I just ran across this article. These panties were found in a junior girls department at Wal-Mart in Cary, North Carolina.
Apparently, Wal-Mart intends to teach young girls to commodify their bodies as early as possible. As common (yet no less distasteful) as the item would be ordinarily in an adult section and with the slow creeping of sexuality into children's lives , I shouldn't be surprised, but I am.
Let's just be serious for a moment. Advertisers and average people eternally looking for that one idea that will finally make them rich will do anything to make money. They will convince you of anything. It's not that they want you to believe anything in particular. They're not concerned with your life philosophy. They just want to make sure that you purchase whatever it is that they're pushing that day.
The problem is that they've gotten so good at it that they will alter you. Neither you nor they want to admit it, but they are better served if they can subtly alter you mind. How else would anyone consider buying their little girl panties that imply that girls do not need currency as long as they have something between their legs that men want? Would your grandmother have bought those for your mother? Would your great-grandmother have bought those for your grandmother?
We've slowly moved to this point in our society over the last century. We've changed as a society in a lot of ways. Many of these changes have been driven by the people. They have been gradual changes in culture that were in the works for several hundred years- political revolutions, civil rights revolutions, feminist revolutions. Beyond our gradual cultural change, there have been changes pushed forth for nothing more than greater profit margins for those who are concerned with such things. Once medicine was about health, now it's a race for profit. Once music was about beauty or storytelling, now it's about how much money someone can make. Once panties were about keeping little girl's butts warm, and now...
Well, it's easy to say, "Everyone's just out to make a buck!" and "Greed is destroying our society!" People do that all the time, but when does anyone give you a small everyday example?
Here.
Here is an example of a company taking something from you and your children to make a profit.
