A common, probably best to suggest universal, issue parents deal with in raising their daughter –  I haven’t any straight forward answer here, and I guess neither does anyone else parenting under whatever societal boundaries they derive their ideals from, but I do find something — perhaps beside the point– a little head scratching with this edition of the Nation’s “Agony Aunt” advice column…

How should a feminist mom deal with an 11-year-old daughter who wants to dress as if headed to an audition for an early scene in Pretty Woman?—Worried Mom

“Early scene in Pretty Woman”?  Is that a euphemism for “whore”?  Avoid that issue by layering?  Why is that movie on her mind, anyways?

Or… is this a to specify a particular style choice from one fictional prostitute?  That would explain why that movie is on her mind, if its specific to the specific dress demanded by the daughter.

More to the point, the 11 year old girl would likely not know the reference, so I’m guessing this part of the advice is worthless —

Tell her she can’t get her Julia Roberts on at school or on public transit, for example, but explain why.

At this point in time, Britney Spears (by then we’d stop calling out dressing like sex workers and move to “tramp”?) would be ancient history.

Maybe we can have a historical lecture on how, say, Victorian era Prostitute (sex worker, if I must) styles influenced styles moving forward into the twentieth century– the color red bursting forward to become Nancy Reagan’s favorite dress color, for instance.  Drone on long enough, and it might bore the daughter enough she’d dress sensibly on her own accord just to make it stop.

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