See! This is why I come here every day. (No, not to read about scantily dressed teenage girls!) Thoughtful musing drawn from asute observation. There is a whole world in this single event.

I’ve always been impressed with the self-regulatory structures that given societies can develop for themselves, whether is is the office gang or the religious sect. Even high schoolers.

You may be right about the kids showing too much (I’d have to make a thorough observation to judge for myself, of course), but I suspect it is the “old” shaking their heads at the “young” (defined by the space of one or two years). I’d guess the seniors see themselves as mature, experienced adults, but we all know that this distinction barely lasts a moment when viewed from the other direction.

I think it is like wearing makeup or driving fast. When you first start out, you generally can’t help but do it excessively. The youngsters are discovering that they are beautiful, and our commercialized, sex-obsessed society is marketing to them. The result of this combination is not unexpected.

I wonder what faux pas ‘06 committed when they were pups. And I wonder if comments were made about them.

(P.S. Your blog is worth the visit every single time!)

Did you see the item in the tribune back around Valentine’s day about one of the middle school principals in this town sending a letter home to the parents asking for help with the way their little girls were dressing?  It was even on the Boston news channels (slow news week, probably).  At any rate, she was appalled at the way the kids were coming to school (these are middle schoolers now.......) and even called a certain parents to come in and bring proper clothing for their daughters!!  It was a riot and of course, you know it did not go over well. I work for someone who has an 11 year old daughter and I chuckle when I see what she wears--Good for the class of ‘06!!  Amazing they can see it and sort of nice, too!!

The new big (or tiny) thing this year appears to be a modified tube top thingy with really stretchy spaghetti straps that are more for show than function. The tube tops are rather, shall we say, translucent so that variations in skin tone are quite pronounced. It’s the next best thing to wearing saran wrap. There is something to be said for 6 month winters, I guess. Too cold most of the year to wear these things. But honest to God, when I was up at the school the other day I wasn’t even sure where to look...mostly at my feet. I felt like a missionary lady or something.

No Cyn, I didn’t hear about that story, but good for the principal. Being the parent of a boy, I suppose I see (and hear) things from a different perspective—but do parents *really* enjoy seeing their little girls running around with everything showing? I mean, what’s the point at which they stop liking it? There’s not much of a line left between going topless and what they’re wearing.

The thing that kind of amuses me, though, is hearing the comments from the lad and his friends who are, let’s face it, thoroughly red blooded males. Nevertheless, they seem to be reverting to the rather old-fashioned point of view that a little mystery is a lot sexier than flaunting it all, all the time. It seems that even raging hormones can suffer from battle fatigue after a while.

Pablo, this would make a fascinating study, wouldn’t it? There are probably many possible issues at play. The seniors are, undoubtedly, enjoying their *wisdom* while they’re king of the hill. Next year they’ll be back at the bottom of the social heap again. I think most are well aware of that and are playing the game of senior statesmen to the hilt. It’s fun, but a blip in their life’s timeline. Nevertheless, it does give them a platform for speaking their minds. Social conventions and social regulatory structures are rather fascinating.