Look, I'm sick of this

[soubie]

 But unfortunately they don't have a 'comment' window to answer back.

www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jun/14/girls-hit-puberty-at-nine

Let's ignore the fact that she's talking about a 'sad paradox of modern life' as if it were something that involved anyone making a choice about these things. But I'm not used to seeing playground rumour pretty

Comments

[soubie]

.....well seeing as the person who wrote this was (generally speaking) an ADULT, it's a bit difficult expecting kids to be taught otherwise, isn't it? Then again, one hopes teachers, who know the kids as people rather than statistics, would be a little more aware. However, unless you actually catch a kid calling another 'slut' then it's pretty hard to police. Besides which, there are all sorts of excuses that can be given for that kid's behaviour- like that they didn't know what it meant, or at least thought it was funny and didn't get the full implications...

You've pretty much nailed it that it's a sort of victim-blaming though- specifically that the child with breasts is to blame for the fact that it makes other people a little uncomfortable to see the juxtaposition of something 'sexy' with someone who is obviously off-limits. I don't think little girls who develop early do- necessarily- I didn't- think of it as sexual, even in a 'shit, I'm not ready for this to apply to me' way. Mind you, I was relatively old when my brother was born, so the first time I was really aware of anyone's breasts was when my mother was breastfeeding him. Until two utterly obnoxious little boys in my class started making fun of me when we changed for games (one would stand over me and mime a movie camera- I had no idea what it meant but the implication was obvious), then I barely noticed- it was just an appendage that I suddenly had.

(I don't remember the boys getting into any trouble- I don't know if teacher didn't realise exactly what they were doing or what. I think maybe one could have a feeling of: how do I teach nine year olds that it's not okay to make porn-jokes in the classroom? Society tells you that you shouldn't be broaching the subject because they couldn't possibly be expected to think about it. Though obviously the boys got the idea from someone else in the first place- you can't argue biological determinism on that one.)

I seem to remember there was an attempt at teaching us not to judge people in secondary school when the teacher put a series of photos of kids on the board and asked us what we thought we could tell about that person. After along silence, one girl hazarded that they were all "billies" (translation- 'Billie No-Mates', ie 'loners')- because all the photographs showed only one person. So whether they were ready to discuss assumptions about boob size is probably a moot point.

This may tell you a bit more about my school than is really relevant, though. BUT- yes- the message is 'you have a feature perceived- whether in reality it is or not- as desirable because you want to MAKE guys want you.' And because they're MAKING guys want them, then whatever is done to them for that reason is okay.