Decked out in red midriff-baring tops and hot pants, dancers at a recent competition earned whoops and praise for their skilled moves and obvious talent.There's a GMA video at the link.
But what was an exhilarating performance has turned into an Internet firestorm -- the dancers gyrating on a Los Angeles stage to Beyonce's "All the Single Ladies" were as young as 8.
The girls' parents defended their daughters' performance at the World of Dance, billed as the largest U.S. urban dance competition, saying their daughters' moves and outfits were appropriate for competition.
"This is taken completely out of context," Cory Miller, father of one of the girls, told "Good Morning America" today. "The girls weren't meant to be viewed by millions of people."
It's a little much, and if we had girls I doubt my wife would approve of such a performance for our own children. But Melissa Presch, the dance mother at the clip, has a point that the kids are influenced by their pop culture environment. And a young girls dance concert seems way more natural than a JonBenét Ramsey beauty contest.
That is very disturbing. Media can influence at the same time though the parents can try their best to filter what their own kids see.
ReplyDeleteI don't buy the pop culture reference for a minute. If that were the case it'd be okay for young girls to pole dance and get permanent tattoos. (what's sick is that some probably already do.) What's upsetting here is that the parents put their own children in sexual danger. They have compromised their identities and for some, this performance serves as child porn. Girls sexualized at this age are at high risk for early sexual activity and teen pregnancy. This is sexual danger.
ReplyDeleteThe kids will do in public whatever "dance moves" they've been watching or practicing.
ReplyDeleteI was at an airport --gee, maybe 5 years ago, now-- and watched a 5-or-6-year-old girl doing lewd "dance moves" she'd apparently seen on some music video; and there was her very young and stupid mother, smiling approvingly as her daughter imitated the raunchy dance routine. Any pedophile on that concourse would have been waiting to grab that poor little girl if she wandered off. It gave me the chills then, and recalling it gives me the chills now.
Parents-- good grief, your job is to PROTECT your kids from this sort of garbage...