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?

Not clueless as I’ve seen my nieces, sisters and cousins take part in gymnastics. I find it highly unlikely their vulva was coming out. You wear knickers underneath the leotard. Not once during the 15 years I’ve watched them has this ever happened. I doubt they would show the sport on TV if this was the case and they do a lot more than just pull their thighs apart.

Maybe it was too small? It was disturbing. Anyway, I'll leave that with you.

Well I wasn’t there so I can’t answer that. Worrying you’re so disturbed over something as innocent as a child doing gymnastics.

I'm more worried you don't get it. And they weren't doing gymnastics, they were in the foyer mucking around. You'd probably also be the first to then complain if some innocent Dad just happened to be looking at the kid in question.

Yes it’s worrying that you think kids mucking around in leotards or whatever they were wearing is disturbing. Kids are innocent. Anyone who thinks this is unnatural or perverse has a twisted mind. Perhaps stop going if you’re so disturbed by children playing.

Kids are innocent. Perverts are not! You do know everyone has a phone in their pocket now right, and have heard of the dark Web. Sure, this is extreme but let's not be stupid.

My DD is 17 and does wear a skirt quite short, but doesn’t sound much flesh. Crop tops are in fashion, as are skimpy outfits. I can’t get worked up about it, most of them look great to be fair, and I wish I once had a body to show off like that! My nieces who are in their 20’s often wear skimpy outfits, and to be fair they look good. Both have lost weight in the last few years, which I expect is due to the current fashion as most of these outfits only look good when you’re slim. Belly hanging out if you’re overweight (teen or adult) isn’t a good look.

Yes, you’re highlighting my point that only someone with a twisted mind would find kids playing innocently disturbing.

Well if you look at how celebrities are dressing now with compared to before you will find a pattern there. Women are hyper sexualising their own bodies to a point where I want to say "hey, maybe the burqa thing isn't a bad thing after all" (irony). A woman can handle the wanted attention but a young girl won't necessarily know the signals she's sending out (not getting the difference when a celebrity is halfnaked vs random girl) and she won't know how to deal with unwanted attention.

You could very well be correct. My dd is 23 and has such a baby face she could pass for 15.

Women have always hypersexualised their bodies, this isn’t a new thing. They wore corsets in the 17th century then it developed to having their cleavage on show. You can even go back as to the Elizabeth period, where Queen Elizabeth the 1st wore low cut gowns. Then look at how they dressed through the ages such as the likes of Betty Paige, Marylin Monroe etc. Young girls will have always tried to dress like them, pretty naive to think it’s a thing that’s only just happening now. When I was young I wanted to dress like the Spice Girls. You probably dressed like your idols too.

Also a great example to teach young boys not to give unwanted attention.

I’m chuckling at this. When I think of the things I wore out at 15 and to see my dear old dad rolling his eyes sighing, but not actually saying anything, really does bring back memories.

early 70s and it was short mini dresses, ecru tights,and platform shoes

He was incredibly easy going was my df and it must have been difficult for him.

Moving forward in time and I’ve managed to skip all this with my teenage dd.

For a while she was overweight and never had the confidence to wear skimpy.

Now she’s 23, she’s worked so hard to lose weight and now she’s into tiny skirts, shorts, and mini dresses and she looks absolutely amazing!

Shes too old for me to tell her what to wear and I wouldn’t anyway, but I do cast my thoughts back and think about my df.
He gave me the option to wear what I liked and now I’m affording my dd the same privilege.

They are young and it’s just fashion to them.

As a pp said before, you can get attacked wearing jeans and a baggy top.

There are some lowlife creeps who would sa someone even if they went out in full Muslim dress.

let them be young and discover their own identity I say.

As long as they have us to guide them, not that they would listen anyway.

They are only going to sneak out the clothes they want to wear.

Mumsnet Trolls will definitely post this on Reddit under ‘Herbert’

this is rife where I live on the west of Scotland. it’s not even warm enough here most of the time to merit the stripping off. poverty and poor diets are also rife and half the arses on display are enormous. I couldn’t care less about “body shaming”. whenever I see girls with what appears to be nothing on their lower half I just think how vulnerable they look, as if no one cares enough about them to 1) stop them dressing like that 2) tell them they look bad. it attracts the wrong sort of attention. so many other things they could wear that would look nice.

I used to get changed into short skirts when I left the house as a teenager, I always had tights on though, because living in Scotland is cold and even then I had dimply legs which I knew looked unflattering.

What about the teenage lads with their tops off? Does that not offend you too?

Sorry, how?

🤣 I’m waiting for the thread but it hasn’t been posted… yet

Problem is the world is full of people with horrible intentions. Look at how many people the police say try and access stuff on the internet. In an ideal world our kids could swim in the sea without a costume on etc but we don’t live in that world. Whilst a grown women can wear whatever the heck they want , children aren’t fully clued up on the world and the people in it. I’m not victim blaming. I’m being a realist. Clothing for teenage girls is way more sexualised than ever before. People equating it to mini skirts of the 1960’s or cropped tops of the 1990’s are being deliberately obtuse.

My neighbour's daughter is like this. She is thirteen, screams at her mother, and parades around like a princess with her gaggle of friends in tow. I know what my mother and grandmother would have said if she were their granddaughter but nowadays you are not allowed to say anything as you would receive a mouthful and probably have some rough neck come screaming insults at you. Best just to ignore, walk on by and let them live their reality.

This issue here is men and their attitudes to women but also internalised misogyny, which you can see from many of the comments.

I read a truly horrifying story where an orangutan was shaved, made to wear make up and was chained up and forced to “work” in a brothel... Men did this to an animal. The story was picked up worldwide, and the animal called Pony was luckily rescued. I won’t share any links but if you search her name you’ll find out more information.

If you think what you’re wearing stops you from being raped you’re the obtuse one. Men rape babies, children and old people. I don’t they are walking around in sexualised clothing. Never seen a 89 year old in in a short skirt with her arse out. Have you?

For those victim playing, this is a link to an article about an art exhibition that shows the clothes of rape and SA victims on the night it happened. Victims of all ages. So no, what you’re wearing has no impact on whether you’ll get raped or not.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/powerful-art-exhibit-powerfully-answers-the-question-what-were-you-wearing_n_59baddd2e4b02da0e1405d2a/amp

I hate it too, OP. I'm a terrible prude

I'm really glad that young women have more body confidence than me at that age, though.

They're only doing what teenagers have done since the beginning of time. Doing things they think make them look older & more attractive & pushing boundaries. Doing what your mum did isn't going ever be where the next era of teenagers stops is it! That's not pushing boundaries.

And since the beginning of time parents have held those boundaries and set limits. Experimenting with your “look” for teenagers is as old as time, being told where those limits are is also as old as time.

Girls being sexualised from too young an age is also as old as time.