Can we put this in the wtf pile?

Parents, don't dress your girls like tramps


My friend posted this on her FB page and commented, "This makes me want to drink heavily. Did I miss this by having boys??"


I'm having a hard time figuring out what she finds objectionable in particular, so I'll just make a list:

1. Could it be the possible damage that could be caused by dressing / allowing your children to dress in contextually inappropriate ways?  
2. Perhaps it is the blatant slut shaming that's happening in this article, in which he uses the words tramp and whore to talk about why these clothes are inappropriate, thereby implying that an adult woman dressed in the same way would deserve these labels.  
3. I don't know, maybe it's the irony that we live in a culture where we will defend the rights of little boys to wear dresses and have pink toenails (justifiably so) in the face of those who would freak the fuck out about it, but that he's commenting on this little girl's appearance in the same way.  "I don't approve of how you look and here's my reason why and in the meantime I will say rude things to you so that you will pay attention to my point." - "Hear that, ya little tramp?  Oh yeah, and parents, this is really directed at you. A line needs to be drawn in which we don't let our little boys dress like girls, I mean girls dress like whores, I mean I'm an asshole.  Wait."
4. Maybe it's the sentence, "What adult who wants a daughter to grow up with high self-esteem would even consider purchasing such items?" because of all the assumptions that go into it.  The assumptions that an adult woman wearing the same clothes has no self-esteem.  That the little girl's outfit is an indication that this girl is receiving shitty parenting over all.  That what this little girl is wearing is her salient characteristic, much like the parallel assumption we make about adult women.
5. It could be it's the paternalistic tone of this bullshit: "Or maybe I'm just a concerned parent worried about little girls like the one I saw at the airport."  He talks about his son in the article, but specifically about his pants being low, not about a characteristic that distinguishes men from boys, which is ostensibly his protest to her outfit - its age inappropriateness. So really, is he a concerned parent (which is a label I've read before when people want to disapprove of someone else's parenting, see boys in dresses) or is he a concerned man? 

So yeah, this whole things just pissed me off.  Also, I think it's interesting that in 2009 he won the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation award for online journalism  and was a 2008/10 honoree of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.  Wouldn't someone who seems to get the idea of not talking shit about people realize why this is so poorly done?  


Yes, I get your point.  Sexualization of young girls is potentially damaging.  Yes, I agree with that, but is there any world where this is the best way to address the issue?  


A final thought - much like when the little boy wore the dress to school and none of the other kids cared, I have to wonder if this is fundamentally an adult problem?  Little girls don't know what sexy means, this d00d makes the valid point that they are dressing like adults they see, whether it be Rihanna or their own parents.  They're mimicking.  Perhaps the problem isn't in dressing little girls like adults, it's that we pass judgment on the way women dress at all, regardless of what judgement you're passing.  When little boys dress like men, it's either cute (little dudes in suits) or it's completely unnoticeable because those are just their, uh, clothes.  But when little girls dress like women, or should I say a certain kind of women (I'd really say idea of womanhood), there is a problem.  What does that mean?