Standing up to the ‘Girls Gone Wild’ culture
The National Debate links to my Clare Booth Luce Institute speech, which aired on C-SPAN2 yeserday. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
I’m appending the full speech below.
Standing up to the “Girls Gone Wild” culture
Speech for the Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute’s Conservative Leadership Seminar
July 26, 2004
Much of my reporting and writing is focused on national security and immigration enforcement. But I also write about cultural issues and this afternoon, I want to address the need for a different kind of “homeland defense.” As the mother of a 4 year old girl and an 8 month old boy, I am increasingly dismayed by the liberal assault on decency, the normalization of promiscuity, and the mainstream media’s role as shameless collaborators.
First, let me tell you about my new hero. Her name is Ella Gunderson and she’s a student at Holy Family Parish School in Kirkland, Washington. As reported in the Seattle Times a few months ago, Ella recently wrote a remarkable letter to the Nordstrom’s department store chain.
“Dear Nordstrom,” she began. “I’m an 11-year-old girl who has tried shopping at your store for clothes, in particular jeans, but all of them ride way under my hips, and the next size up is too big and falls down. They’re also way too tight, and as I get older, show everything every time I move. I see all of these girls who walk around with pants that show their belly button and underwear. Even at my age I know that that is not modest�With a pair of clothes from your store, I’d walk around showing half of my body and not fully dressed…Your clerk suggested there is only one look. If that is true, then girls are supposed to walk around half naked. I think maybe you should change that.”
All it took was one little girl to speak her mind about the excesses of our “Girls Gone Wild” culture. And guess what? The market, in a small way, responded. Nordstrom executives wrote back and pledged to young Ella Gunderson that they would try to broaden the clothes choices for girls. “Your letter really got my attention,” wrote Kris Allan, manager of the local Nordstrom’s where Ella shopped. “I think you are absolutely right. This look is not particularly a modest one and there should be choices for everyone.”
Do you remember Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s famous phrase “Defining deviancy down?” This ultra-low-rider trend has given that phrase a whole new meaning. Even pregnant women can’t escape it! When I was in my second trimester with my son last year, I wrote about a trip to my neighborhood mall’s maternity store. The only jeans in my size were ridiculous low-risers with flared bottoms that needed hiking every time I exhaled. Trust me. I speak from personal experience: Plumber’s crack looks as awful on pregnant mommies as it does on plumbers.
Back to little Ella Gunderson’s story. Here’s the best part. She and her friends didn’t wait around for Nordstrom’s to change its inventory. With help from her mom and 37 of her classmates, Ella organized a fashion show to model decent clothes for girls aged 10 to 16. The sold-out show, called “Pure Fashion,” drew a crowd of 250; two other clothing stores donated modest clothes; the girls got a standing ovation; and the event raised money for the Catholic Challenge Club network, which encourages young girls to stand up for their faith and their values in an increasingly secular and hostile world.
Nordstrom’s deserves some credit here, too, for its modest display of corporate responsibility. Compare them to Abercrombie and Fitch, which refused to pull a line of thongs for young girls after receiving pressure from thousands of parents across the country. These kiddie thongs, which had the words “eye candy” and “wink wink” printed on the front, were marketed to children as young as seven. “It’s cute and fun and sweet,” said Hampton Carney, a spokesman for Abercrombie and Fitch.
This is the dictionary definition of what Hoover Institution scholar Mary Eberstadt dubbed “pedophilia chic:” A grown man getting paid to say that he thinks dressing pre-teens in rearless underwear is “cute and fun and sweet.”
Cute and fun and sweet. That’s probably the same thing a Florida Hooter’s restaurant manager thought, too, when he attempted to hold a “Little Miss Hooters” contest for girls 5 years old and under. According to Stacy Tabb, who called up the restaurant after spotting a billboard advertising the contest, the toddlers would be required to dress in little orange spandex shorts and tiny Hooters t-shirts tied-up like the waitresses wear them. Sick. Tabb used her popular weblog, titled Sekimori, to publicize this atrocious event and shame Hooter’s management into doing something about it.
“The cretin who thought up this little sideshow should be hung by his/her heels from the nearest tree, beaten with sawgrass whips, then covered with sugar water and fire ants,” Tabb wrote. “My displeasure has been expressed to the local news outlets and will shortly be expressed directly to whatever corporate suits I can get my hands on.” Thanks to Tabb’s scathing online campaign, the corporate suits cancelled “Little Miss Hooters.”
Internet Web logs can be an incredible force for good. With help from the talented Ms. Tabb, I’ve recently started my own blog at www.michellemalkin.com, and I can’t tell you how many incredibly smart, dogged, and invaluable bloggers I’ve “met” online. They provide some of the most trenchant analysis on the War on Terror, domestic politics, and everyday life.
But blogs can also serve as exhibitionist outlets that highlight the worst of America’s tell-all and show-all tendencies. Which brings me to Jessica Cutler, the former Capitol Hill staffer who was fired earlier this spring for using Senate computers to post to an explicit blog that chronicled her casually deviant trysts with six different men in Washington. The Washington Post ran with the story after an online Washington blogger originally “broke” the story. So what was this blogger’s ground-breaking investigative technique? She drank and danced the night away with Jessica Cutler and they posed for soft porn pictures together at a club.
Both women ended up all over TV and the newspapers. Jessica has a $300,000 book deal, an upcoming Playboy photo shoot, and a Washington Post magazine front cover article coming soon. Wonkette, Ana Marie Cox, nabbed appearances on CNN and FOX, and signed on to an MTV reporting gig during which she’ll cover the Democratic National Convention this week. I guess the lesson is that if you are a young professional woman in Washington, the key to success lies with Lesbian Chic.
I’m sick of the skankettes and their pimps in my business and I’m not alone. Let me read one of hundreds of positive mails I received:
“Michelle, when I found out about the slutty (I don’t use the word flippantly) actions of one of my former “colleagues,” I was disgusted and shocked. I just wanted to make sure that people didn’t paint all bottom-of-the-barrel staffers on the Hill with the same brush as used for Ms. Cutler. I gave up a $60k job to intern without pay for 6 months. Then I accepted a job as a staff assistant that has a salary that does not cover my living expenses and school loan payments. To make up for it, I work part-time as a barrista at a local coffee shop on the Hill. This isn’t to pat myself on the back, but to give people the assurance that there are individuals with morals and class that are trying hard to make a positive impact on politics in this town.
Sure there are shallow people on the Hill that are only interested in power and influence (for power and influence’s sake), but you will find people like that in many fields. But here on the Hill, there is a significant population of staffers that are committed to ideals that we hope will make America a better place… and we promote those ideals with our morals in tow.”
As I look around this room, I am confident that each and every one of you shares this letter-writer’s commitment to defending American ideals and morals. But from the way the mainstream media covers your generation and mine, you would think this room was empty.
From the way the mainstream media covers your generation and mine, you would think that we are the freaks and misfits.
From the way the mainstream media covers your generation and mine, you would think that it’s normal to dress up in Hooters outfits at 5 years old, to wear sex bracelets and discuss oral sex at 10, to flash your breasts for the cameras at 15, to get paid for anal sex at 20, to keep Excel spreadsheets of sexual conquests, and to use abortion as birth control until menopause.
When conservative women say “Have some self-respect,” liberals in the media call us self-righteous.
When conservative women say promiscuity is degrading and self-destructive, liberals in the media call us prudes.
When liberals won’t shut up about their sordid sex lives and we object, they call us rude.
When liberal women raise their voices, they are praised as “passionate.” When conservative women raise their voices, we are condemned as “shrill.”
Liberals and libertines who can’t complete a sentence without using gutter profanity have turned modesty, monogamy, faith, and self-restraint into dirty words. Well, if teaching young girls to act like ladies instead of animals is now considered offensive, I support obscenity 100 percent.
How do we stand up to the Girls Gone Wild culture? Ella Gunderson, the girl who asked Nordstrom’s to sell decent clothing has shown us how. Stacy Tabb, the outspoken blogger who killed the “Little Miss Hooters” contest, has shown us how. The Capitol Hill letter-writer who stood up and rejected the idea that getting ahead requires shedding your morals and your clothes has shown us how. Go ahead and be “self-righteous.”
Be “prudes.” Be “rude.” Be “shrill.” And never, ever feel ashamed for asking out loud: Have you no shame?
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Trackbacks
- Blog Jones
- The Belfry Blogger
- Conservative Dialysis
- American Digest
- News from the Great Beyond
- Brain Fertilizer
- procheinamy.blog-city.com
- Blind Mind's Eye
- The Waterglass
- The Waterglass
- Captain's Quarters
- Myopic Zeal
- Standing Up for Nothing
- Standing Up for Nothing
- Bill Polhemus Weblog
- Les Enfants Terrible
- diet
- binoculars 6078
- Blog lorazepam 1163762476
- credit counseling
- find unclaimed money
- horse betting travel
- blog directory
- online basketball betting
- pressure washing bis
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Categories: Girls Gone Wild
Pundit & Pundette
» Westboro haters have enough to go around for everyone
Pundit & Pundette
» Guess what? Hasan frequented strip clubLegal Insurrection
» Pelosi's Abortion Land Mine ExplodesRiehl World View
» Holder Cares About CAIRStop The ACLU
» Hasan Tried To Contact al Qaeda. Sounds Like A Jihadi To MeNewsBusters.org
» Matthews on Ft. Hood Suspect Warning Signal: 'That's Not a Crime to Call al Qaeda, Is It?'Ed Driscoll
» Go Flag Yourself, Mr. President!
Thank you for that, Michelle. As the mother of a fourteen year old daughter, these are issues that I take to heart. Raising a daughter today means fighting an uphill battle against today’s social norms.
Good for you and good for us. I also am concerned for America as it continues its moral decay and the armchair/deskchair observer fascination so many have for such bad behavior.
I feared our culture would slouch to this degree back in the 80’s as I saw the deadly mixture of my peers’ indoctrination in public school in place of an education and their parents’ dismissiveness of their children’s lives that went well beyond apathy. Now we have an entire generation of detatched, relativistic, un-nurturing adults- Just what the NEA wanted so they could leverage the masses for the golden Donkey. And that is criminally sad.
Michelle,
Maybe you should call your new movement, “Girls Gone Mild.”, and get those t-shirts and caps made right away to help you pay your blog bandwidth.
It will be a hit, just like the “Security Moms” campaign!
Hey Surge, Girls gone Mild sounds like it would be a hit. I think a lot of guys would be interested in girls who are ‘mild’.
As for the Skanky outfits. I dont see the attraction myself. My wife doesn’t understand it and wonders ‘Why do they do that’?
I think a lot of this is intentional on part of the diet / fashion industry in order to sell more and more slutty clothes — and create a market of young women who view themselves poorly [because they are viewed as they are dressed -- loose and very available] and, thus, have a dependance on slutty clothes / makeup / diet craze in order to ‘feel good about themselves’.
When I look at guys in their low-rider pants I think they look like clowns.
Hear hear, Michelle. Ours is a culture which has been coarsening for far too long, and is sorely in need of some refinement. Thank you for reminding us that the state of the culture is the responsibility of all of us, and for issuing us conservatives a challenge for the coming decades.
Thank you for a wonderful speech and for caring. Are there any voices at all on the left standing up for decency? No, the left “enables” immorality — just as one example, encouraging condom use instead of teaching abstinence.
michelle, you rock
I applaud the speech you gave, and am happy to know that you heard of Ella Gunderson.
I have a feeling, though, that her letter and follow up fashion show were coordinated by adults – she is a member of a youth group associated with Regnum Christi, a Catholic lay organization. This is just the sort of cultural activism they promote (good for them).
The group is called Challenge, though local branches sometimes have their own names. Ella’s fashion show involved 37 other Challenge girls. In May, the Omaha chapter had their own “Modesty Fashion Show.” Independent idea? Maybe they took Gunderson’s as a model? Or perhaps it is part of a larger Challenge program (good for them).
It would be worth looking into this to innoculate against the liberal media uncovering it later to spoil the story. I’d be pleased as punch to learn definitively that it was all her idea, though.
Thank you, Michelle! One person can make a difference.
While you’re at it, consider the toys provided by fast food chains like McDonald’s with their kid’s meals. The boxes for little girls (meaning my own 4-year old) invariably contain dolls dressed like sluts and hookers. It is absolutely shocking.
I cannot comprehend the marketing which drives these campaigns and, as a parent of young children, I deeply resent it. Thank you, thank you Michelle for standing up for common decency.
I am curious is Ana Marie Cox related to Robert Cox of the National Debate?
If I may be so brash, Wildman, I think the marketing strategy is clear, as propagated by the pedophiles in the boardrooms, which may or may not be worse than say 20 years before. But the main difference between now and 20 years ago is that 20 years ago parents and citizens would have been literally up in arms about this. More so 30 or 40 years ago. Today, na. We let Jerry Springer come on our TV’s right after school, we wink at the wardrobe “malfunction” and we hardly notice when movies come out depicting minors–MINORS in a sexual manner that 40 years ago would in point of fact had us up in arms had they been ADULTS. So there you have it. It’s not the alcoholic, it’s the enabler.
We are often told that we need to “understand” why our Islamic enemies hate us. One reason they hate us, rarely mentioned by the major media, is that we raise our daughters to look and act like streetwalkers, and broadcast our degeneracy to the world. Islamic culture is excessive in the opposite direction, but why be surprised if many Muslims are less than enthusiastic about being liberated by the armies of Sodom?
I have been reading the Kass-edited book on courtship and relationships, and have, more than ever, become convinced that our culture is currently designed to end marriage and family as we know it. Not just because of same-sex marriage, but because we as parents and as a society are abrogating our responsibility to raise gentlemen and ladies. These, rather than thugs and skanks, are what make a civilization.
A great piece from the Sunday Washington Times along the same theme…
http://www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20040724-105246-5663r.htm
Amen, Michelle! Very well said, as usual. As a 42yo mother of not-quite 10 and 8 year old girls, I’m dreading the day that I have to actually explain what “oral sex” is. Frankly, I didn’t know ’til I was beyond my late teens! At the moment, since we homeschool, my girls are still enjoying classic kiddie cartoons and while some of their non-homeschooled friends are a bit more jaded, they haven’t yet let it affect them. It’s so nice for them to be able to be CHILDREN a bit longer – at their age, they needn’t be burdened with adult knowledge. I’m truly sorry for those who aren’t allowed to be children at least into their early teens.
If you thought “Girls Gone Wild” was wild before, just wait til you see what happens when Snoop Dogg gets behind the camera!
It’s “Girls Gone Wild – Doggy Style”
Hosted by Snoop Dogg himself!* Right Now, Only $19.95. It’s tha shizzle fo-nizzle!
You had me pretty much until you trotted out your whack-job anti “liberal” rant. I just happen to be one of those dreaded liberals that thinks that a little self-respect, restraint and decency is sorely needed in our culture. Its difficult to respect others — a tenant of liberalism — if you’re constantly degrading yourself.
I agree that the sexualization of children has been going on way too long. We are all appalled when a child gets molested but fail to see that by letting children dress and act like miniture adults we are promoting this and other types of at risk behavior. One only needs to look at the number of unwed teen mothers to see where we are headed. The two major causes are the media (after all sex sells you know) and parents more concerned with being friends with their children rather than being parents to their children.
Thanks again, Michelle. As another Gen X’er who has watched morals degrade – nay, disappear! – all around her. I can say you are 100% spot-on!
One reader’s comment about this being a sort of conspiracy to sell clothing and diet stuff, as wel as leaving young women distressed about their appearance…interesting. I don’t think that’s the ultimate motive, but as a former anorexic, I can tell you this: *it works.*
Keep up the good work, Michelle. You do rock!
;D
Excuse me, but don’t market forces and not some shadowy “elitist conspiracy” drive fashion and entertainment trends? It just seems to me that if the Commie Liberals were behind all of this, they’d be encouraging our virtuous young people to wear loose-fitting coveralls and hang out at the library (where they would be susceptible to all sorts of un-Christian ideas – like the earth revolving around the sun).
We Republicans (the best party ever!) must be careful not to misinterpret the ideas of fellow conservatives like Michelle. I’m sure that what she’s really saying is that since the sales of skimpy clothes are driven by demand and since God created capitalism, then to attack skimpy clothes is to attack God (the best God ever!).
Truly, this must be part of God’s plan. Perhaps he’s teaching girls that there are more important things in life than filling your head with a lot of “ideas”. Being a wife and mother is the best job ever! The sooner these girls learn to catch a man’s attention, the sooner they can start down the career path the Bible (the best book ever!) intended for them. And Jesus help any Commie Pinko who argues with that.
By the way, Michelle… I LOVE how you are promoting those skin tight, baby-t “Security Mom” t-shirts here on this site.
They are very appropriate for “decent” ladies!
“Excuse me, but don’t market forces and not some shadowy “elitist conspiracy” drive fashion and entertainment trends?” Rodney Anonymous
Bingo. It is a symptom and result of the unchecked and unbridled “invisible fondling hand” of capitalist economy.
Now watch them jump on me and start calling me a pinko commie, telling me to go back to Russia, or resort to any other tired and predictable conservative attack on me.
Conservatives the one’s who want MORE government involvement (FCC) on this issue, not me. Call me a “Libertarian” on this one.
Michelle – very well said.
Never siad it was a conspiracy. But I do think that it is taken into consideration when new fashions are designed. Designers and clothing manufacturers *want* girls and women to feel that they *must* have the latest name-brand clothing and accessories in order to be ‘liked’. The pants/skirt just *has* to be worn lower and lower to show more and more skin below the belly button — otherwise they will be shown up by another girl ready to ‘put out’ more.
Encouraging people to use ‘Girls gone tame’ clothing would more emphisize the person herself (after all not much of the body is shown).
Or maybe I just need to exchange my tin hat…..
Michelle, et al, You might enjoy the T-shirts being worn by my sons and their friends. The front reads in large flaming print “Modest is Hottest”. Many of our young men are equally offended by the current state of affairs, and some are brave enough to say so.
Enjoyed watching your speech yesterday! Thanks for sharing it again here. I’m sure you know that it’s incredibly relevant on college campuses – thinking of my own, and the battle my organization is fighting against the liberal establishment, when we start fighting the anything-goes crowd, the battle will explode. It’s a tough fight and your advice goes a long way. Thanks again!
Quote:
But the main difference between now and 20 years ago is that 20 years ago parents and citizens would have been literally up in arms about this. More so 30 or 40 years ago. Today, na. We let Jerry Springer come on our TV’s right after school, we wink at the wardrobe “malfunction” and we hardly notice when movies come out depicting minors–MINORS in a sexual manner that 40 years ago would in point of fact had us up in arms had they been ADULTS.
I put the blame on Jack Valenti and the decision in 1966 to abolish the Motion Picture Production Code (i.e. the “Hays Code”). Now that he’s retiring from the MPAA, is there any way we can get Michael Medved (or better yet, Mel Gibson) to take his place and hopefully reverse the cultural sewage of the past 38 years?
Dear Michelle,
I am begging, BEGGING you to expand this
devastatingly important message into a
full book that should be required read-
ing for every parent, teenaged girl,
and young woman. And frankly, young
males feel enormous pressure too – for
example, my cousin is a nurse helping to
run the STD unit of a large Boston medical clinic, and when she constantly has to break the news to students that they have contracted one or more of these hideous diseases, the guys will routinely admit that the fear of having
“low numbers in scoring” took priority
over any thought of harm.
My cousin fiercely believes there is a
conspiracy of silence on just how ram-
pant and damaging these conditions can
be, and blasts the notion that condoms protect against all threats.
Your book could examine all aspects of promiscuity’s glorification, and their vastly underreported consequences.
Connect the dots! Massive divorce rates, fatherless kids, violent boys
and neighborhoods, poverty, STD,s etc. The list is obscenely long, but rarely does anyone pinpoint the underlying cause of this colossal misery.
You have the passion, talent and courage
to produce an extraordinary book that
could actually make a profound difference in this very depressing world.
Michelle, You are my heroine. It seems that little girls are to become sex objects before they leave toddlerhood.
So many of the women who sought to be liberated now seem to want to debase themselves by dressing and acting like sluts. Keep up the good fight. You have a lot of important issues to cover and you do it so well.
I admire the message. It certainly puts folks like the Instapundit in a poor light when he tries to characterise this as a “catfight.” My opinion of him dropped a few leagues with that comment.
“One only needs to look at the number of unwed teen mothers to see where we are headed.” Where we are headed? I think we have ARRIVED and the Girls Gone Wild are getting off the train!
It isn’t just now, it has been happening for decades. Who doesn’t know a family member, or a friend’s daughter, who has “gotten into trouble”? It’s peer presure as much as anything else for teens.
In the ’80s, I recall seeing a pretty, blonde teen riding atop an open convertable, like a Hollywood star in a parade, through a McDonald’s parking lot. She was shouting, “I’ve got what it takes!” At the time, I thought, ‘Yes, and it won’t be long before one of the boys in that car takes it.’ Five months later I saw her again — pregnant, and wondered what her parents were going through.
When I was in high school a girl got pregnant and it was disgraceful. Her parents were so ashamed they moved to another city and never returned to the city they had called home for 20 years.
Reading all these blogs and the media, I have become confused by the lables: Liberal, Far Right, Neo-Cons, Ultra-conservatives, to name a few. I don’t think it is political, it is immorality gone wild. Adults are just as at fault as teen peers. Britney Speers is a terrible example for young people, but look at the adult males who ooh and ahh when they see her on TV.
I don’t agree with many of your views, but I agree with this one – until you make it sound as if only liberals condone the idea of young girls dressing sexy. As fellow poster Jim Martin said, “I don’t think it is political, it is immorality gone wild.” People of many faiths don’t mind girls wearing thongs, promote child pornography, and patronize Hooters.
What we need is a good example like Lt. Tasha Yar of the NCC 1701-D, who wore a modest yellow and black jumpsuit most of the time, instead of a skin-baring dress like Conselor Troi (Rowr!) wore.
Most excellent, Michelle, thank you. My thoughts exactly.
Michele,
I moved my 15 year old daughter to a private Christian school the first month of the 2003 school year because she was eating lunch alone in the bandroom rather than listen to the conversations in the cafeteria. She was extremely distraught at first. Now, she wouldn’t go back for anything and claims she’ll send her own children to private schools. The class is smaller and more intimate and she doesn’t have to be phoney to get the boys’ attention (this is reality afterall). The point is, a uniform dress code, speech code, and religious instruction set a moral tone. No, such schools cannot manufacture _good_ citizens–that’s the parents’ job. But, yes, they can avoid manufacturing _bad_ citizens, which is what too many public schools do.
Thank you for your presence on the web and you ministry. Never underestimate the importance of what you and others like you do. Positive role models are extremely important to people on the front lines raising children.
Best wishes.
Michelle,
Thank you for one of the most focused and passionate presentations I’ve read on this subject. You are the type of leader and role model the young (and older!) women of this country need today. You have my utmost respect.
Mike
Kay,
Teens are not children. I have never heard of a civilization other than modern America that regarded them as such. Our own ancestors married off their daughters at ages as young as 12 years old, and because of the lack of good nutrition common then, they weren’t even as physically developed as they are today!
Teens may not be adults, but they are certainly not children. There is also no biological basis to treat them as such, considering that most psychological studies have shown that a teenage brain is sufficiently mature enough to understand adult-level ramifications for actions.
The question we have to ask ourselves is, WHY ARE we letting teens be like children? In the renaissance period of European history, they were already heavily involved in learning a trade and fast becoming adults by 13 and 14. The Jewish coming of age ceremonies, as I recall, all come at 13 years of age.
You don’t do your kids a service by letting them stay immature longer. You do them a service by making them prepared for the world, and a prolonged childhood doesn’t do that. It’s because the baby boomers were allowed to do that that so many of them in their late fifties act less like an adult than I do at 21 years of age.
My name is Robert Cox. I am the Editor of The National Debate and I am the person who wrote the post that drove a great deal of traffic over to Michelle’s web site.
To answer my old buddy Bill’s question above, I am not related to Ana Marie Cox but I have met her and I chat with her regularly. She read my post. Not sure if she watched Michelle’s speech on C-SPAN but I know she was not to happy to hear about it. She is up in Boston covering the DNC for MTV this week but I expect I may see her at an industry function in DC next month.
If you have any other questions just let me know.