Age Appropriate

An article on The Rumpus points out a comment on a Jezebel post:

She continues to dress like someone twice her age at family events, like Thanksgiving, where she was dressed as what I can only describe as a “sexy secretary” with a tight, shiny satin red shirt and a very tight pencil skirt with heels.[...] I feel like she could find herself in a bad situation if this continues.

Said commentator was speaking in the context of an internal conflict over what to say to this 11-year-old, who she wants to protect but not suppress.

Said commentator was rightly jumped on for victim-blaming; feminist spaces have gotten good at noticing that.

Here's what hasn't been said. Here's what doesn't get said anywhere this conversation comes up - which it does, again and again.

When a preteen boy dresses up in a suit, we celebrate him for being adult and serious. When a preteen girl dresses like an adult woman, we say she looks like a hooker.

What does that say about our opinion of adult women?

Eleven Pipers Piping

With unseasonably warm weather, unexpectedly spending Halloween in New Mexico, and working Thanksgiving, I am having a hard time getting into the mindset that it's December and not, say, September. But I am doing my best. I am even organizing a gingerbread man party. I haven't piped anything in easily a decade.