Photos of 10 year old Thylane Lena-Rose Blondeau actually make me feel queasy. Sadly, that’s not the effect they will have on all adults who look at them.
She is a beautiful child. But in the pages of French Vogue’s “Enfants” magazine she is posing like an adult woman, wearing stilettos, dangly jewelry, tons of make-up, sporting a come-hither pout with upswept hair and, in one shot, a gold evening gown slashed down to her J-Lo area. In other words the child has been sexualized for public consumption.
Who knows where pedophiles come from? But it doesn’t take a person with a degree in psychology to see that this kind of child-as-whore “art” doesn’t help when it makes little girls appear as sexual beings. Who does it serve to show a child who’s more suited to playing with dolls or chasing frogs, as a the personification of an adult male fantasy? That’s a rhetorical question.
Her mother, an actress, is telling critics to calm down. “My daughter isn’t even naked. No need to blow this out of proportion.”
Really?
You could dress a 10 year old boy up any way you please, in a suit, in bathing trunks, it wouldn’t matter, and he would never be appealing to women on any level except a desire to make him a sandwich and help him with his homework. I don’t believe you can sexualize a boy child to normal adults of the opposite sex. It’s a disgusting thought unless you’re Mary Kay Latourneau and there aren’t many Mary Kays, thank goodness. But it can be done with girls from a young age. Remember JonBenet Ramsay? She was only six and when she was made up for a beauty pageant she looked like a southern oil magnate’s trophy wife.
Shame on this girl’s Mother, shame on the magazine and shame on anyone who makes a judgment on the child’s appearance. There will be plenty of time for society to judge her when she gets older. Admit it ladies, we all know men who won’t even acknowledge our existence, whether at work or wherever, because they have judged us to be “un-bleep-able”, and the potential to bleep is the only reason they would bother to interact with a woman. It’s nowhere near most men, but it’s some men, and they’re gross penis-led Neanderthals who create a woman’s value based on how she looks. Oh women do it to each other too, but these guys are more blatant about it.
This time in Thylane’s life ought to be more carefree. Her biggest concern should be about having fun, seeing the latest hit movie and making sure she gets good marks in school. I’m horrified that the adult women around her aren’t protecting that precious time for her.