Heh! This article made me think of the exact same thing. That episode of Family Guy where Lois is helping Meg shop for clothes and points out the shirts that say "Porn Star", "Slut", and "Sperm Dumpster". The sad thing, that's not entirely satire, as it's becoming a more common sight to see girls walking around wearing that kind of garbage.

I'm 21 and I wear children's sizes, and I have to say that finding sexy clothes that fit me is a LOT harder than many commenters here seem to think. Or maybe I'm just not looking in the right stores?

"Oh, Meg! Look at this one! Sperm Dumpster!"

Juuuuuust a reminder.

Oh, and this just in, Garanimals aren't extinct:
[www.garanimals.com] (too bad they don't have swimwear)

All these comments make me a bit more glad I'm male. I don't have problems deciding on how to dress for swimming, a bare chest and midriff goes everywhere.

But anyway, I agree that "sexualising" children is bad, and little girls dressing up in slut-like bikinis is a twisted state of affairs.

Some moderation in the clothing would be nice.

Androgeny was cool back in my formitive years. Now I have a 7-year-old little sister and she refuses to wear any color too far out of the pink spectrum because "it's for a boy."
AAAAAAND she dresses like a little skank. partly b/c that's how the clothes are made, and also in part b/c the child is abnormally tall & thin, so it's hard to keep all of the legs and/or tummy covered up at all times..... okay, and she has a pair of high-heeled sandals that her trashy Grandma bought her. I'm gong to hide them from her someday. She's always complaining that her little developing feet are hurting her, and she wears those sandals pretty much every day.
This causes me to shake with rage.

Then after those were pulled, the company released a line of thongs for pre-teens (as in the 6-10 market).

I don't let my daughter wear licensed character stuff out in public for that reason. Its always some fat chick named Heather that likes wearing stupid tweety bird or Winnie the Pooh shirts….lol

click for a laugh
wholesomeWear
[www.wholesomewear.com]

I've ALWAYS had a problem with those baby commercials where the little girls are bare-chested. It just seems weird that it's cute when she's under the age of 4, but if she's 5 or older, it's indecent. What gives?

That said, the first time I wore Speedos in public was... Awkward. For about five minutes. Then got over it. (shrug)

Announcing new "Little Swimmers Thong Diapers!"

... I keed. Sidenote: Why isn't anyone outraged by all those poor little boys who are forced to wear speedos?

@spanky: I was a lifeguard when I was a teenager and we would always hope and pray that a baby would poop in the pool, as it meant closing the pool for 24 hours so it could be "shocked" with chlorine. I don't think any group of teenagers ever searched so hard for a little piece of floating poop....

The solution to this seems simple to me: don't buy it. I agree it's harder to find modest girls' clothes, but they're out there. I'm definitely grateful that this hasn't spread to boys' clothes. He's a breeze to dress, even if the selection in most stores is a third what it is for girls.

I have a 2 year old, and I've bought her two-pieces from ON and Gap and they look fine on her (I'd post a pic, but I'm scared of people calling her a slut).

Granted, that position will be revisited as she gets older. I do agree that clothes for girls ages 6+ is kinda skimpy. My niece is 7, and her mom always has a hard time finding skirts to cover her butt.

I have a 5 year old girl. I have absolutely no problem finding reasonable, non-slutty clothes for her. She has a 2 piece bathing suit. Is it a string bikini? No. Not even close. We bought it at Target. Parents who are claiming they have to resort to sewing their own clothes are lying, plain and simple.

We bought some clothes for her yesterday, in fact. And the thing that cracked me up about what was offered was the retro nature of it all. The colors, cuts, etc., looked just like the stuff the elementary school girls wore in my neighborhood circa 1979.

In other news, the sky is falling.

Gap and Old Navy have been making string bikinis just like this for years, but they usually also have one pieces available. Most of their clothing is just miniature versions of what they sell in their adult divisions.

I've had good luck with Gymboree, when they go on sale their prices aren't horrible, and most of their clothing looks like it's meant for little girls.

Personally I feel Gap Inc is going a little too sexy with Old Navy lately. Back when we were getting in tons of summer clothing in many of us were surprised at the tiny short shorts for the girls department. Then there are the visuals. Next time you are in Old Navy (if soon) check out the pictures of the models. Above the women's and men's denim are some sexy pictures I'd expect in other stores (A&E?). The ones I have seen for the kids shops are interesting, one boy seems like he's a future A&F model.

It seems like the company is trying to target the 20 something market pretty hard lately. It's just not the Old Navy I remember from a few years ago. Sadly the more products I see come in and the more visuals we get it seems the company just tries too hard to shake the family friendly image of the 90s. Remember buying matching flag tees for the whole family and matching pj bottoms for everyone at Christmas? Now mother, daughter, and baby can all have tiny swimsuits.

I almost forgot. Most of the two piece bikinis for babies haven't sold that well at the store I work at. Although, the tiny two pieces for girls are pretty much gone. I had the misfortune to see a girl come out of the fitting room one day to show her mom how it fit. Poor mother was mortified, the girl was very pleased with how tiny it was, though.

Although, you can't blame the company for selling something that makes profit, right? If a Gap Inc store didn't carry the product then it would be bought elsewhere probably. I just don't know where they got the idea that selling two piece, triangle bikini tops for baby girls would be a good idea. (From what I noticed less is sold than a one piece or the tankinis, and the tiny two parts are easy for shoplifters to snag.) From seeing and hearing about new product to come out soon I would love to know where they get their "great ideas". Today I saw a men's sweater with a lion face printed on the front.

Sincerely,
Bottom of the Ladder at ON that Happens to Take Notice

What puzzles me is that in the USA kids are getting bigger and bigger and childrens clothes are getting smaller and skimpier and skimpier every year.

The smaller and smaller clothes seem to only affect girls though, the problem is, is that a lot of girls go through an awkward stage at about ages 9-12 where they really don't make any clothes to fit them either way, so your either stuck packing them into too small kids clothes, or stuck with a kid who is wearing super loose adult clothes, neither which look right. You can buy the plus-sized childrens clothes at sears (yes, sears has a plus-sized children's department) but that can be really demeaning to children who are rather normal sized and are just at an awkward in-between age, no kid wants to shop in the plus-sizes department. Juniors clothes usually don't start fitting until about age 12 or a little older and when I was younger I just skipped right over the Juniors mainly cause I didn't like any of the clothes.

If you have a kid that is even just a little bit overweight it gets even harder than this. I see tons of kids and teens walking around here with their stomachs and legs bulging out of too small clothes yet trying to walk in high heels at the same time, but I am not going to go any further with that thought. Head to the local mall in the summer and you will see what I mean.

Oh and parents buy these clothes because... they are the only clothes the retail stores sell!!! Sewing might be a good option because at least you could make bigger clothes patterend on whats in style so that you don't have a kid that hates their clothes.

Swimsuits aren't all bad nowadays, its a pretty standard design and they make two-piece styled swimsuits that cover a lot more of the body than what used to be covered in the 80s when I was a kid. I was stuck with mainly one-piece swimsuits as a kid. I would imagine these would be a disaster for toddlers that need a diaper change!

There are many more alternatives to swimsuits today for both adults and children. Sure you have the standard bikini and one piece ones but they also have adult swimsuits that look just like a dress so you can cover your whole chest area and stomach and kids swimsuits that also cover most of the chest area and stomach.

I am not talking about urine. I am talking about feces.

The fact is that babies shit in their pants, and if they happen to be in a pool when they do so, it ends up in the pool.

Swimming in water contaminated with untreated sewage puts everyone at risk, especially other people's children. Your decision to expose others to that is selfish and inconsiderate.

Swim diapers can reduce fecal contamination, and certainly make it less visible. However, they do not eliminate the risks.

BTW, your assumptions are sloppy, and just make you look stupid and irrational.

@ldt: I agree with your statement about the adults with this viewpoint having the problem...

If anything i think the problem is that a little girl of that age shouldn't have to be wearing any type of top.

I've never looked at a two-year-old in a bathing suit and thought, "What a slut!" It sounds like the real problem here is adults who insist on placing weird grown-up expectations and sexualization on kids.

Responsibility for this falls clearly on the parents.

And I played with toy guns as a child...

A: Where are the children's sizes?

* shouldn't the bikini top have falsies built in? I believe in empowerment but sometimes tykes need a little bit of help. And wadded up tissue makes a MESS in the pool.

* to be gender-neutral, shouldn't there be boys - what - thongs? Tarzan loincloths? (have no idea what properly sexualized, fashionable two-year-old boys should be wearing...)

I guess, following tyke fashion trends, five years from now, boys will be wearing male burkas, and girls will be wearing... Floss?

[/sarcasm]

Tho seriously... Between Emo's, Goths, and Metro's, not many boys are acting like BOYS anymore, and dressing more and more like girls USED TO before this slutphase.

the coppertone baby is just doing what tons of little kids do.

i was a child of the 80s and always had a one-piece. there are pictures of me in diapers in the pool, too.
in addition, a neighbor's granddaughter would never wear a shirt in the summertime. this was when she was about 8, and she looked pretty asexual. what's wrong with that?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating toddlers walking around in thongs. In fact, I cringe when I see teenage girls dressing like hoochies.

Take a look at the Coppertone baby. She's running around in underwear!!

As for other things... she wears a lot of her brother's cast off shorts, because many of the shorts available for her are way, way too short.

We're this far in the thread without anyone mentioning the SNL commercial for Huggies thongs?

Its actually kind of funny. Boys' toys have gotten suckier. Nerf guns are all fruity and lame because "Guns are bad", our awesome micromachines military collections have been replaced with sea rescue and firetrucks, and the whole world goes apeshit because Lego (for the first time in history) made pieces for the starwars sets that actually resembled a gun... AND THEN we go and fuck it up for the girls too with that crap... So our daughters are slutty strap-on wearing whores by age 5, and our sons are turning gay from the lack of manliness in their lives. We're all doomed.

I will comment that if your younger child is wearing a 2 piece, it makes those "potty runs" that much easier. Because until you have pulled all the parts of a wet one piece back on a squirming child in a really tiny stall, you don't know what Summer fun truly is!

She's NINE!!! WTF are they thinking!?

@MEG MARCO: I don't know about parents sewing clothes but my sister knows several grown women who now shop in the children's section of clothing stores.

Sorry, have to disagree here. The issue is that we continue to sexualize our children at an increasingly younger age. I have a 5 year old and two year old twins. My wife and I looked hard to find a non-bikini swimsuit for the five year old. Putting infants in one is ridiculous.

And then we wonder why kids are having sex earlier. WE ARE SEXUALIZING THEM AT A YOUNGER AGE.

As to parents sewing clothes because they can't find any? Go to Target. Great clothes, great price. Not all of it is slutty.

/she won't be wearing a bikini at age 12, either.

Just buy your girls tee shirts online with witty, age appropriate phrases. I honestly can't stand the sluttification of young girls anymore.

I do agree that the little hooker line is big, but I don't think it's *impossible* to find something decent. Getting your kid to agree to something decent, though ...

it claims that parents are resorting to sewing their children's clothes themselves because they can't find non-slutty duds for their elementary school kids. Is this true?

I can believe it. I really don't understand how parents can let their little girls look like sluts from an early age. I have a niece and luckily my sister-in-law doesn't allow her to wear this stupid shit.

I feel for the girls (and their mothers) who are trying to find age-appropriate clothing. I think I need to learn to sew before I have kids.

Why don't more parents refuse to buy this crap?

The only way that they'll stop making this nonsense is if people stop buying it.

In reference to jaredharley's image,

I think it's interesting that those weird, pseudo-wetsuit beach shirts have come into style for boys, as have the longer board shorts. As the girls are getting less and less covered, the boys are more and more covered up.

And no, I wasn't white trash. Just want to clear that up.

The other part thinks about parents who let their kid run around the beach butt naked...so I guess a string bikini is an improvement over that? ...I guess?

[blog.jaredharley.com]

It bothers the crap out of me. Absolutely disgusting!