And I thanked the fashion gods when hip-hugger jeans came in, because before that I could never find jeans that fit in both the waist AND the hips. If they fit in the hips, they were too tight in the waist (like barely buttonable). If they fit in the waist, they were huge over the thighs and rear end. With lower-rise jeans, I can usually find a decent fit.

I used to be able to solve the problem a bit by buying men's jeans, but they always seemed to be made of much heavier denim, stiffer, and bad fit in the rear. Though I might have been choosing the wrong jeans.

When I was in graduate school and teaching freshman composition back in the early 90's, our students were required to keep a journal. They could write on anything they wanted, but I would give them topics just in case. I used to use Harper's, specifically the page of statistics (I can't remember what that was called). One of them was about the percentage of people who sleep naked. Most of my students (18 or 19 year olds, mostly from Ohio cities/towns) were scandalized, and thought it was completely immoral that anyone would sleep naked.

Just kind of weird.

But I DO think we need to separate what we're discussing here--little girls wearing inappropriate clothing--with pedophilia.

To a normal person, there is nothing sexy about a 7-year-old. And dressing them up "sexy" isn't what's attracting pedophiles--that's like saying a rape victim "asked for it" by wearing a short skirt. In fact, it's my understanding that what pedophiles LIKE is little girls who look like LITTLE GIRLS--not like adult women. Actually I remember a (I believe Japanese) movie in which a mother tells a daughter that she should "project an image of purity and innocence." The girl retorts "purity and innocence attract perverts". I always wanted that on a sampler.

Yes, there are a lot of people (mostly men) who want to sleep with young girls (and young boys). That's been going on for a very, very long time--much longer than low-cut jeans and thongs have been around. Yes, it's really kind of creepy that the naked women in Playboy and other skin magazines are shaved bare or nearly bare (though I have to say, anyone who cannot see how airbrushed those women are is seriously in need of glasses and a reality check). But you'll note that in all other ways, those women are WOMEN--not little girls--and would never, EVER be mistaken for little girls.

I just think that this is overreacting. If you don't want your kid wearing thongs and low-cut jeans, then don't let her wear them. If she says "everyone else does", point out to her that life sucks and she won't be a child forever.

I've never thought of it that way before, but you are absolutely right. Little girls cannot be sexy, no matter what they wear.

I'm thinking back to my 5 & 6 & 7-year-old days (ealy 70's), and how badly I wanted a pair of hip-huggers and a halter top--and how excited I was when I got them. I can't imagine how unsexy I must have been, a chubby unformed child, but heck, I was happy. I wanted trendy "grown-up" clothes--it wasn't that I wanted to look sexy, necessarily. (What's really funny to me is that the "grown up" clothes I wanted when I was a kid are the same "grown up" clothes that kids want now.)

When I was slightly older, my Mom had my hair cut (she was always getting it cut short, much against my wishes, since I wanted "sexy" long hair) and the veterinarian we took one of my pets to called me "young man"!!! Scarred for life ;-), I now refuse to have my hair any shorter than shoulder-length--although no-one would ever refer to me as "young man" now even if I was bald.

MY feelings about all this are sort of unformed, but I guess I would have to say that the more things change, blahblahblah. Remember when Madonna had her first hits and there was so much furor in the mainstream media about little girls dressing up like her, and what kind of message that would send? Or even earlier, when David Bowie and androgyny were really hot? I remember that it was really cool to be bisexual--or at least look like you were.

It's just that whenever this kind of thing comes up, people show every sign of not remembering THEIR childhoods--or even the trends of 10 years ago. Many of the people with young children are my age--folks, do you not REMEMBER wanting to plaster on the eyeliner and wear lace bustiers and rubber bracelets? Did the world end? Did you turn out to be a drug-addled slut?

I thought not.

Since it's FOX news, I think we ought to take this with a grain of salt. The Repubs are pushing Hillary on us because they think she'd be easy to beat--and if that sounds like I've put my tinfoil hat on, well, I guess I have.

Does anyone take Tom Cruise seriously anymore? Is he REALLY that influential? It seems unlikely.