I’m probably being a prude but…

[Username73638]

…what is the deal with teenage girls running around basically naked these days?

Last week, I was driving down the road near a secondary school at letting out time and I must have seen about 5 girls’ actual bum cheeks as they were leaving school. Like, we all rolled our skirts up fairly short at school, but this was actually full knickers and bums on display… one girl was wearing a thong so it was just her whole bum on show.

Then, I was on the beach today (we live near the sea) with my two primary school aged sons and there were a group of maybe 13-14 year old girls, they were very young, more than half of whom were in thong bikinis. They spent most of the time on the beach doing a photoshoot, predominantly photos of them from behind looking out to sea, presumably for social media?!

I know teenagers have always been teenagers, but I’m pretty sure underage girls weren’t wearing thong bikinis on the beach when I was that age 😳

I could see other families on the beach felt uncomfortable with it too.

Do their parents know? Is this just how teenagers dress these days?

What?
Please read that again.
Yes, some men are pedophiles. I do not intend to stop my children getting dressed however they like.
Pedophiles will lust over fully clothed girls.

If sexual assults were related to thongs as female fashion swimmware, there would be none before 1975 and no woman would ever get raped in muslim countries.

Well there seem to be plenty of women on here who have been looking.

Are we all supposed to pretend this is all fine and perfectly normal?

Apparently so. I work in a secondary school, and have done for about 30 years. I have never seen the like of what we see these days. Of course, girls have always rolled their skirts, but never this short, so you can see actual bum cheeks. The girls also used to wear tights and/or shorts under their skirts. Now it’s knee socks and tiny knickers for the world to see. It’s like being in a nature documentary where animals show their bottoms to each other to attract a mate. I spend lots of my time trying to get students to dress themselves within the normal bounds of human decency, and don’t have much patience with the ‘let them wear what they want’ brigade. It’s totally inappropriate, both for their age group and for the school environment.

Edited for typo

Yes, I think you are correct re. football shorts, some of the 70s ones look almost revealing by today's baggy standards, plus 1960s men's swimming trunks which rose miles above their hips covering half their abdomen 😂

Less sure about 'topless' men today, though. I think the youngsters are a bit more aware than we were about UV rays, and I do think social media is making the boys/men think differently or more conscious of their bodies.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if the bigger building companies etc. now have anti-sunburn policies as part of health and safety, so perhaps less male body exposure on building sites etc. I don't know though.

Yes they do.

If we adopt the “why teach girls” mentality to every day life though I wouldn’t have taught my kids road safety, because kids get knocked down anyway. Or internet safety because kids get groomed any way. Or food safety because kids choke and get food poisoning anyway.

I’m can’t influence what boys/men my daughter might come into contact with have or haven’t been taught. I can influence her ability to move through the world as safely as possible.

It doesn’t matter how your daughter dresses, if she’s a child, pedophiles will still be attracted to her.

No one has said there is a correlation between being a victim of rape and a woman or child's choice of clothing. This thread is not about rape. It's about children unwittingly and blamelessly becoming victims of society's sexualisation of them.
Children are not waking up one morning and thinking I'd be a lot more comfortable walking to school showing my arse, are they? They are doing it because they have fallen victim to a culture that encourages and celebrates female people exposing their bodies in sexual ways.
The people who can see through this manipulation to the sinister side of 'her body her choice' when the 'choice' is one they've been guided towards by those with an interest in viewing children's bodies, those people are not the ones sexualising children. We are the ones calling it out.

Maaaaybe we need to work harder to explain to girls that "being a woman" doesn't mean walking around with your arse out. Boys seem to manage to grasp it.

Having recently visited the UK I was also surprised by this. Not seen it like this before. Did see one young woman who could not bend down to pick her friend's phone off the floor as she'd have shown everything to the world. Also saw a young woman's underwear as we were going up a slope and she was coming down it. Saw plenty of bum cheeks. Also not a prude, also defend the right to wear what you want. But, also do not want to see bum cheeks of anyone while eating my lunch and do not want to see the gusset of anyone while just out for a stroll.

As said above, someone has orchestrated this fashion trend, for whatever reason, and someone is enjoying it.

Funny how so many parents insist on their girls wearing shorts under dresses “because paedophiles” but they hit puberty and it’s “your body, your choice” and paedophiles don’t matter anyway.

I’m not so naive as to think I can stop all and every harm my child might come to - that ship sailed a long time ago, but giving her life skills to navigate a world that can be hostile, helping her understand the unintended consequences of choices she might make, protecting her from some of the more overt harms presented by some men is no bad thing. She has many, many years as an adult to wear whatever she likes, she doesn’t need to start that at 14 in a thong bikini.

I didn't read this post when I saw it this morning, but then I popped in to Primark during my lunch break and ended up standing behind a girl going up the lift who had on a pair of shorts that were so far up her arse crack she could have used them as a tooth pick. The amount of bum cheek flabbing around in my face was stupid. And she must have been around 16.

It's tacky as fuck to be honest.

You have no understanding because you weren't there, so you have no idea what I was wearing!

It seems to me like some people are absolutely fine with sexualising children and think there's nothing wrong with an 8 year old wearing a thong. I strongly disagree.

....have we all forgotten hotpants?

Personally, it's just skin, literally the same skin as is on their legs, it's just the top of their legs. I don't get the issue with bum cheeks, or boobs. So long as you can't see your actual genitals or anus I really don't care. Don't care about nipples either.

People liking their body and thinking they look good is a good thing imo.

You’re criticising your own point here. Like I said pedophiles don’t care how a child dresses and neither do rapists.

That's true. But for example a pedophile might take an upskirting photo of a young girl as she's walking up the stairs. It's 100 % his fault, but the girl is the one who has to live with her photo being shared amongst other pedophiles as food for their fantasies.

I don't think it's radical to suggest we should protect our children from the possibility of creeps taking photos of their naked bums with just a thong on. Then when our children are adults they can make up their own minds.

Exactly this. All about male attitudes to women in general. Nothing to do with what we wear.

So so sad about the poor dear little orang utan. I haven’t googled her yet. I don’t know if I will.

It’ll upset me for the rest of my life as I won’t be able to stop thinking about her. I’m imagining allsorts anyway and she’s probably not the only one in such circumstances 😡

Are men so desperate?

Who said anything about a 8 year old. The op said the girls looked 13-14 years old. So you’re being hyperbolic. At 12 years I was wearing thong underwear, most my friends were. It wasn’t anything to do with being sexualised, I just hated wearing big knickers.

You seem to be saying we can’t stop men preying on children, so why have any safeguards.

I think there’s a big difference in a child of 8 years old wearing a thong compared to a teenager wearing one. Both wrong to take pictures but I don’t think many girls are wearing thongs who are aged 8.

Can you explain the 'big difference' between a child of 8 wearing a thong and a child of 13?

Yes they are desperate. It’s bad enough girls and women aren’t safe but even animals are in danger. I wouldn’t look it up then but the animal did get rescued and was living a lovely life afterwards. There was another case that only came out in the press this year involving calves. It was from the UK as well.

Well if it's OK at 13, why not at 8?

What about all the teenage boys and men who are not paedophiles and racists?

Obviously they understand that women and girls can wear whatever they like and it's up to them to avert their eyes if they find they are following a woman up stairs on the bus or at school or the shops, and her full backside and thong is visible, but is that how it should be?

Humans are often sexually aroused when presented with the naked human body.

You were wearing thong underwear at 12?! Wow. I'd be talking to your parents about that, did they buy it for you? Realistically how large could your underwear be that it was an issue. A thong is for VPL not comfort. This is sad and disturbing to read!