Wow, it has been a week since I last posted – but my time has been well spent getting the new website ready. Stay tuned because we will launch it later this week.
In the meantime, a friend sent me a link to an item on the babyGap website. He was looking for jeans for his just-turned four-year-old daughter. He wanted something that was not flowery, pink or “skinny”. He came across “boyfriend” jeans for toddler girls - as young as 12 months – for “your budding fashionista”. Whoa! What are they thinking?! Why would babyGap name them “boyfriend” jeans? The jeans are also “comfy-cool”. Why can’t they just be “comfy”? This is a great example of age-compression. Marketers use this term to describe the phenomenon of younger children doing things that older children used to do. Age-compression is an effective way to sell more products – such as expensive clothes and electronic gadgets – to younger and younger children. It’s not so great for kids who are being pushed to grow up too quickly. My friend was outraged, and worried about the future his young daughter will face. I was outraged, too, and disgusted as well. You can be sure I’ll be writing a letter to the Gap to let them know.
The babyGap “boyfriend jeans” reminded me of another friend who has a four-year-old daughter. This little girl suddenly took a strong liking to a certain pair of sparkly jeans. She wore them to preschool one day – and then wanted to wear them every day. Guess why. A little boy in her class had told her the jeans were “cool”. Her mom said to her, “You’re four. You’re cute – not cool.”
Raising daughters in today’s highly-sexualized world is a daunting task. In my post from December 28th I mentioned So Sexy So Soon; The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids Diane Levin’s book (cowritten with Jean Kilbourne) as an excellent resource for parents. Another great resource is Joe Kelly, The Dad Man, and an expert on dads and daughters. He has written a whole bunch of books on this topic. Here is the link to his 10 Tips for Dads and Stepdads with Daughters.
If you see things that outrage you as a parent, share your outrage. Let companies know when you aren’t happy. Write to me about what outrages you, and I will share your stories.