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The Forum > Article Comments > The sluts-r-us approach to childhood play > Comments

The sluts-r-us approach to childhood play : Comments

By Melinda Tankard Reist, published 8/5/2008

A new virtual fashion game gives young girls the message that their ultimate aim in life is to be a bimbo.

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Why not rant about girls' and women's magazines, or the rubbish that is commercial television? There is plenty of fodder and Melinda need not always restrict her rants to sex alone.

The greatest majority of parents do not neglect their children, they set boundaries and they gently steer their charges towards a safe, healthy and meaningful life. As well, children are much more sensible and discriminating than many who would 'help' them are inclined to believe.

Anyhow as usual there is no need to check outside because the sky is definitely not falling. In fact, things are a whole lot better for children than when my mother was a twelve year old student. Back then many girls like her were subjected to the care, censorship and moral guidance of Catholic nuns and some still bear the physical and mental scars.

There are always those who claim they can save us from God-awful ends, especially where we are willing to suspend our judgement and allow them to foist their own morality on us. There was plenty of that back in my mother's day and than goodness those days have largely gone.
Posted by Cornflower, Thursday, 8 May 2008 4:24:54 PM
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I have to agree wholeheartedly with the author and with Bronwyn's inciteful comments.

We can fool ourselves that these sites do not have influence on our children and that children are savvy enough to make the same distinctions as adults but sadly they can't.

The age of reason does not begin until well after the age of five and influences don't just come from inside the family home unless we overly cosset our children which is also undesirable. Parents need assistance and support from the outside world to do their jobs as well as they can in raising happy and secure individuals. As adults we are all responsible for the welfare of children.

We can pretend all we like that the media (electronic or print) is only a reflection of society and in some ways it is, but it has the power to greatly influence and shape societies as well. If it didn't, corporations wouldn't be spending millions in advertising and marketing.

I shudder in disbelief at the nonsense dished out in magazines and on sites like this at times and despair at the continual pursuit of profit over the health and wellbeing of children.

It is difficult to know how to approach these sorts of issues without offending some sense of civil liberty or freedom but sometimes you have to ask at what cost and whose freedom?
Posted by pelican, Thursday, 8 May 2008 4:33:58 PM
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People, it isn't real.

It is the internet.

There aren't 553,842 "registered bimbos", there are 550,000 registrations from an online sweatshop in Chennai, and 3,842 deluded young people who - from the input I saw, have no idea what it is all about anyway.

There are numerous "what's a challenge?" and "how do you get to level 3?" questions interspersed by obvious marketing "plants" from the same Chennai sweatshop, who put in stuff like "I love the new clothes! It makes it more like you really are shopping!"

It's sad. It's pointless. It's the internet at its most vacuous.

But it isn't dangerous. Kids are far too smart.

Incidentally, I doubt that the player "in the lead" is in fact a 10-year-old girl. Far more likely is that it is a 55 year-old male with three teeth, wearing luminous socks and dribbling gently in a double-wide trailer in Buckshaw, Arkansas.

On the internet, no-one knows you're a dog.
Posted by Pericles, Thursday, 8 May 2008 4:47:32 PM
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Incidentally, Boaz...

>>I suspect that if we dug a bit, we would find that somewhere in the dark recesses of it's management, are those with vested financial interests in the values they are promoting. Jewellery, food, fashion accessories magazines etc.<<

If you dug a bit, and then used Google Maps, you would find that the registered address of this business is an innocuous semi-detached house in suburban Tottenham, North London. A couple of kids have come up with a neat idea to make a few bob, that's all.

It's the internet, people.

The thing is, peer pressure works against this kind of site, not for it. Kids really aren't that stupid. They know "dumb" when they see it, guarantee it, especially on the internet.
Posted by Pericles, Thursday, 8 May 2008 4:58:16 PM
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I'm currently working on a Melinda Tankard Reist game* for tweens. When you sign up, you form a group, and then you all get to "counsel" another young girl who has wound up pregnant by telling her abortion is an evil sin. If she has the baby and gives it up for adoption you get bonus points. The higher levels are kind of a competition, where you have to find hidden sexual and demeaning imagery in innocuous advertisments. Bonus points if you can convince the ASB to ban them! When you win, you get to go to heaven and live with the angels, who are kind of like princesses, and ban porn for eternity. It's tops fun!

* Yes, I know my MRT obsession is getting a bit out of control. Honestly, I'm working on it.
Posted by Vanilla, Thursday, 8 May 2008 5:12:26 PM
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Bronwyn,

After reading your comments about how you pre-conditioned your boy (your daughter too?) against guns I am wondering why you didn't choose a lobotomy for him to prevent his masculine predisposition towards violence. That would have been the feminist way, yes?

It is foolish, dictatorial, but nonetheless well-meaning people like you who in England forced the English Olympic shooting team to live and practice in France to represent their mother country.

A risk averse parent who would ban, conceal or otherwise deter her children from coming into contact with anything she doesn't like is actually doing her charges a disservice through raising them as limited, bigoted adults who are not confident or resilient enough to rely on their own judgement, learning and experience to guide them in the world.

Can I suggest that a much better approach would have been for you to take your son and your daughter to one the rifle range familiarisation days (the SSAA holds them often and cheaply) to have them trained along with you in firearm safety?

There you will meet the people you can be sure are of the finest character in the community - they have to be to get a licence - and there are doctors, lawyers, builders, clergy, police, cricketers, retired or at work you name it. To these men and women (no gender discrimination), firearms are a sport which develops skills such as concentration and there is also companionship and social activities. None see their firearms as 'weapons' as you through your ignorance plainly do.

You should be aware that a very young girl shooter is soon to represent Australia in the world championships in Italy. Girls can do anything, remember? She follows in the footsteps of women like Annie Elliott from Brisbane, also a world champion (so is her husband and the sport is a shared passion).

What I am saying is that to be resilient and resourceful in the world, your children will be empowered by knowledge and learning. Your ecternally imposed shielding, censorship and scolding is unhelpful in the extreme.
Posted by Cornflower, Thursday, 8 May 2008 5:13:42 PM
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