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That's Entertainment
The New York Times just wrote about the apparent explosion in the commercialization of kiddie beauty products. Small children, it seems, are having "makeover slumber parties" and other beauty parties. I have to say, this wasn't my thing as a child and then I grew up and it still wasn't my thing. How much fun could it really be to go to a party and have everyone else get together, decide on the ways in which your looks are wanting and then go about trying to improve you.
Of course, Felix has had his fingernails (such as they are) painted by one of his friends several times, though the general effect is less glamorous than it is "just came from art class."
The article suggests that these parties are turning children into little consumers, too young to realize how a whole handful of industries are acting upon them and their protean self-esteem. I just can't get around the fact that this just seems like no fun at all.
Sure, all of this is part of the growing-up-too-fast miasma that is indeed nightmarish, but who is generating the interest in these parties? Are the kids asking for them? When do parties become single-sex events? Is this an actual issue or just something unappealing that crops up from time to time?
I will say this, though, there are a number of large nail salons that I pass quite regularly and almost constantly I see young girls (8-12 years-old, I figure) getting pedicures (mostly). And frankly, that seems a bit more unpleasant than kids painting their own toes.
But there's no accounting for taste at all, on the other side of things, it seems that a museum was asked to return an Austrian tank to its owner, Arnold Schwarzenegger because he wants to use it for fun, according to the Associated Press, he will give rides in the tank to "inner inner-city children in the Los Angeles area as a reward for staying in school, avoiding drugs and working hard."
Perhaps again I'm missing the point. Maybe I'm just not familiar with the contemporary concept of fun. Maybe a trip in a tank is better than a roller-coaster. More fun thank a pedicure too, possibly.
posted by Elise at 7:41 PM
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