Last week some of you may have read about a 10-year-old girl featured on the front cover of French Vogue. Many critics have come out and slammed the magazine for allowing a young girl to pose in such a provocative way. Supposedly it is not uncommon for the magazine to use such young models, but is this going to far?
Is this sexualisation of young girls similar to the beauty pageants that were the hot controversial topic of last week where girls are dressed up, posing and displaying themselves in unnatural and scary ways for a child of their young age? Ok so I get that we are now in a world that is moving along in a rapid rate where what was not normal ten years ago is now the norm, but where do we draw the line?
Chloe Angyal, editor of Feminsting.com. wrote, “This isn’t edgy. It’s inappropriate, and creepy, and I never want to see a nine-year-old girl in high-heeled leopard print bedroom slippers ever again,”.
as seen in French Vogue
Maybe this is a case of ‘fun dress-ups’ for a day and every other day of this child’s life is played out like any other typical 10 year old, but what message does it give our even younger children, and older children?
Children will always be subjected to these unnatural, glorified and provocative photos that they will be exposed to every day. The photos we forget to show our children (and the rest of society) are the natural, unfinished and untouched faces before they have been digitally enhanced.
What do you think of these images? Is this the next Miranda Kerr in the making or a young girl dressed up and modelling too soon?
Tahlia
