CNN: Parents, don’t dress your girls like tramps - MuslimMatters.org

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CNN: Parents, don’t dress your girls like tramps

April 21, 2011 by Amir (MR) Lifestyle, News & Views
8 comments Tags: children · clothing · culture · dress · modesty · parenting · Raising Children · Youth

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Editor's note: LZ Granderson writes a weekly column for CNN.com. A senior writer and columnist for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com, he has contributed to ESPN's “Sports Center,” “Outside the Lines” and “First Take.” He is a 2011 and 2010 nominee and the 2009 winner of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation award for online journalism and a 2010 and 2008 honoree of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for column writing.

Grand Rapids, Michigan (CNN) — I saw someone at the airport the other day who really caught my eye.

Her beautiful, long blond hair was braided back a la Bo Derek in the movie “10″ (or for the younger set, Christina Aguilera during her “Xtina” phase). Her lips were pink and shiny from the gloss, and her earrings dangled playfully from her lobes.

You can tell she had been vacationing somewhere warm, because you could see her deep tan around her midriff thanks to the halter top and the tight sweatpants that rested just a little low on her waist. The icing on the cake? The word “Juicy” was written on her backside.

Yeah, that 8-year-old girl was something to see all right. … I hope her parents are proud. Their daughter was the sexiest girl in the terminal, and she's not even in middle school yet.

Abercrombie & Fitch came under fire this spring for introducing the “Ashley,” a push-up bra for girls who normally are too young to have anything to push up. Originally it was marketed for girls as young as 7, but after public outcry, it raised its intended audience to the wise old age of 12. I wonder how do people initiate a conversation in the office about the undeveloped chest of elementary school girls without someone nearby thinking they're pedophiles?

Push-up bikini controversy

What kind of PowerPoint presentation was shown to the Abercrombie executives that persuaded them to green light such a product?

That there was a demand to make little girls hot?

Read more here.

Tags: children · clothing · culture · dress · modesty · parenting · Raising Children · Youth

About author

Amir (MR)

Formerly Mujahideen Ryder (now retired), I'm a Muslim American born in Brooklyn, NY with Guyanese parents currently living in Maryland working full-time as web developer.

View all posts by Amir (MR)

Carlos

Why is the focus always on the way females dress? What is good for the goose is good for the gander. Women are people too. Their bodies belong to themselves, not to their families and not to their communities. Isn’t that what this niqab controvery was all about, a woman’s right to choose how she wants to dress? Yes, children need guidance and parenting, but that is regardless of whether they are male or female children.

inqiyaad

I agree with you that children need guidance and parenting regardless of gender. I would add that modesty is required regardless of gender.
However, majority of human race knows that what is good for the gander is not good for the goose and vice-versa. Even in the so called liberated western world a woman walking bare-breasted (like totally) may be charged with nudity while a man would not be. There is no equivalent of a push-up bra for men. Women dressed in skimpy bikinis are widely used to advertise man products from toiletries to fast cars and motorbikes. Marketing experts realize that this does not work so much with women. And for a more gruesome example, majority of victims of human trafficking for sex-slavery are women. Bottom-line, geese and ganders are different!
Regarding the ownership of ones body, In Islam, the Owner is Allah (our Creator) who has given it to us as a grant that has to be safeguarded and taken care of, ACCORDING TO HIS RULES. We may choose whatever is within the scope of these rules! One may choose even otherwise, but the consequences are too heavy to bear, both in this world and the afterlife.

sebkha

doesn’t work so much for women?! try googling isaiah mustafa. it’s long past time for that silly little canard to be laid to rest.

an individual’s physical body is indeed a trust from their Creator, Allah. everyone gets one. their own. individually.and that trust is their’s alone with their Creator. and in light of that trust, between each and every individual and their Creator, it’s incumbent on each and every believer to be respectful of everyone else’s individual trust. if it’s not yours, or halal for you to look at, don’t look at it. no matter what someone else’s body is doing or wearing, if it’s not yours, leave it alone. indeed, when any individual is not giving their physical form the respect and modesty demanded by its Creator, it becomes even more incumbent on those around that individual to remember this. they may not be giving their body the respect and modesty it deserves, but that doesn’t mean everyone around them is off the hook for showing respect and looking away. the responsibility of those around to look away becomes bigger, not smaller. failure to do so is your problem, and your problem alone. no amount of pathetic simpering about “men are just so different, you just wouldn’t understand” changes this one bit.

Inqiyaad

Is this supposed to be like, “I scored one on you, now show me what you got!” Really, if that is the game being played, history of advertisement industry or even media in general is against you. Even if you want to have a rematch and start now, we could be playing this for eternity and the result would stand as it is, sexual objectification of women sells more than that of men and people exploit it.

Moreover, a man product being sold by a man and without the mandatory ‘accessories’ i.e women, is that the example (an isolated one) you want to use to prove your point?

Try googling ‘men in advertisements’ and ‘women in advertisements’.

I agree with you that, irrespective of the other gender’s wardrobe malfunctions, you will be held responsible for controlling your sight and the consequences.

However, Islam does mandate that we ‘order’ what is good and censure all that is bad. We cannot ignore this trust that we have with Allah, both individually and as a society. Past nations have been wiped off or cursed for ignoring this trust. No amount of vocal verbal gymnastics can change this.

halima

Awesome point made by inqiyaad. Women and men are totally different. You cannot argue the fact that men and women should be fair square in every single matter. This is something feminists fail to realize, men and women are not the same. Anyways hope u understood the points being made.

http://none nyla

I totally agree with Inqiyaad about geese and ganders being different and with Halima’s point that the fact that men and women are not the same is something feminists don’t understand. They don’t get that Islam teaches equity between the genders since equality is just not possible between them on so many levels. Men and women are not only different in their physical makeup but they differ from each other psychologically and emotionally as well. So not only do they think and look different but they have different capabilities to control their emotions and desires. Hence most male products are advertised with images of scantily dressed women whereas you don’t find many female products advertised with pictures of men with 6 packs or whatever it is they consider to be a “perfect” image of a man.

This article draws our attention towards the growing trend of children dressing and behaving in a manner that is way beyond their years. Now I’m not saying that it would be okay if a twenty five year old woman wore pants too low to proudly show off a bare midriff and a tattoo. But I believe that little girls should be allowed to dress and behave like little girls and not be “pushed” into believing that they would need a push up bra, a glittery lipstick or fake eyelashes for them to look pretty. Whatever happened to the beauty of a child’s innocence.

halima

Wow. Truth spoken.
http://www.examiner.com/family-in-new-york/rahela-choudhury RCHOUDH

@ sebkha

While you’re right in stating that looking away and not being judgmental of others’ actions should not be attributes of the believers, isn’t it also incumbent upon us to give naseeha (advice) to each other towards abiding by halaal and avoiding haraam? What someone decides to do with the naseeha you give is their choice entirely (whether it be sincerely seeking to change their behavior for the good or disregarding the advice) and you won’t be held accountable for their decisions in the the end. But if my friends and family members are in danger of falling into haraam shouldn’t it be my obligation to help them see the danger? Looking away and not passing judgment is one thing trying to give advice without coming off as condescending is another.

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