Why does a four year old need lingerie?

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Thylane Lena Rose Blondeau appears with adult look in Parisian issue of Vogue.

I didn't get too upset when there was that whole other case of the 10-year model, Thylane Loubry Blondeau, featured in French Vouge.  That report was all the buzz last week and I was trying my best not to get caught up in all the hype. I was torn over whether or not I was in fact being an uptight American and if I had been negatively programmed by my society to read more into the photos than was actually there.  I thought, "Well maybe the pictures are not that bad.  It does kind of look like a little girl playing dress-up."

However, when I saw the article "French lingerie line for little girls: Cute? Or creepy?" I was completely outraged.  Lingerie for 4-year olds... you gotta be kidding me.  This is absurd! Little girls should not be sexualized in this way, and to say that "Americans just don't get it" is outrageous. I keep hearing that commentary over and over again and it just pisses me off.  It seems that Europeans feel so superior in their civility that they feel as if they are beyond reproach, but they are dead wrong in saying that this is okay.

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Here are some scary statistics about child pornography:

• Child pornography is one of the fastest growing businesses online, and the content is becoming much worse. In 2008, Internet Watch Foundation found 1,536 individual child abuse domains. (Internet Watch Foundation. Annual Report, 2008).

• Of all known child abuse domains, 58 percent are housed in the United States (Internet Watch Foundation. Annual Report, 2008).

• The fastest growing demand in commercial websites for child abuse is for images depicting the worst type of abuse, including penetrative sexual activity involving children and adults and sadism or penetration by an animal (Internet Watch Foundation. Annual Report, 2008).

• In a study of arrested child pornography possessors, 40 percent had both sexually victimized children and were in possession of child pornography. Of those arrested between 2000 and 2001, 83 percent had images involving children between the ages 6 and 12; 39 percent had images of children between ages 3 and 5; and 19% had images of infants and toddlers under age 3 (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Child Pornography Possessors Arrested in Internet-Related Crimes: Findings fro the National Juvenile Online Victimization Study.

Do these young girls modeling a line of French lingerie look cute? Or do their poses cross the line? 
jours-apres-lunes.com

When is enough enough? We cannot on one hand condemn child pornography and on the other hand allow the fashion industry to put out equally suggestive images of children, justified as art. Sexual exploitation of children is a global epidemic and in on the rise. Just last February, The Guardian reported that, "The trafficking of British children around UK cities for sexual exploitation is on the increase with some as young as 10 being groomed by predatory abusers, a report reveals today." 

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As a matter of fact, there is a place in the UK that offers poll dancing for girls as young as 3!  Little Spinners classes, where Instructor Carly Wilford insists it helps youngsters keep fit and boosts their self-esteem.  She must be insane...boost their self-esteem!  Now don't get me wrong, at 35 I love to feel sexy and learning to poll dance just might boost my self-esteem but such a thought should not even be on the radar for a 3-year old.  It's things like this that make me think the whole world has gone mad sometimes.

The French would like to deter critics by making it seem as if Americans are upset because we are paranoid and that the French would never see these photos as sexual.  As if to suggest that sexual exploitation of children is not a problem in France.  When in fact according to UNHCR, "The Government of France estimates that the majority of the 18,000 women in France's commercial sex trade are likely forced into prostitution. It also estimates a significant number of children in France are victims of forced prostitution, primarily from Romania, West Africa, and North Africa."

To say that I love fashion is an understatement, but I cannot support the industry's practices of sexualizing girls too young.  Pedophilia is a global problem and to normalize the sexualization of young girls creates room for people to rationalize their behavior. Allowing this type of marketing is a dangerous track that should be shunned!