Apparently, only WHORES! hit puberty...
This is just ri-goddam-diculous...
As seen on Yahoo! News
NEW YORK - When toy maker Mattel, working with Nickelodeon, announced earlier this month that a "tween" version of Nick's beloved "Dora the Explorer" cartoon character would be unveiled in the fall, the response was overwhelming ... overwhelmingly negative.
Dora the streetwalker. A sexed-up version of a children's icon. A poor example for kids.
Those were just some of the terms tossed around the blogosphere after Mattel released a silhouette of the "new" Dora, whose image was drastically changed from the endearing tomboy look Dora fans grew to love, with her bowl-cut hairdo, T-shirt and red shorts. This new Dora appeared to have long flowing hair, and was wearing what seemed a scanty skirt, emphasizing her long, shapely legs.
"Did Mattel turn Dora the Explorer into a Tramp?" read one headline from The Huffington Post.
Behold Dora 2.0 in all all sluttiness below:
She's been aged up to tweendom, and apparently leggings, a tunic that goes down below the waist, a cute necklace, an OMG! LONG HAIR! is a sign that Dora is about to do something regrettable. She even has earrings, the whore...
Which is amusing, given that J got her ears pierced at around the age that Dora is supposed to be now. I tagged along and get my ears pierced as well. J got hers done first, and man, she was like a freakin' Marine! Didn't flinch at all! I managed to retain some dignity and not go into full Jerry Lewis mode. But I digress...
I am not a guy, so I admit that the puberty experience through XY eyes is unknown to me. However, I got the feeling growing up and watching popular culture now that folks bear a resentment towards girls hitting puberty (and do a lot of freaking out) that I don't seem to see towards guys. Granted, I might be missing it; a great many parents are probably ticked at seeing their car insurance rates go up when Junior gets his driver's license. But there seems to be a hyperventilating about girls that goes beyond fears that Princess is going to get pregnant; they react as if puberty in girls is something monstruous. Time was, squeezing into a miniskirt got you accused of "asking for it", now it is reaching the age of 13 with a functioning pituitary gland!
What really tears it for me, besides blaming girls for something that is beyond their control it is the tremendously naive belief that modesty to full-on shlumpiness acts like Creep Kryptonite. Believe me, it doesn't work, or at least the boys at the schools I was stuck in never got the memo in Health class that the were only allowed to bug the girls dressed like early vintage Madonna (can you remember when folks had a hard time teling Madonna and Cyndi Lauper apart? Does that make us old now?)
I went out of my way to look as unattractive as possible at that age, with mixed results. Boys I was interested in wanted nothing to do with me, and I could tell that the adults I tried to talk about my problems couldn't reconcile my appearance with what I was saying...
And Dora 2.0 isn't even supposed to be teenaged, and folks are still freaking out! What are these parents going to do when their own daughters hit their teens? Disown them? Bristle with resentment, leaving their girls to wonder why everyone is so mad at them?
As seen on Yahoo! News
NEW YORK - When toy maker Mattel, working with Nickelodeon, announced earlier this month that a "tween" version of Nick's beloved "Dora the Explorer" cartoon character would be unveiled in the fall, the response was overwhelming ... overwhelmingly negative.
Dora the streetwalker. A sexed-up version of a children's icon. A poor example for kids.
Those were just some of the terms tossed around the blogosphere after Mattel released a silhouette of the "new" Dora, whose image was drastically changed from the endearing tomboy look Dora fans grew to love, with her bowl-cut hairdo, T-shirt and red shorts. This new Dora appeared to have long flowing hair, and was wearing what seemed a scanty skirt, emphasizing her long, shapely legs.
"Did Mattel turn Dora the Explorer into a Tramp?" read one headline from The Huffington Post.
Behold Dora 2.0 in all all sluttiness below:
She's been aged up to tweendom, and apparently leggings, a tunic that goes down below the waist, a cute necklace, an OMG! LONG HAIR! is a sign that Dora is about to do something regrettable. She even has earrings, the whore...
Which is amusing, given that J got her ears pierced at around the age that Dora is supposed to be now. I tagged along and get my ears pierced as well. J got hers done first, and man, she was like a freakin' Marine! Didn't flinch at all! I managed to retain some dignity and not go into full Jerry Lewis mode. But I digress...
I am not a guy, so I admit that the puberty experience through XY eyes is unknown to me. However, I got the feeling growing up and watching popular culture now that folks bear a resentment towards girls hitting puberty (and do a lot of freaking out) that I don't seem to see towards guys. Granted, I might be missing it; a great many parents are probably ticked at seeing their car insurance rates go up when Junior gets his driver's license. But there seems to be a hyperventilating about girls that goes beyond fears that Princess is going to get pregnant; they react as if puberty in girls is something monstruous. Time was, squeezing into a miniskirt got you accused of "asking for it", now it is reaching the age of 13 with a functioning pituitary gland!
What really tears it for me, besides blaming girls for something that is beyond their control it is the tremendously naive belief that modesty to full-on shlumpiness acts like Creep Kryptonite. Believe me, it doesn't work, or at least the boys at the schools I was stuck in never got the memo in Health class that the were only allowed to bug the girls dressed like early vintage Madonna (can you remember when folks had a hard time teling Madonna and Cyndi Lauper apart? Does that make us old now?)
I went out of my way to look as unattractive as possible at that age, with mixed results. Boys I was interested in wanted nothing to do with me, and I could tell that the adults I tried to talk about my problems couldn't reconcile my appearance with what I was saying...
And Dora 2.0 isn't even supposed to be teenaged, and folks are still freaking out! What are these parents going to do when their own daughters hit their teens? Disown them? Bristle with resentment, leaving their girls to wonder why everyone is so mad at them?