Can I just say that as a mother of a girl I firmly believe that it is OUR responsibility to resist the commercial pressure exerted on our young girls to dress "sexy" and act older than their years. Our DDs are always going to want to copy their peers, but as mothers it is our job to say "no".
Mothers who buy push-up bras and thongs for their nine year-olds are every bit as bad as the media and advertisers in wanting to affirm their child's sexual attractiveness before they even have anything to flaunt. Allowing pre-teens to have boyfriends and generally endorsing the idea that a girl's first best destiny is to be attractive to boys is the quickest way to turn her into a victim.
I think some of us are in danger of forgetting that WE are in charge and as WE mostly buy the clothes and other stuff, WE make the choices for our daughters until they are old enough and sensible enough to make good choices for themselves.
We can make our DDs take off the clown make-up and we can insist upon no bare midriffs, and then we can we explain why dressing in a provocative way is a bad idea - in an age appropriate way of course!
As mothers, we can and should control what comes into our houses and we can certainly make it known to friends and relatives that presents of sexy clothing are inappropriate gifts for our pre-teens. Inappropriate clothing that is loaned by mates can be returned to the owners. I think that some mums fall into that trap of wanting to appease their daughters because they too want to be seen as trendy (not old fuddy duddys) and be their DD's friend, therefore they often approve of certain clothes and behaviours against their better judgement.
The sexualisation of young girls in the media is annoying, as is the fetish for young models who look like they are yet to pass through puberty, but if we as the responsible consumers make wise choices, eventually the ad companies will have to change tack when they find that the current strategy of making voracious consumers of glamour model tat out of our DDs is failing.
Even pre-teen girls can be an argumentative handful and can threaten to rebel, but we're mums and our job is to be the parent who knows better and not a child's best friend.
This isn't going to be tackled simply by outlawing the things the government wants to blame for the sexualisation of little girls, or by bringing in regulation. We have to examine our own attitudes and put in place our own boundaries for our children. That also includes DSs in making sure that they are raised to respect girls who respect themselves and that girls are not there for their pleasure or abuse.
Take a stand by voting with your purse.