Let princesses grow - at own pace

Is it right that little girls as young as five can now buy imitation adult underwear from La Senza, including tops that resemble a bra? writes blogger Charlie Cashdan.

Is there possibly a link between this and an article in a Sunday paper about a chavy, pasty-faced youth who has managed to father seven kids by seven different women and doesn’t provide for any of them?

One of the most shocking things about that article was how easy he found it to pull these young girls and get them into bed despite telling them he would never wear any protection.

Do many young women today have such low aspirations and sense of self worth that they think all they have to trade is their body and will fall for the charms of a lanky, work shy, unemployed waster with bad skin and lots of kids by different women because he gives them some flattery and it’s better than being alone?

Perhaps if their mom’s didn’t sexualise them so young, making them so obsessed with their looks instead of their brains and imagination, this wouldn’t happen.

My colleague Jodie is a good example. She got pregnant at sixteen with her daughter and had been having sex from the age of twelve. Her mom knew and even let the one lad move in when they were both under age.

Jodie has never been without a boyfriend from twelve onwards and says she couldn’t possibly be without one because she thinks everyone will see it as a sign that she is ugly and would have nothing to talk to her friends about when they discuss their fellers.

All her friends have a child too, none are with the child’s father and all live with different men. Jodie is trying for another baby with her new man but suggesting they get married first prompts an incredulous look and a storm of protest.

Jodie’s little girl is only allowed to wear pink, or beige and chocolate brown, and can only wear designer gear. If a relative buys any other colour or buys something from – heaven forbid! - George at ASDA it goes straight in the bin.

Little Lucy, who is three, sets off for nursery every day wearing nail varnish, lip-gloss and carrying a pink hand bag with her pink hairbrush, hair accessories and a fake mobile phone.

Lucy is obsessed with being a princess; all her birthday and Christmas cards must have princess on. Her mom loves all this and all her friend’s little girls are exactly the same. None of them are ever allowed to get dirty and ruin their designer togs, they never play outside or in the countryside. Jodie would be horrified if Lucy ever climbed a tree or made a den in the woods. Someone once suggested to her that they all went camping and Jodie almost had a seizure “My little princess does not do camping!”

Where is the emphasis on her intellectual development? Her imagination? Is this attitude not just producing another trendy, consumer obsessed, sexualised young girl who will aspire to nothing beyond attracting a boyfriend and being the prettiest, best dressed amongst her friends?

How sad if she too doesn’t go to college, or university, and has a child at sixteen just like her mom did only to land up with a different feller soon after.

I wouldn’t want to raise a princess particularly, more a kind, funny, creative, down to earth little soul who loved animals, invented stories, climbed trees and wanted to be Prime Minister! Boys can wait…

Agree with Charlie? Post your comments below.