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A lot of it comes from America's junk-value culture, too.

Women and girls aren't treated like people in this country. We're socialized from early on to be be small and meek and nice so as not to intimidate men with our "tomboyish" notions of smarts and strength and assertiveness-- we're social accessories, we exist to make other people (more often men, but it does explain a lot of the passive-aggressive nastiness women get up to with each other) look and feel better, whether we realize it at the time or not.

When we're old enough (and that age is getting lower and lower with each passing generation) we learn that our thoughts and ideas aren't as valuable as our breasts and our buttocks and our hair and our makeup. Media aimed at girls teaches them that clothes and friends are the way to be cool, and even the slowly-passing "grrl power" fad never showed women fully clothed in flat shoes.

As we get older and come of a more reasonable childbearing age, we become hosts to our unborn offspring-- doctors treat us as pre-pregnant even if we never plan to become mothers, we often can't get contraception if we ask, we can't legally be a "family" with our husbands without a child, we are paid less at work because at any moment we could go on maternity leave. And yet we still see skin creams for stretch marks and magazine articles about "how to lose that baby weight!", and how to handle the pain of postpartum sexual intercourse and, moreso now than ever, how to dress your baby to be your latest fashion accent. Even after we grow up and have kids, our society tells us that we still exist for sex.

We are taught early on that our bodies are the most valuable part of ourselves-- even books for adolescent and pubescent girls describe the healthy hygiene habits of a young woman and simple exercises to keep her tummy flat, but offer nothing for how to cope with a teenager's mind, a growing sense of self, or what changes she can observe in the world around her to know that she isn't alone. We tell our girl children that to be popular is to be valued, and to be popular, you have to look pretty-- and since you aren't pretty enough, here's some make-up.

What's worse, because we're all judged by our bodies, young women must compete for worth with other young ladies who are "better endowed" than they, or feel inferior. Without proper influences from family and teachers and friends, we learn that we exist for sex-- we're taught that feminine strength and female empowerment is about "being in control of your own sexuality", but that the only way to acceptably prove that we have that control, is to have sex, dress in a sexually provocative way, and attract men. We're taught that having control over our sexuality means being controlled by our sexuality.

But the nine year olds of our modern age, menstruating and developing earlier than their predecessors and still with a child's mind, needing approval and reinforcement during the most insecure and unstable time in her life, break away from their parents too early and rely on their world to tell them what to do and how to be-- and that world is a playground, where the ideas come from undeveloped brains and ten thousand hours of concentrated commercialism aimed at those undeveloped brains since before they were even born. These girls are becoming teenagers before they turn ten.

Parents seem to have no clue on how to actually parent these days. They're too busy working their jobs to pay attention and buy their eight year olds cell phones, put in parental blocks on the internet and cable because they simply just can't be bothered when they're so busy. Completely understandable.

Not to mention the media glorifying sex appeal. Sex appeal has always been apart of the media, but these days, it's just plain... ugh. I know I don't dress conservatively, I actually don't know how I dress because I dress very oddly, but I wouldn't dream of putting my clothes on a little girl. Unless the kid has some medical issues like myself, corsets shouldn't be on them and neither should garters or stockings (stick to tights kiddies), and thank Christ I have not seen anything I wear on children.

The thing about kids is that they want to act like adults. They imagine that adults live fabulous lives while they have rules and time-out. What kid wants that? They don't understand things like taxes and bills. Not to mention, since kids want to look older, they look to what the high school crowd is wearing. I remember a little girl just staring at me and even my mother mentioned it to me that she was checking out what I was wearing. I'm relieved that that happened on a day where there were no stockings, corsets, pilot's goggles or anything people usually stare at me for.

Not to mention when you're marketing s**t like Bratz. Oh how I abhor those pubescent bitches dressed for a night of clubbing. And with s**t like that, you get more s**t. Clothes and make-up especially. I remember a few years ago, I was taking a ferry across the James River in Virigina to go to Surry and I saw these two girls there. This made that twenty minute ride burn into my memory forever.

They were fairly fat (too much McD's, stupid parents are too busy to cook at home these days too), wore extremely short shorts that the shorts went into their buttcracks (not to mention you could see one of their cracks above the shorts), and one wore this tube top and the other a speghetti strap top. And flip flops. I just hate flip flops like no other. They were about nine, four years my junior, and I was completely appalled. Especially when I got a good look at their faces. They had these bright, obnoxious eye shadow colors, aqua and this hot pink. It was caked on up to the eyebrows and practically across the nose. And not to mention the lipstick. I have never wanted to vomit and laugh at the same time.

The only time I've worn make-up was last summer, and I was pretty much forced by my mother to do so. It was to help a lady she knew, and I lost the fight. I had my entire face done with foundation, concealer, mascara, the works. (I honestly don't know how women do it. Congrats for being able to do what took me like an hour and a half - probably because I was still fighting - to apply in like twenty minutes. Every day.) Even though I've never put on make-up before, I didn't end up looking trashy like the girls I see doing theirs for the first time. I was even complimented on how pretty I looked.

I also remember seeing this one girl at the gas station in town. Oh my word. It was so funny. It was like the girls on the ferry, without the make-up and the shorts covered the a** but maybe a year older. The flip-flops however were way too big on her feet. I remember just sitting in the car and feeling this grin stretch on my face and me snorting back my laughter. This girl was acting like she was on the run-way and swinging her non-existent hips from side to side. My sister and I had a hard time trying to stop laughing.

Another thing is sex ed in schools. Schools. Please. Do something. When I was in fifth grade they sat us down and introduced us to the reporductory system. But we're fifth graders and we were still kind of in that stage where kids still want to roll around in mud. We didn't really care at 11 years old. I didn't get sex ed in sixth grade but I had it in seventh and then they just fed us the same bullshit again in eighth. It was the exact same cirriculum. Our school preached abstinence and all this bullshit. Awesome. Thanks for giving the children this option. Is there another? NO. If you have sex you get AIDs and STDs and preggers! Damn. I had sex ed, and I didn't even really know what exactly a condom was until about the end of eighth grade at least. Nor did I understand until that point what BC and "the pill" meant. What does that tell you about sex ed in schools? They're not giving the whole story. Where did I finally figure out about condoms, birth control, the modern meaning of "gay" and even colostomy bags? Internet. In places I probably shouldn't have been. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I shouldn't have been to those places.

So while it's a good thing kids want to explore their imaginations and act like adults, what kid hasn't? Remember playing "house" and "doctor"? It's good to let them be creative, but dammit, we need to draw a line on how much we should expose to them. Or rather push onto them. Parents need to be more involved and pay attention, and quite frankly, I don't want to see a six year old in my R-rated movies. ********, I don't want them in my PG-13 movies. Parents, there are warnings out there, you have a job as well as the media to help stop these pubescent whores from infesting the streets to clambor to get the next Bratz thing that comes out. And schools, get your a** out there and start giving the facts, not some mindless abstinence bullshit. It's great and all, but not everyone is going to be the ******** Virgin Mary these days. Give us the full story when appropriate.

I am not going to hide the fact that I could not read every single post in this thread before posting myself, but here is what I think. (Warning: I am not the best speller)

Girls did get married and have babies at young ages a long time ago, but that had nothing to do with being mature. It was all about surviving childbirth. In those days, the mother would have birth at home in the unclean bedroom after not showering for a while. Being younger meant they would have a better chance of living to care for the baby.

Also, this change in girl's behavior seems sudden to me. I am only 19 years old, am not the most conservative person in the world, but to me this is just insane to see what these girls are doing. At the age of 13 it is recommended that every girl and boy gets annual STD testing. At 13 I was in middle school just wrapping up my Barbie. I only knew of one girl in my school that had even had sex, but that is just not how it is anymore. Now, every young girl I know has had sex or is wanting me to give them my opinion on them having sex. I just has this conversation last week with a girl who wanted to sleep with her boyfriend of 2 months. Something needs to be done about the behavior of these young girls, and no one really seems to be taking any real action, they just talk about it. (much like we are doing)

Maybe they were hookers...jk

I think American culture has something to do with it, but not everything. I would put more of the blame on those girls' parents. Sure, it's tough to raise a kid, but letting it get that out of control is unexcusable.

I'm inclined to agree that we're not growing up fast enough either. But on the same token, Youth is something I wish I could have enjoyed more. I was too grown up. Too serious, trying too hard to be wiser than my peers. I did my best to -never- walk outside the lines, and because of that I wasted my teenage years entirely. I could have had fun, gone to dances, learned to flirt and get along with people my own age. Instead I read my books and only emerged when I had some thought to share, and the adults would all smile and tell me I was so smart/wise/mature for my age. Hah! I wish I had just enjoyed it.

Amen. My friend, who was 11 at the time, became this huge "popular girl". She had a "boyfriend" every week, was wearing makeup and thongs and designer clothes, but its also the home she grew up in. Her dad thinks showering your kids with presents, money, clothes, etc. constitues as love when it doesn't.

Personally, they're all spoiled little brats.

Aye, perhaps it's more of a directional issue than a timing issue.

If you look out in today's society, you will not see sex. You will see "********'". Big difference there.
The best word I can think of to describe it is Romanticide.