This two minute video has a doctoral thesis worth of intellectual fodder. I'll try to keep it a bit shorter than that.
It's easy to watch this video and be shocked. It's easy to ask the obvious questions about these girls. (The most obvious being, "Where are their parents!?") I think there is, however, a bigger societal issue that needs to be examined. This video of these eight year old girls is just an example of much larger problem; that is, the sexualization of girls and the infantilization of women.
The signs of this problem are everywhere. Little girls dressed like strippers. "Boyfriend jeans" that you can buy for your toddler. High heeled shoes for infants. The converse problem of infantilization is also evident. We see women models posed in magazines holding teddy bears. There are sexy little bo-peep costumes on sale at Halloween. There is the rise of the vapid, female celebrities, like Paris Hilton. We are dressing girls in the trappings of womanhood, and demanding woman maintain the personality of child. What's the deal here?
What the deal is, I think, is an effort to keep women from accessing and embracing full personhood. I'm not talking about woman being better than men, or some ridiculous idea of a superior sex; we are all fallen. What I am talking about personhood. The right to reach one's full potential as person: emotionally, physically, intellectually, and spiritual.
Society is telling girls from the moment they are born that what really matters is their sexuality. It is important to dress sexy. To act sexy. To be sexy. This idea than carries into womanhood. What is defined as sexy is inherently childlike. Super models with pre-pubescent bodies. Hairless leg and armpits. Passive. Uninformed about sexuality. Dependent.
And it is this push to make "childlike dependency" synonymous with "sexiness" that frightens me the most. There is nothing healthy about life long dependency. There is nothing sexy about stunting one's potential in the name of sexuality.
What this shocking video boils down to for me is this. If someday, I have daughters, I want them to know that being a well-rounded person who loves God and people is what matters. I don't want them to make the mistakes I did. Don't obsess about your weight. Don't pretend to be ignorant on subject just so a boy can teach you something that you already knew. Don't be weak to get attention.
When they are young, I will tell them play outside, to get messy, to wear their hair in braids, and to be friends with boys and girls. And when they are woman, I will tell them to be strong, to study their passion, to be more concerned with the people around them than their waist size, and to be friends with both men and women. I will tell them that independence, intelligence, grace, and confidence is what being a person; a woman is all about.
