Hijab Or The Bikini: The Shaping Of Young Girl's Sexuality

[ghulam muhammed]

The Hijab or the bikini: the shaping of young girls’ sexuality

Where the line will be drawn between children’s' rights and parents’ rights will always be heavily contested. Issues from the veiling of young girls to the manufacture of padded bras for seven year olds, may best be dealt with by upholding the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

The recent revival of feminist activity has focused predominantly, if not exclusively, on the pornification of our culture and the ways in which the representation of women as sex-objects has become ubiquitous and normalised. Worryingly, this trend has scooped up girls as young as four with high street stores selling bikinis aimed at them, padded bras for seven year olds ↑ , and shoes with three inch heels for eight year olds. Fears of commercialisation and the premature sexualisation of children have made the British government wade in to the debate along with web based campaign groups such as Mums net ↑ . Government commissioned reports starting with Australia in 2008, Britain, Quebec and Belgium in 2011, and the latest one in France published in March 2012 show that the phenomenon is widespread. Full report at:

http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/rahil ... -sexuality