DD, just 6, comes home from first day in Y1 with lovely colouring-in of..

[LindsayWagner]

.. two photcopied Bratz dolls illustrations. She has labouriously felt-tipped their trout pouts, stripper heels, crop tops and fishnets. Oh, and the crucifix that one has draped around her cheekily out-thrust hips.

I think terms like 'stripper heels' and the suggestion that revealing clothing equals slut need challenging. These are the arguments that some men use as a defence for raping women ffs. It is sad to see women perpetuating these ideas themselves (and passing it on to their kids).

ThePerfectShitStorm - I just love your suggestion that Lindsay dresses up as a Bratz doll for the school run. Brilliant!

I assume the feet are removable because sometimes the Bratz dolls wear trainers, and a trainer and a heel will not fit on the same doll foot shape, so it is easier for a small child to change the whole foot rather than the shoe.

while i can't disagree, Sexual, why do women wear revealing clothes and stripper heels?

I think it is acceptable for mermaids to wear only 2 small shells because it would be impractical to swim in a large cardigan and cord trousers.

Belleend - when my ds was around 5 or 6 he went off for a little walk in the square where we were sitting (in furrin parts) and came back to ask me why all the magazines in the shop had naked ladies with blonde hair on them. It was the blonde bit that fascinated him, why were they all the same? I don't know if he noticed the breasts.

I don't care what women wear. At all. Would defend to death etceteraaah.
Howevs, '6'.

I think you are over thinking it OP. Come the first dressing up day they will all stream in as witches, pirates, SnowWhite (dd is living with 7 short men and doing all the housework), Blokes with weapons, Blokes with weapons confiscated at the door... Hardly any of them suitable role models.

Then in twelve years time they will all be off to uni to study psychology and economics.

Have never heard that prostitution as a career is any way related to inappropriate colouring-in.

Also - undermines parental choice. I choose not to buy Bratz for all the reasons delineated above, choose to do healthy food etc. I don't expect school dinners sponsored by TuckyFried or colouring sponsored by Bratz.

The school should not be encouraging this sort of shit, commmercial, sexualised tat.

Send your DD into school looking like a Bratz doll............just to make a point!!

(AHA....I see my idea was no so original, as you were)

But they aren't sponsored by them. If the school were receiving remuneration for product placement I'd be concerned, or if commercial brands pictures were ALL that was available to colour in, but it doesn't sound like either is the case.

*Hully I do agree that's a good way to play it but it's not more effective. More effective would be for schools to ban this tripe.

mumbling, both are necessary, because they'll still come across tons of it outside school. I mean more whenever it turns up it should be mocked

I don't think it is really equivalent because adults do not walk around dressed as witches or pirates, and wanting to keep house for seven dwarves is an implausible career option.

Bratz style clothing is something that is aggressively marketed to young women, so it is within the realm of possible outcomes for a child. Whatever people's opinions on the merits (or lack of them) of sexualised clothing, it is not within the remit of schools to use such imagery.

If they gave boys the equivalent pictures to colour in, which I suppose would be a group of manga boys in tight trousers and midriff exposing crop tops, people would think the teacher was very odd indeed.

That said, I'm not sure I could be bothered to go into school and complain; it is too much hassle unless it becomes a more constant issue in the class.

I still want to know why women wear revealing clothes and stripper heels.

it shoud always be mocked yes....but school should be a safe haven from this crap.

I wouldn't go in to complan but I would certianly write a note and expect a reply.

Women wear revealing clothes for one of the following reasons (or a combination of them):

1. They live somewhere hot.
2. The sexualisation of women has been aggressively marketed at them.
3. It is a traditional from of camp for women in the UK.

form, not 'from'

I suspect it was a wet play activity, as others have said, and very likely a well meaning person has brought in a load of old colouring books that the supervisors have gladly used without looking at! I would gently point it out, to the head if she is around, in a friendly way.

A form of camp? Are women camp? I would only describe men deliberately playing as effeminate as camp?

Sorr, too many question marks. Was trying not to sound critical.

A lot of camp stereotypes are women - Bet Lynch being a well known example.

My cousin's wife is camp- she has big hair, lots of makeup, glamorous outfits, and will make lots of jokes about trowelling on make up, taking off a peg leg, glass eye etc. None of it is meant to be sexual.

In fact she is much more likely to socialise in all female groups. When my mum has a party, dressed up women take over the house to drink cocktails and sing karaoke. The men all sit in the conservatory.

I wish people would stop excusing it as being "a wet play activity" does responsibility stop when it rains or something??
Wet or not it's not ok.

I like your reasons, Milly.

I also love wet play as an excuse for titty colouring.