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?

Surprised people are so shocked by this, this was the case when I was a teenager 20 years ago… I shudder how short my skirt used to be… I now have a very responsible job (and wear a longer skirt).

Describing 13 year old girls bodies in that way is extremely inappropriate. You probably think you're being really cool but you need to remember you're speaking about children. In no world is it OK to compare the asthetics of their bodies with those of adult women. Particularly when your argument is that they should be showing their bodies because 13/14 is when they're attractive.

God when else are you gonna be able to dress like that?
I look back at my teens years and wish I'd dressed more berserk to be honest. I wasted it feeling self conscious..
But even so I remember cutting my patterned tights to be thigh high stockings because I wanted to look like the spice Girls, and I was about 9 years old!! My parents didn't know because I took them off before I got home.
God bless them I say.
You've got to admire the body confidence.

And I say this as someone who was sexually assaulted at age 10 whilst wearing baggy jeans and one of my dads tshirts... what you wear has no bearing on predatory behaviour. Yes if you are wearing something revealing people might stare at you more.. but covering up does NOT protect any woman from anything.
So what's the bloody point? Especially in this weather..
Are any of those kids going to work? No. They are just hanging out having fun. Leave them alone to enjoy dressing ridiculously whilst they can.

I don't think it's empowering for thirteen year olds to be half naked on a beach. This is not body shaming. I can't help wondering why their parents are buying these outfits, let alone allowing them to post this stuff online.

I have to admit I haven't had that yet, though I'm not too cocky to think it would never happen with DD.

I'm body confident and want her to feel the same, but there are so many corrupting influences on young girls that it's hard to keep the healthy experimentation and lose the sexist shite attached to it.

Ok with adults but op is talking about children so it’s not the same , not ok!

Scrunch bum leggings. Just no. Especially cream or beige, from a distance, it looks like naked flesh.

Young girls these days certainly have a lot more confidence than we did back in our day. It was only slimmer girls who showed off their bodies in skimpy clothes, nowadays size doesn't seem to matter as much.

Literally everyone is half naked on the beach tho?
You do understand not long ago in the past people were saying that about normal bikinis.. then before that about fitted one pieces...

I just expect more of people tbh. Don't sexualise kids even if they are trying to look sexual. You can tell they are kids. Just leave them alone.
Young people have always pushed boundaries with their clothing.

I was no wall flower growing up by any means but still yes, I totally agree with you. I really don’t understand why they are walking around with literal arse cheeks hanging out! I have a daughter who is still young and I really hope the Nike pro shorts trend is dead and buried by the time she’s a teenager!!!!

@MidSumner are you confusing 13/14 year old children with 18/19 year old young adults?

If you think a 12 or 13 year old wearing a thong is ok, that's seriously disturbing. What do you think the purpose of wearing a thong is, because it's certainly not for swimming.

I also noticed this the other day when walking past the high school when girl around 15/16 walked in front of me, I actually thought to myself ‘wow that’s short, I can actually see the crease of her bum cheek!’

My daughters response to me suggesting she was showing “too much” was-

Body shaming
it’s a You problem, not a Me problem

until she actually Noticed a man blatantly staring at her boobs while we were on a train … she was horrified

Only then was she open enough to listen to me opine about what you wear at age 14 … and what many men see & think. Like that guy will go home and wank about the teen girl on the train with her boobs out. If you were more modestly dressed, he probably wouldn’t have noticed you.

Men do it regularly where i live as they pull down their trousers to show their boxers and i can’t count the amount of times i have seen men’s bare arses just walking around here.

It's almost like we get waves of people who all have similar veins of thoughts on a topic all at the same time, and then the same happens again on a different topic 🤔 AI just find it hard to believe it myself

But boys raging with hormones are likely to see it differently and I think it's faux-naive to pretend it's not just the crudest and presumably most effective form of attention-seeking. I suppose they're only imitating the gyrating strippers that pass for pop music nowadays. I stopped at a fast food restaurant recently that had MTV on in the background and honestly didn't know where to look. Are we all supposed to pretend this is all fine and perfectly normal?

Absolutely, it’s a hard balance to strike between not wanting her to feel self conscious or ashamed of her body or to buy into the victim blaming shite while not wanting to buy into the over sexualisation of young teenagers. Who’d be a girl mum!

@BallerinaRadio I like what you did there! I’ll keep an eye out for the uptake themed threads going forward.

Again I'll point out that this is what was said about ordinary bikinis when they first came out... and yet we now do not associate bikinis with sex.
It's just fashion. They think they look cool. That's literally it. It's not a secual overture. They are children.

They are children, but the men looking at them are not. I don’t want my daughter having to deal with the male gaze any more than she already does at 14.

Oh for God's sake. Not this crappy diatribe again.

Exactly. It's not just fashion it's overtly sexy fashion.

Urgh.

I don't like the Original Post at all.
Bit creepy.
Some people get a kick out of writing about young girls wearing thongs.

Just saying.

Agreed, OP. I live close to a number of beaches popular with teens and there are times when it's like watching female monkeys waggling their bare bums in the faces of boys. But recently I've noticed some of the girls wearing thongs under short skirts and walking to school with flashes of bum cheek. I've seen cars with men in them beeping and the girls giving them the finger. Everything seems so much more sexualised than it was just 10 years ago. Porn, I guess.

If they were my girls I'd be worried and I'd be teaching them feminism and self-defence.