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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2009
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Turning Tricks, or 'Trick or Treat'?

Parents unable to counter sexy costume trend: expert

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(Newser) – No, your eyesight isn't hexed: Young girls really are dressing like French maids and prostitutes every Halloween. And their skirts will only get higher, because pop culture has drowned out any last echo of parental advice, author Diane E. Levin tells the Los Angeles Times. The co-author of So Sexy So Soon says that even pre-tween girls are baring flesh every October to emulate "Disney princesses or Hannah Montana."

As girls dress more like women, and women like girls, men are struggling to distinguish sexual boundaries. And parents are feeling increasingly at war with popular culture. How did we get here? Deregulation of television in the early 1980s, Levin says; with the boob tube so dominant, parents' only in is to "help children make sense" of pop culture, "not just to give them the 'right' answers, but to hear what they have to say about it too."

Young girls' desire to dress sexy on Halloween shows that pop culture has drowned out parental advice, says author Diane E. Levin.
Young girls' desire to dress sexy on Halloween shows that pop culture has drowned out parental advice, says author Diane E. Levin.   (Shutterstock)
Girls once made up their own personas for Halloween, says author Diane E. Levin. Now marketers sell them personas:
Girls once made up their own personas for Halloween, says author Diane E. Levin. Now marketers sell them personas: "This is about marketers trying to hijack kids' imaginations."   (Shutterstock)
As TV and film have more influence on kids' lives,
As TV and film have more influence on kids' lives, "The pop culture box is getting bigger and bigger, and the home and family box is getting crowded out," says author Diane E. Levin.   (Shutterstock)
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There was once a time when children were trying out personas that were of their own making. It wasn't a matter of having grown-ups—marketers—saying, 'This will make you look like such and such a character.' - Author Diane E. Levin

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