I've read it all now...and I don't think I was too far off base!?

I've some other thoughts now though...in reading some of the brilliant responses from some of our most prolific members!

I've a feeling that the feel of this issue from a parents point of view is...You can't make the pervs stop looking and lusting, so don't let the girls put it on and they won't be noticed. Is this about right?

If so...

I'm in total agreement with what Loulabelle said...about sexy is sexy no matter if it's in a skin baring outfit or a potato sack! There will always be perverted people and we can't change that no matter how hard we try! Ever hear the expression, "undressing them with my eyes"? It's a matter of who we encounter...not what we are wearing.

OK...so you say...but why add to the perversion by revealing more?

To that I say...Style is style. I wore the midriffs and hip huggers to "fit in". I didn't do it to make the pervs come out of the woodwork. If they reared their ugly head, it wasn't my fault as I was trying to be a teen who fit in and didn't get teased and treated badly for not knowing how to be cool. Being a teen is really a tough time in our lives...TRY AND REMEMBER THAT folks of all parentage (those who have and those who will someday have).

I've gotta tell you all this...

Back in my day (oh gawd..I hate that expression), I didn't have the monetary advantage that most of my friends were afforded though allowances and clothing money, etc....so I had to work for what money I did get for my wardrobe. I'd take certain outfits and mix and match so that most people wouldn't notice that I had worn "that" ever before. Ya had to be kinda tricky to pull this off...but I got really good at it...aquiring a top here and a belt there and some shoes another time. It was the hardest part of my youth in trying to fool my peers into thinking I had new and cool clothing each and every time they saw me. Only my very closest friends knew my insider secret. At times, a close friend would give me something her parents had given her money for...a pair of clogs of hers, that I loved sticks, in my mind. My best friend, Ruth, knew how much I loved them and I could never afford anything like them and so she'd let me wear them occasionally and then one day she said. "I'll tell mom I left them on the bus or something...just don't wear them over here and they are yours"! She knew I wouldn't think of this as charity because she knew almost EVERYTHING about me and my life and still she was my best friend.

Why do I tell you all of this? To remind you all of just how hard it is to be a teenager!

I mean...who was the first teen to think of dying his/her hair purple? Why'd they do it? To "revolt" against authority (parents and otherwise) and stake a claim to fame in his own generation! Does that very person still have purple hair to this day? I think not (but can't be positive...lol!). Who was the first teen to go goth? What in the motherfuckinhell was she/he thinking? I want to be different. I'm not going to research "differences through the generations/ages"...I like it and I am doing it!

Now...we all know...in our maturity and infinite wisdom...that most "styles" are repeats of age old "been there, done that"...and that if everyone does it, it doesn't make YOU an individual. But these are teens we are talking about! Impressionable, immature, go with the flow teens! REMEMBER that time? I sure do (pining for those days!!!...lol again)!

I'll admit it...I DO always try and play "the devil's advocate" role. And yes...I am not a parent. But, I am damn sure if I was...the last thing I would want to do with my child is to alienate her...or him for that matter...with clothing issues that connotate that sex is bad and to keep your mind off of it till I say it is ok to think of it!

Instead, I would look um over before they left the house...tell them WOW, you look great...I might go buy something like that tomorrow...and give them their curfew...kiss their face off...and tell them to be so careful and think before they do anything...and then kiss um again and let them go...to think about me in that same outfit!!!

^^^^^^^^^^Gotcha!

Just seeing the forrest fore the trees folks!

Love ya!

__________________
Minds are like parachutes. They only work when they are open.

~Thomas Dewar~