Am i a prude for thinking its inappropriate?

[Lulliloo]

I work in a shopping centre and our shop looks out into the centre..... the outfits i see walking past are just horrendous sometimes... i shake my head at what i see.
i actually saw a pregnant womans crotch one day cos she had on one of those dresses that are short at the front and long at the back. so at the front where her belly was pulling the dress up even more i saw even more.
i think young girls are showing off too much skin. it must be hard for parents at the moment because thats all that is around. and i see girls in the bathrooms all the time doing their makeup and getting changing into something less appropriate.

[Miss E]

Then again, perhaps the clothes are reflective of that process, who knows.

For some girls, I think this is the case. Yes we should be teaching our daughters to be loved and enjoyed not just for their appearance but for who they are, that goes without saying, regardless of how they dress. But I think TFB has made a really good point (maybe unintentionally) - she went through the whole process of the short skirts and attention getting outfits to get to that conclusion. As much as we want to teach and protect teenagers, sometimes they need to learn through experience and experimentation (god knows I did, no matter how hard my mother tried to teach me what I know now).

And my earlier point - young girls often get that undesirable attention regardless of if they're wearing a very modest school uniform or hot pants. It's part of life and a part of life they need to learn to deal with, because chances are as adults they're going to encounter it too, even if they're dressed modestly. Crossing the road is probably more dangerous to their well being than wearing a pair of hot pants.

Personally, if I have a daughter I won't tell what she can and can't wear. Yes I will encourage her to dress relatively modestly, but if she wants to wear hot pants and little tops, I know from my own experience that there is no way I'm going to be able to stop her. And that if I try to stop her chances are I'll just be pushing her away and unintentionally fueling that innate need to experiment, which could ultimately mean she takes her experimentation to even greater lengths.

JMO

[Traveller]

I have to say though, that even when wearing micro mini skirts as a teenager I abided by the "legs or boobs" rule and I hope I can pass that message onto my daughter. I think women look a lot nicer and sexier if then choose one part of themselves for their outfit to focus on but I think current fashions disagree with me on that point.

[Ilithyia]

I think its hard to blame a fashion craze on an individual.

Its not one particular girl wearing these clothes in attempt to be sexually promiscious - it just so happens to be the fashion at the moment.

Don't get me wrong, I'm somtimes disgusted in what I see some of the girls of today wearing but like I said, its not just one particular girl, its a very large majority of them.

In terms of parenting our Daughters to have self respect etc... I'm sure that most of the parents of these girls once had thoughts exactly the same as what most of you are having now. But I guess you have to look at it in terms of your Daughters growth as a teenager. We all wanted to have what was current be it nike shoes, mobile phone or the current fashion clothes.

All we do hope and pray that this current fashion craze is dead, gone and BURIED by the time our Daughters are tweens/teenagers

[Ohbaby]

I do agree, however I have seen some girls wearing the shorty shorts and they are quite tasteful as they wear a nice top and just have natural hair and no obvious make up over do's- they are lucky enough to have nice legs to show off, I feel sorry for the girls who aren't so slim and attempt to fit into the same outfits I am watching Mad Men at the moment- this would never have been acceptable in the 1950's!!