Pedophilia, Patriarchy & the Conservative Agenda (Part 1)

It seems like it's time for me to do one of my transcendental Integrationist things, but first the pic. It is another one of my early shots, taken in Penticton near the Penticton Rose Garden and the S.S. Sicamous (shown previously).


Over at Feministe, Jill brought up The Sexualization of Girls, by quoting part of a Rosa Brooks Op-ed article in the L.A. Times, the gist of which is that it is all but impossible to find clothing for young girls which doesn't make them look like street walkers, and that the sale and manufacture of provocative kiddy clothing (among other things) is being used by pedophiles to somewhat justify their predatory acts. While over at Pandagon I found out that the son of an Evangelist was busted for trafficking child porn.

So, where are the connections? Well, we can talk about patriarchy and how within this system a woman is supposed to derive her own sense of worth through being an object of male desire (being sexualised a la Girls Gone Wild and that ilk), while the Conservative precept that nudity=sex, that skin=sin, has become ingrained in North American culture (I previously touched on both points here).

developmentally speaking, the earlier in life a person is indoctrinated to a way of thinking or behaving, the more difficult it is to break the habit (brand marketers rely on this to manufacture lifelong customers). From a perspective of Patriarchy, the sooner a girl gets indoctrinated into wearing makeup, and pretty (or revealing) clothing, in order to feel good about herself (having won male and, in general, societal approval for wearing such things) the more difficult it will be for her to reject these everyday trappings of patriarchy later in her life.

Now, in and of itself, the clothing and makeup and whatever else could be quite innocuous -- tank-tops, bikinis and thongs have no inherent meaning outside of a cultural context -- but, in North America, where nudity=sex, those items of clothing which show more skin become associated with sex and are imbued with sexual meaning by the culture at large.

In short, in North America, nudity=sex and (some) clothing=sex. Since children are usually either clothed or nude (and either state is considered sexual), children become sexualised objects.