No, They Don’t
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011By Glinda
The shirt.
I’m cool with everything about that outfit except the shirt. Fake hairpieces? Go for it. Leopard-print leggings? Fine! A jacket with dangling chains? Sometimes you can never have too many chains!
As a ten year old, I applaud her willingness to take sartorial risks. If you can’t dress any way you want when you are ten, then what good is it to be a kid? I have so far refrained from commenting on any of her outfits because, well, she’s ten years old. And at that time, she hadn’t purposefully put herself in the spotlight other than being the daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, so I didn’t feel comfortable saying anything about her, as simply being the daughter of someone famous doesn’t make you a public figure.
But now with her burgeoning music career placing her firmly in a self-chosen career path of wanting to be famous, I feel I must say something about that shirt.
I would never allow my son to wear a shirt that said “Girls Need Training” and I think it is no less demeaning when referencing boys. I just notice that it’s often just fine to say derogatory things about boys. Nobody bats an eyelash. But turn the situation around and everyone would be in an uproar.
The fact that a bajillion tween girls are going to see the video associated with this shirt saddens me.
And Jada, I’m disappointed in you. As the mother of a son as well as a daughter, I thought you would know better.