Ultimately, i do agree with you, although i must hasten to add that there is absolutely no way for us to tell how much these girls understand about what they are doing or not, which makes it difficult to form a sensible judgement beyond the knee-jerk explosiveness that Pathos seems to so enjoy.
Personally i don't see this dance as wrong, but that is probably because i simply cannot bring myself to see any sexualisation in it. I personally do not think this is degrading or dehumanizing or anything rediculous like that, but i can definitely see the point you're coming from, and i can agree that this is perhaps skirting a little too close to the line for comfort.
Well, of course. When I say the girls don't understand, I hope I am understood to be saying, "most likely" or "statistically". While we don't know what they really do understand, we can gather that kids are supposed to develop in a certain way and that even their understanding of what they are doing, what the song means, and how others will perceive this can be construed as a problem.
I don't think the dance itself is wrong. I tend to hesitate when discussing these sorts of things, however, as it can be rather confusing when I explain myself. I'm glad you all seem to be following quite well, though. I think the dance, as the girls are, is quite an innocent display of their desire to be taken seriously while having fun and doing what they like. They probably are more interested in the music than the lyrics. When it becomes degrading or dehumanizing is when people start to call them sluts or say, "That's a whore's uniform!" or say that this is "what's wrong" with America. What they see as having fun is perceived as a very negative thing to others and they are seen as little other than dolls or puppets.
It's not so much the dancing that is degrading and dehumanizing; it's the context it appears to be happening in. It's either an exhibition or a contest and there is little chance these girls picked
those outfits and got the choreography
that good by themselves. They may have picked the song, but I doubt that as well. They are likely members of a common dance class that were picked because they are very good at dancing, which they are. They were then given a song which was picked by an
adult, outfits picked by an
adult, and taught dance moves picked by an
adult. Stop me if I'm repeating myself.
The issue for me isn't the girls dancing. It really isn't. I have a long outstanding issue with child pageantry organized by adults (as opposed to by children) and these weird mother/daughter beauty pageants and dance competitions. The issue is that these girls were most likely influenced by adults to do a performance they most likely knew would turn out to look sexual. The issue is the pelvic thrusts and chest wiggles that
some adult taught them. Really, it's the fact that adults motivated these children to do these things, knowing how it would look.
Honestly, it's little girls dancing. That isn't inherently sexual. Like I said prior, though, it's the amalgamation of all of these factors that the girls may have had no control over. Their goal is to have fun dancing. An adult, however, might want to show them off as sexy for some strange reason.