Recently, I cleaned out my house and one of the most tedious things I had to do was go through boxes and boxes of magazines. At one point I subscribed to at least 5 magazines. Last year I became overwhelmed and canceled all but two of my subscriptions. I no longer enjoy my fashion media straight up. I need it mixed with real journalistic content. I find the music world much more involved in causes and that’s why I love it.
Anyway, this month I heard about two articles in Elle Canada that left some people perturbed, (Perturbed. I’ve never used that word before but I think it fits), and right away I wanted to check them out. Once I read both articles I knew exactly why.
The first article, Baby Grand, explores how children’s clothing has become as high-end and sophisticated as adults. Fashion lines like the French baby line, Bonpoint, which the writer calls, “The Chanel of Children’s wear,” are creating Fashion Diva mommy mania. The clothes are gorgeous that’s not exactly the problem. The problem is the strange language that the writer uses throughout the piece.
Right from the beginning she starts off by saying that, “The hot little accessory this season in not the Cherche Midi purse all your friends are just lusting over; it’s the adorable child dumping its contents all over the floor.” Babies as the new accessories? Throughout the piece she continues presenting children as commodities that can enhance your lifestyle. Here are some examples.
“The bambina hanging off your arm in on more waiting lists than you might think.”
“…this French brand has established a signature style that tempers rock ‘n’ roll hipness with a slight whiff of Catholic Communion.” (I’m assuming this means edginess mixed with just enough innocence to make it cool.)
“And it’s not only the wardrobe upgrade that makes tots so hot right now…”
“What the industry had figured out is that while sex sells, innocence may sell even better—which is why kid karma is at a high.” (Sex does sell. Innocence does sell better. Just ask the kids exploited in various countries including our own. It's Karma alright just not the good kind.)
“The cool-kid industry is showing us that you can have your baby and accessorize it too.” (This comment has so many global implications that it stuns me. I realize the writer's intention could not be further from these implications but I can't help but think of the case of the young 5 year-old girl adopted from Russia whose American "father" would dress her up in little sexy outfits, take pictures of her and then abuse her. He did this until she was 11 or 12 and she was finally rescued. She testified about this abuse infront of Supreme Court Judges. Many of whom were so shocked they began to cry and these were grown men.)
After reading the article I asked myself, Is this chick serious?
I won’t even go into the way that she seems to justify the purchase of these clothes as a way to make up for not spending time with ones child, quoting a woman who says, “Mothers may think ‘I can’t spend a lot of time with my children, but I can buy them the best.” I’ll leave that alone even though I’m still shaking my head. My problem is with the cutesy, casual, and unapologetic way that this article refers to children as if they’re objects that can be used to make their parents look cooler, and feel better about themselves.
To make matters worse once you flip the page (after a great Almay advertisement of actress Leslie Bibb, who I loved on the late 90’s show Popular), there is a shocking article called, Out of Africa, which graphically discusses the rape and torture of African women and children in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I have read quite a bit about sexual terrorism but this article shocked me. Here are some quotes.
“The patients range from very young children to the elderly, and some are so injured that they may need treatment at the hospital for up to year.”
“Raped women are often no longer wanted by their husbands and have become pariahs in the communities.”
“It’s an economic war for control of the wealth played out on women’s bodies,” says Ensler. “It’s sexual terrorism.” (Activist Eve Ensler writer of the Vagina monologues)
“The damage caused to the women’s health is enormous…Some are so brutalized with guns and sticks that they no longer have wombs or vaginas.”
“…Some UN peacekeepers were convicted of exchanging milk and eggs for sex with girls as young as 10.”
The article is disturbing and sad but ironically Elle did not see the connection between Baby Grand and Out of Africa, and trust me there is a connection. Some may call my claim “far fetched,” “overstretching,” “looking for something to be angry about” but they would be wrong. Ensler explained Western blindness, complicity, and obscure connection best when she says, “I see femicide everywhere, even in the West, which is just more sophisticated about the destruction.”
She’s right. Turning our children into sophisticated, exoticized, painted dolls that compliment our lifestyle and beauty aesthetic begins to desensitize us from the quiet but visible ways that society sexualizes children. And because in the West we are working on “laws” to protect our children, we feel that “our” children are not suffering. I don’t know if we have fully realized that the images of little children being exploited in their rooms over webcam can be happening in the apartment right next to us. I think many of us believe its “other people’s” kids that are the target of this. But even when it is not “our” children I have learned in the haunting book, The Johns by Victor Malarek, that pedophiles fuel their fantasies with these images and some get on a plane and go to “exotic” places, like the Congo, Cambodia, Guatemala, Eastern Europe, where the laws are weak, the women and children are poor and vulnerable, and they only have to pay a little cash to experience what they’ve been visually fed at home.
We live in a Global society, what happens “over there,” is happening right here just with a different veneer and more “sophisticated tots.” I appreciate Elle for using their magazine to shed light on the sexual terrorism happening around the world but we need to be very aware of our involvement in the sexual exploitation. It happens on so many levels that we can easily dismiss it as insignificant but that’s dangerous. We need to be aware of the wording we use to describe children and the images we market. Little girl’s and boys posing like tiny adults in suits and lipstick are not about them, it’s about us and our desire to make everything sexy and cool and edgy. And there is nothing fashionable about child exploitation.
