YMMV. I can easily make the distinction between a group of kids participating as a team in healthy exercise while developing their dancing talent and parents’ dragging kids around from contest to contest painting them up to look “mature”.
Yeah, maybe I’m sick.
I have one lesbian ex-Catholic-schoolgirl friend who would dispute this.
Cite — with pictures.
I guess I’m just trying to figure out why you brought up the pageant kids in the first place.
Do you think the way the pageant kids are dressed, taught to move and comport themselves, and made up, is such as to conventionally signify sexuality?
Just to give you the choose-your-own-adventure version ahead of time, if your answer is “no” then my question is “Why are you bringing up the pageant kids, then? What we’re discussing in this thread is an incident in which children were encouraged to move and dress in a way that conventionally signifies sexuality. What’s the relevance of the pageant kids if that’s not what’s going on in that case?” Meanwhile, if your answer is “yes” then my question is “Why is someone a ‘sicko’ for noticing the signification of the dancers’ movements and dress, but you are not a ‘sicko’ for noticing the signification of the pageant kids’ movements, dress, comportment and makeup?”
My daughter is 5 1/2.
She is currently learning the Cha Cha after 18 months of ballet.
Some of the moves do have the hip roll etc…(no pelvic thrusting though) designed to show off the female form, I have never seen it as sexual.
Some of the moves the girls were doing were designed to look sexual, to create arousal / desire in men. There is no other conclusion than that. The moves being done are intensified by the costumes - one piece leotards would have served the role just as well.
The girls don’t see anything wrong with it today, but in 8-10 years time, when they do understand the sexuality of what they were doing? How will they feel then?
There are some very definite sexual moves in the video, pelvic thrusts, boob shimmies, that if done by an adult would be assumed to try to create arousal, why is it ok for the small girls to do it just because they are too young to understand the implication?
On a slightly different note, who would be ok with 14-15 year old girls dressed the same way performing the same dance for a muscle car launch at a car show?
You’re too kind. Vacuous is more apt I think.
Duh. Females, in any pageant, don’t win it in the Q and A (which is really just a formality) and parents know this, I’m quite sure.
No, but they perform a sometimes technically demanding role in The Nutcracker in A NIGHTGOWN.
Now, now. Feels like you’re taking things personally, remember I started my answer with IMO. You have a kid in pageants?
Also, the OP asks the question Is there anything wrong with this girls dance performance? I happen to be not fond of red/black or for that matter red/green costumes. Otherwise, I thought it was good as well as healthy fun.
And as far as pageants go, to single a kid out for being good looking and in every way encourage a life of superficiality and rigid “comportment”
is sheer exploitation and abuse, again IMO.
What say you, Bo? Have I been out of line?
No, she *likes *the Catholic schoolgirl look. She, herself, is more the standard crew cut, t-shirt,jeans & boots type.
bolding mine
If you watch the interview with the parents, they addressed exactly this, and in their opinion, part of what makes this routine acceptable was the setting. It wasn’t done at a car show, it wasn’t done in a tittie bar, it wasn’t done in public at all. This was a dance competition, where, at the very least, these girls would have seen older girls or women perform these or similar dance moves, wear similar costumes, etc.
Any notion that the routine was wrong because it’s now the VVOTW™ (Viral Video Of The Week) and has been seen by millions is just not credible, since that was never the intent.
ETA: adhay, I dunno if you’ve been out of line; that’s not really for me to judge. But I do think that Frylock has some valid questions regarding how you formed your opinions, since they do seem to describe different reactions to what is, at heart, a very similar set of circumstances.
Cite — with pictures.
I’m not sure I’d be ok with it, but I’d be more ok with it. The progression from 7yo to 15yo is not a linear one. 15-year-olds are only 3 years away from being emancipated adults and most are pretty sophisticated psychologically. I wonder if the girls in the video at issue knew exactly what they were doing. I’m pretty sure they didn’t choreograph the dance moves or choose the uniforms. The 15-year-olds are able to make a more informed choice, even if it’s one they really shouldn’t shouldn’t be making. Psychologically, the gap between 7yo and 15yo is much, much more than eight years.
It is very male-centric of some of you guys to assume that any gyrating done by a female for any purpose is actually some scheme to entice you.
Those are dance moves. They weren’t designed to arouse you or to look sexual.
When Martha Graham told her dancers to start their moves with their vaginas, she wasn’t designing them to arouse you, either.
I really don’t why the “mores” squad is up in arms here. I watched a 3x2 inch video focused on good sized stage with a fast moving dance team.
Pelvic motions? WTF. Are these people zooming in and running things in stop motion? Did they minutely check each pelvis for signs of perversity? Evidently.
uh? Male-centric? Is that supposed to be bad or something? I’m male. I’m male-centric. Anyway the girls and their parents will be thrilled to hear I’m sure, that the story has found its way all the way to little Denmark. (I’m also Danish-centric)
So apparently you think kid “beauty” pageants are a good thing and comparable to the girls dancing and enjoying themselves. I don’t.
JonBenet Ramsey Killing of JonBenét Ramsey - Wikipedia is a tragic poster child for this pageant shit. Tragic, of course, for how she met her end but also, in relation to my comments on this thread, the life she led (and along other contestants) leading up to it. There was much press coverage of the pageant scene at the time. At best, a fucking waste of time, money and childhood. Also, had she not been the little “beauty” she’d been painted up to be, what happened to her would not have happened. That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it.
What was she being prepared for, Miss America? Spare me that too.
Can’t fathom why you’d ask me that. Of course I don’t.
You said you think pageants are sick, and the video in this thread was fine. I think both are morally questionable at least. We agree about the pageants, we disagree about the video. I’m trying to see what you think the relevant difference is between them, because in my view, in all relevant respects, they seem to be the same kind of thing in terms of what it is that makes them morally questionable.
I tried to view the video, and got this message:
To you. It’s a simple difference of opinion. No biggie. Sorry for my snark.
I think there’s nothing morally reprehensible about the video and I’ve expressed above what I consider to be the healthy aspects of it. Again, just my opinion.
To me, in the condemnation of the video here, however couched, there is an implied charge of child exploitation which I disagreed with. Obviously, the pageant thing is one of my axes to grind and I thought it relevant as something really exploitive of kids.
If I went too far afield, my apologies to all.