Childrearing
Gawking At Women Is Not Healthy Father-Son Bonding Time
I can’t help but think that it’s the same excuse that was used by a certain pageant mom to explain her daughter’s Pretty Woman hooker get-up. The logic goes, if the kids are too young to understand the context, it’s no big deal.
And yet, it is a big deal. Children understand a lot more than we give them credit for. And I don’t think that it takes a genius to figure out that a pretty woman with barely any clothes on is valued on her appearance. It doesn’t take a lot of context to understand that these restaurants are popular because they involve pretty women pampering and serving men, which is obviously what every man wants.
In an article about the growth of “breastaurants” at Fox News, the owner of Twin Peaks restaurant chain explains, “We believe in feeding the ego before feeding the stomach. Twin Peaks is about you, `cause you’re the man!” This is their business strategy. And it shouldn’t be hard to see how a young mind can interpret attractive women fawning on their father, and their father paying for the pleasure. When pretty girls pay attention to you, “you’re the man!”
As a culture, some of us are at least talking about young girls and the pressure they face early on. We’re discussing ways to protect young females from body image pressure or inappropriate exposure. We’re getting outraged about crotchless thongs being sold to young girls, as we well should. But we’re only looking at half of the problem. We should be just as outraged about fathers taking their sons with them to objectify women as we are about mothers dressing up their little girls for pageants. To fix this problem, we need to start at the beginning of the pattern. Ogling women shouldn’t be considered bonding time for dads and their little boys. No child should be in a restaurant that profits off of the sexualization and exploitation of women. And all kids should be taught to respect one another based on their personalities, not their appearance or the appearance of the people they surround themselves with.
Hooters picture courtesy of Hooters.com
I Get All The Chicks – Available at Target, Heartbreaker In Training – Available at JCPenney, Big Brother’s Wingman – Available at OshKosh, Certified Hunk – Available at Carters
