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Comment by jules | Hacker News Reader

One of the things I find incomprehensible is the clothes and makeup that a minority of young girls are wearing that from my perspective makes them look like tiny 20 year olds that are planning to go to a nightclub. Or do I remember incorrectly and is that an American phenomenon?

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I have two young daughters and my mother is always on about this. It's her contention that most of the young girls that end up abducted and murdered were inappropriately dressed, and that this attracts sexual predators, so she's keen that our girls are dressed well. Honestly, since she pointed this out and I started paying attention to descriptions of what victims of this kind of crime were wearing, I have to say she's got a point. Not to blame anybody but the perpetrator, of course.

Be careful there, that logic doesn't hold for a lot of things. It might not be the clothes per se, so much as the activity and/or location they were at and the clothes just happened to be appropriate for the activity.

Example: Maybe girls are attacked at nightclubs a lot. You can't blame the clothes. The reason is probably because nightclubs are usually open at night. And(at least in the bay area) some of the cooler nightclubs for younger people are in sorta-questionable locations in terms of safety. And finally, if you're a young lady going to a nightclub you're probably going to dress to look attractive. The whole nightclub environment, young ladies dress up attractively... guys being guys(TM)... add alcohol... shady-looking people wandering about directly outside the nightclub... a lot of things to blame there, but clothes wouldn't be top of the list.

Oh sure, you're quite right. I'm not really making any statistical clams. Just an anecdote. You can't legislate about appropriate clothing for young women, this isn't a political issue it's a matter of private choice.

Just to be clear, I was talking about girls that are around 6-10 years old. And I absolutely do not see this as an excuse for approaching them sexually in any way (let alone worse). Despite their outfit and make-up it's patently clear that they are children not adults. I just find it very weird to see that they want this, allowed and perhaps even encouraged by their parents. It's understandable that children want to be older, the weird thing is the sexualized way this is done.

That reminds me of the joke that convicted pedophiles always seem to have greasy hair, thick glasses and bad teeth.

What is it about that look that children find so attractive?

Yep, I'm probably going to regret not using a throwaway account...

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