Look, I'm sick of this

[soubie]

 But unfortunately they don't have a 'comment' window to answer back.

www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jun/14/girls-hit-puberty-at-nine

Let's ignore the fact that she's talking about a 'sad paradox of modern life' as if it were something that involved anyone making a choice about these things. But I'm not used to seeing playground rumour pretty

Comments

[edoraslass]

This is one of those things that's always made the responsibility of the girl involved, as opposed to, oh, I dunno, educating the MALES and other females as to how to not be ASSHOLES, and not to assume that physical development has ANYTHING to do with one's level of sexual desire/activity.

IMO kids should all be taught to KNOW BETTER than to leap to the conclusion that the person with the boobs must be gagging for it, simply because they suddenly have boobs. WRONG ANSWER. It seems like a form of victim-blaming - not boobs victimize their owner, per se, but that once you have them, you must now fend off all sorts of bullshit that is based solely on your physical development, which, as you rightly say, isn't exactly something any of us can choose or control. The person with the boobs is held entirely responsible - and to blame- for the attention they're getting from the assholes, like it's her fault her hormones went insane

[soubie]

.....well seeing as the person who wrote this was (generally speaking) an ADULT, it's a bit difficult expecting kids to be taught otherwise, isn't it? Then again, one hopes teachers, who know the kids as people rather than statistics, would be a little more aware. However, unless you actually catch a kid calling another 'slut' then it's pretty hard to police. Besides which, there are all sorts of excuses that can be given for that kid's behaviour- like that they didn't know what it meant, or at least thought it was funny and didn't get the full implications...

You've pretty much nailed it that it's a sort of victim-blaming though- specifically that the child with breasts is to blame for the fact that it makes other people a little uncomfortable to see the juxtaposition of something 'sexy' with someone who is obviously off-limits. I don't think little girls who develop early do- necessarily- I didn't- think of it as sexual, even in a 'shit, I'm not ready for this to apply to me' way. Mind you, I was relatively old when my brother was