To hate the vacuousness of some young girls nowadays?

[CarryOnCharon]

I find it so sad. 12 year olds obsessed by beauty brands, TikTok, doing their hair for school, fake tan, ridiculously short school skirts, it all seems so sad. And they are clones. Room in their heads only for brands

i know this is not all of them.

20+ yrs ago I used to wear hot pants with the waistband cut off to be as low as possible, a bandana tied around me as a top, all with my dangly belly ring on show.

Let it go OP, young teens have always been like this 😁

Goodness, where do you live!

So you know 'some' and have given one example. As a mum of a 13 year old I'm going to bet I know a load more than you. You're talking utter sexist drivel.

What is it with all the sexist bollocks on here at the moment? And directed towards young girls from older women?

You should be ashamed of yourself actually op. I bet some of these young girls in short skirts are far more able to grapple with important topics like feminism than you are.

Gross thread.

Surely your 12 y/o shouldn't even be on Tik Tok?

I'm not sure it's a new thing. They're reaching puberty, all those hormones racing and they want to look attractive.

But maybe you are making assumptions based on your view of how they look and the conversations you hear - they are becoming rounded whole women and my youngest, while not the politics buff the older 2 are can still hold a discussion and talk about things other than brands and clothes, I am sure, at school, at lunch time, she isn't discussing Rwanda with her mates but she will with her old mum!

My point is precisely the opposite.

its that this is all they think about

I love the bit in the Little House books where Laura gets really annoyed with her skirt hoops getting messed around by the wind. Her sister says 'I'm glad i don't have to wear hoops.' 'Well, they are annoying but they're stylish and when you're my age you'll want to be in style!'

You are expecting children (because teenagers are children) to rail against the impact of rampant free market capitalism which is rooted in misogyny. Okay, yep, totally reasonable expectations 🙄

OK, maybe you weren't as vacuous as me in your youth. The adult you would most definitely have labelled me and my friends as mindless consumers of any passing trend - fashion victims - my Dad certainly did! We were all at a selective grammar, by the way, so were highly intelligent and getting a rigorous education in between shopping, skiving and discussing the best way to apply cheekbone shading.

I'm very much in agreement with PPs commenting that this is a sexist criticism. Teenagers of both sexes are exploring their "identity" and the brands marketing to them have exploited this since teenagers were invented circa 1950. Prior to that, they went from child to adult overnight ... and were duly assaulted by the brands marketing identities to young adults.

No. This is based on conversation. Even a country walk they’ve chosen to go on is just an opportunity to show products they want. Suggestions of cheaper, potentially better products, swept aside.

12 year olds

Glasgow

Unless you have developed some new technology whereby you can climb inside the minds of these girls, you really have no fucking idea what they are thinking.

its that this is all they think about but how do you KNOW that? from social media, observing them a few hours a day in school, overhearing conversations in Primark? Do you have teenage girls?

Mine talks about: Her boyfriend, her latest haul, holidays, her dads dog, our cats, Gazza, the next election, bubble tea, Vampire Diaries, her sisters, her mates and lots of other things - in fact she never stops - but it's not ALL brands and make up.

My post isn’t about intelligent grammar school girls chatting makeup in between the issues of the day and popping into boots

Its about the obsessional pursuit of a media driven ideal

Again: some girls

But again - how do you know? How do you know that this is ALL 'some girls' talk/care about?

But it doesn't make @AGirlWithAHandOnHerArm's daughter vacuous does it?

Whereas young boys are SUCH deep thinkers...

It’s probably poor girls who are mainly preyed on by this culture.

Because I have contact with them

It’s always girls that people call ‘vacuous’ for being into fashion and beauty, isn’t it? Funny how nobody talks about boys like that, when they are just as likely to be obsessed with brands and looking cool and spend just as much time glued to their phones.

By ‘funny’ I mean ‘really fucking misogynistic’ of course.

Anyway. People, both male and female, are allowed to enjoy frivolous trivial stuff. Just because someone loves trends and likes to have a certain image, that doesn’t mean they aren’t a decent human being and it doesn’t mean they don’t care about other things too. One of my adult nephews absolutely LOVES designer brands, flash bars and restaurants, partying in ridiculous clubs, expensive toiletries and all the rest. No idea where he gets this from as nobody else in the family is like that at all, but anyway - he is absolutely one of the kindest, most generous, most thoughtful and hard-working young men you could possibly wish to meet. He is one of the least judgmental and most open, friendly people I’ve ever met and he basically succeeds at everything he does because he’s clever, diligent and motivated. So maybe, if you judge kids on their love of trendy brands, it’s you who’s the shallow one here.

Wow this thread feels reall judgy imo. Nice to note it’s not grammar school girls OP- just us commoners who went to comprehensive then?
this was me in the late 80’s, early 90’s - tiny skirt, hot pants, brands…
I’m a trauma specialist psychotherapist now, but hey, hopefully still a bit vacuous

Thank fuck for intelligent grammar school girls as well as the non intelligent comprehensive school girls.

You’re a colossal snob.