I’m beginning to wonder if I’m the only one who is tired of being bombarded with music videos of teeny boppers in teeny bikinis?
Britney sporting a sexy schoolgirl look in the video that started it all, "Hit Me Baby One More Time"
It started with Britney Spears, the proposed princess of pop (of which kingdom Madonna or Gaga, depending on your opinion, is surely queen), in her “Hit Me Baby One More Time” video. Okay, maybe she wasn’t nearly as naked as they are today- but her outfit was still risqué for the 90’s. Ten years later, there was Miley Cyrus in “Can’t Be Tamed“. Since Miley, it seems like all the Disney child stars have had some sort of nude photo leak (including Miley herself, who had both self-photographed pictures of herself flaunting a green bra AND the pictures from her infamous “artistic” topless shoot with Vanity Fair). Ashley Tisdale, one of the stars of the ever-popular High School Musical, later came out with a similar set of professional “artistic” nudes (apparently in an effort to be respected as a “woman” star, not a girl), while Vanessa Hudgens lost all dignity in the release of her not-so-artistic, not even remotely classy nudes apparently taken for a past lover.
Miley Cyrus modeling topless in her infamous shoot for the June 2008 issues of Vanity Fair
Unfortunately, the trend has now spread beyond Disney, including Jenna Rose, one of the younger stars of Ark Music Factory (yes, the same group that produced for Rebecca Black). After her first single, “My Jeans” (which was at least age-appropriate, albeit terrible), she released the video for “O.M.G.” featuring herself in tiny spandex shorts hip thrusting and shaking her “boom boom”. Not okay. Even Willow Smith’s “Whip My Hair” video didn’t seem entirely age-appropriate to me, although there was no inappropriate skin revealed. She just seemed to be wearing too much makeup for her age, a fact that was surprisingly unsettling to me. Let’s not forget about Lindsey Lohan, the former Parent Trap double-star and current face of drug use. What happened to the days when kids could be kids?
As a side comment, it would be interesting to follow this trend through profession. To my knowledge, no child actressesseem to have been caught in any compromising positions. Partial nudity and exploitation seem to be “all the rage” for singers only.
Now we are only left to wonder…. who made the decisions to allow these young girls to auction off their modesty for fame? According to most psychologists, the decision-making portion of our brains aren’t fully developed until we turn 25, and since these girls are underaged, it would seem that we have 1) their parents and 2) their managers to blame. Come to think of it, I’ve seen countless articles where pretty young things (including Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, and Rihanna) talk about their refusal to pose nude.
Jenna Rose and her girls dropping it low in "O.M.G."
While this decision is applaudable, one has to wonder why it’s such a big deal in the first place. What changed so that we can no longer value someone for just pure talent? (My favorite and most famous example is Lady Gaga: here we have a beautiful woman with an amazingly powerful voice who must resort to shock factor to get her name out there.) It’s a sad state of affairs knowing that the days of apple-pie child stars like Shirley Temple are nearly over.
Ironically, as I am finishing this article, “My Prerogative” by Britney Spears has just started blaring from my Pandora station. You really can’t escape it, can you?
-Irritated Irene
beingcoolish 
Posted on May 27, 2011
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