On fancy panties and the objectification of young girls

It’s not something I’ve talked about on here before, but hey. Sometimes you need to break free from your circle of normality. I’m about to talk about underwear.

I recently heard about Victoria’s Secret releasing a new line of unmentionables for young teenage girls. Their campaign name? “Bright Young Things”. Because that’s exactly what the young girls of America need: fancy panties and the title “thing”. I’m not posting pictures of the stuff on here, but this video gives you an idea…

In America, girls are inundated with this message: to be beautiful, you have look like a Hollywood actress. You have to be a size 2, have perfectly toned and tanned skin. Your hair and make-up must be flawless. Your clothes? They should obviously be super trendy and show as much as possible. I mean, who would like you if you can’t keep up with the latest trends and show the world everything you’ve got?!?!

Well, young girls of America, here’s something else you should know: you are not defined by your body or what you wear. You are so much more. You have a brain and are capable of being a highly educated person. You have a personality some people love. You have dreams. You aspire to be someone, to do something. I’m here to tell you that your future does not depend on what size you are or what your unmentionables look like.

I read a few interesting articles about this. Jenny said that she thought this was a good thing because girls need something pretty after outgrowing Dora. Joanna wrote that by denying young girls these fancy panties, we are “shaming” them into thinking they shouldn’t want them. While there is most certainly a time when girls outgrow Dora, there’s no reason why they should transition into wearing lingerie designed for full grown women after that. And the whole idea of “shaming” girls is absurd. It’s not wrong to desire beautiful things (though I can tell you this lingerie is not), but feeling shameful about wearing terribly objectifying and revealing undergarments is probably not bad. Shame is when you feel guilty of something, and guilt is something self inflicted. You have to choose to feel that way: I can’t “shame” you into feeling guilty. It naturally happens when you know you’ve done something wrong.

This new campaign by Victoria’s Secret makes me truly sad for America. Kids have lost so much of their innocence with the way our society is. I remember reading books about kids who played outside, had adventures in the woods, and enjoyed life. For the most part, they didn’t have a care in the world about what they looked like. These fancy panties would have been perfectly scandalous to them.

Now I’m not saying young girls should be wearing stark white granny panties. For goodness sakes, no one (except maybe an actual grandma) should be wearing those. Women and girls can wear pretty underthings. But really, could we put clothes on over them please? Unmentionables were not made for the world to see, and when girls are taught it’s okay to do that, problems happen.  Instead of being confident and feeling beautiful, they measure themselves against their peers and define themselves by what they look like. This is not what girls need.

What girls do need is to be treated with respect. We need to take care of ourselves so that we can take care of others. We need to be confident in the fact, and show our world, that we know we are not just a body to be ogled over. We need to raise the bar, have higher standards, and expect more of the people in our lives. If we do that, we will feel beautiful. We don’t have to flaunt every part of our bodies to show the world that we are confident and beautiful. True confidence and security is as apparent to the world as any Victoria’s Secret product. And the best part? We can be confident and beautiful young women – with our clothes on. As women in modern America, we have incredible opportunities to accomplish our dreams and grow up to be the women we have the potential of being. It’s high time we started to dress the part.

P.S. Please share this post with the young girls in your life and let them know they are beautiful!