# The return of "HOs 'R' Us" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 6, 2002, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-hos-r-us/140898 "2002-12-06T12:10:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-hos-r-us/140898/41 "2002-12-08T03:08:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mort Furd \* > \*\* It is just really freaky to be walking along the street, and looking in the store windows. Bookstore, hobby shop, office supply store, take out pizza place, sex shop (open crotch underwear on a dummy, whips, magazines, handcuffs, funky plastic gadgets, etc.) children’s clothing store (leotards, christening dresses, frilly little girl’s clothes, etc.) > Weird. \*\* Places like that don’t usually have windows in the US. Heh. I am also freaked out by the stuff I see in the girls’ department at Walmart… hell if I’d let any 5 year old daughter of MINE wear that shit!! ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-hos-r-us/140898/42 "2002-12-08T03:18:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lissla Lissar \* > \*\*I went into a Le Chateau last week. They have a “girls” section. I think the average age of their non-“girls” shopper is 16. That makes the younger stuff for 11-12 year olds. Yuck. \*\* I’m missing something…? (what is le chateau?) ---
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-hos-r-us/140898/43 "2002-12-08T18:45:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by OpalCat \* > \*\*I’m missing something…? (what is le chateau?) \*\* Canadian purveyor of garments for the adolescent and tasteless. Although in the interest of disclosure I must confess I found a rock’n pair of pink paisley hi-tops there. What can I say? It was 1985. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-hos-r-us/140898/44 "2002-12-09T09:20:50Z")
Hey. My iridescent blue/orange shirt is really nice. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-hos-r-us/140898/45 "2002-12-09T16:58:11Z")
I must admit, I do have a decent layered black skirt from Le Chateau, picked out from among heaps of bright pink metallic snakeskin-print halter tops. Iridescent blue/orange? Uhhh… oh, dear. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-hos-r-us/140898/46 "2002-12-09T17:06:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by matt\_mcl \* > \*\*Hey. > > My iridescent blue/orange shirt is really nice. \*\* Who says we dress better than straight guys? Another gay myth destroyed… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-hos-r-us/140898/47 "2002-12-09T17:08:34Z")
Of course, it’s possible I’m just jealous. Put me in an iridescent klubkid shirt and I’d look like a weather balloon… ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-hos-r-us/140898/48 "2002-12-10T04:01:51Z")
(geeze on/) “Kids today with there hair and their clothes! You call that music? In my day we had REAL music.” (/geeze off) ---
**Author:** ![Earthworm\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f07891/32.png) [@Earthworm\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthworm_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-hos-r-us/140898/49 "2002-12-10T12:56:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RTFirefly \* > **A buncha big corporations are in control. They spend billions of dollars marketing directly to your kids. Why is anyone surprised that some parents get tired of fighting, and that some don’t even bother in the first place?** Bullshit. A bunch of big corporations are in control _because you let them have it_ (the proverbial you). It’s surprising that parents let their children be mindless slaves to advertising. Somewhere on this board, one of the posters ( **Guinistasia** , I think) told a story about how her son realized companies didn’t care about whether thier product made you feel ill while watching a commercial. That’s a parent who’s done their job correctly. Advertising works because the parents pay the corporations to continue doing it. These people are weak willed spineless choads and 100% at fault. If they didn’t buy it, it wouldn’t be in such high demand that it crowded out the non-slutty outfits. But, people love to find excuses to buy the shit, don’t they? Let’s look at a few: **Oh, it’s all that was available.** I’m to lazy to look harder or go to a different store. **It’s all she’ll wear.** I have forfeited any kind of parental control of my child. **All her friends are wearing the same stuff.** I don’t mind that she’s a crowd-following slutted-up twit as long as she’s popular. > [@](#): > > \*\* > Corporations spend all that money because it works. They control the popular culture (that is, the media culture), which means that their values, or lack thereof, go a long way to determining, in the minds of the more impressionable (and I’m including a big chunk of the adult population here) what’s right and what’s wrong.\*\* Bullshit. They give the consumers what they want. They know what the consumers want by how much money the consumers spend on it. The consumers show the corporations their values by spending money on those things which fall on the “OK” side of their value system. The corporations respond. Fashion changes as the consumers change buying habits, not based on the whim of Wal Mart execs. > [@](#): > > \*\* > So yeah, if they think they can make lotsa money this year selling slutty clothes to 5-year-olds, they’ll do it.\*\* You have confused cause and effect. > [@](#): > > \*\* > I bore myself by saying this stuff one more time, but what else is there to say? \*\* Oh, I don’t know. Something that has more grounding in reality, perhaps. Try it, you might find it more exciting. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-hos-r-us/140898/50 "2002-12-10T13:54:37Z")
I just saw an article about a group of teen girls who signed a petition to get the stores to “down-slut” the clothes. THey were all uncomfortable with the trampy-looking options, and a couple of the stores agreed to widen the choices for the more modest girls. Bra-fuckin’-vo! ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-hos-r-us/140898/51 "2002-12-10T15:14:04Z")
[Oh, and just to explain the title:](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=118859) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-hos-r-us/140898/52 "2002-12-10T16:05:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jayjay \* > \*\*Of course, it’s possible I’m just jealous. Put me in an iridescent klubkid shirt and I’d look like a weather balloon… \*\* OTOH, if you look like a weather balloon you might attract [these guys](http://www.bigboysballoons.com/)! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-hos-r-us/140898/53 "2002-12-10T18:10:21Z")
Oh man, I’m so tired of the slut-wear for little girls, and mine is only two! I buy her quite a bit from the boys dept, but that’s difficult too, because so much of it is aggressively BOY as the other stuff is aggressively HO. What happened to unisex playwear? I just want something she can play in and beat up, but the girl’s stuff is often cheaply made and not very sturdy, and covered with glitter as well. And as for teenager clothes, the junior’s departments look like hookerwear central. Last Christmas my mom and I spent an _entire day_ trying to find a skirt and top for my 15-yo sister. Just one of those long black knit skirts and a decent top, and it took us hours, all over town. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-hos-r-us/140898.md?page=2)