By Louise Livesey | 9 January 2008, 10:41

We’ve all seen how children’s clothing has become more and more sexualised, well the next move is apparently waxing for pubescents. Oh yes braxilians for the pre-teens….

girl.au.com, a website for the nine-fifteen year market contains a couple of articles promoting waxing of the pubes (note this for an age group only just developing pubic hair) including this particularly nice quote from one of the sisters responsible for starting the Brazilian craze in the UK

The youngest J Sister Jonice Padilha told Salon.com: “It makes you sexy. Makes you fashion. When I don’t have my bikini wax, I don’t feel to have sex with my husband. I feel dirty. And even himself say, ‘Try a bikini wax!’ I feel free. I feel clean. I feel sensuous even when I take a shower. I feel like I’ve been taken care of.”

From Girl.com.au

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According to The Age (also an Oz publication) the site also says “”Nobody really likes hair in their private regions and it has a childlike appeal.”“, although I haven’t managed to track that quote down on the original site.

So we’ve had pole-dancing kits for teenagers, thongs and “Porn Star in Training T-shirts” and now we’re flogging brazilian waxes to girls who, frankly, don’t have that much to wax. Partly the advice was flagged because last year Nair, of hair removal product fame:

released their Pretty range, aimed at 10 to 15-year-olds, or, as they call them, “first-time hair removers”. Girls — children — encouraged to wax and chemically remove hair from their barely pubescent bodies.

From The Age

The Age article neatly sums up what’s so wrong about this, including the way the marketing is trying to be as inoffensive as possible - after all who can criticize “pretty”, it’s like kicking puppies isn’t it?

Nair, in fact, devote a whole website to their new range including such gems as this:

So you’re at an age when the childhood fuzz is becoming thicker and coarser hair. It’s time to give some serious thought to removing it. If you’ve never dealt with hair removal before, it’s natural to feel a little bit nervous. But you’ll soon see, getting smooth, silky skin with Nair® depilatories is simple – and a fun way to treat yourself right!

From Nair

There is even a “Mom’s Corner” telling mothers everywhere that their role is to proactively tackle their daughters and encourage depilation.

So there you go, from the age of ten or so girls should be told to keep their bodies hairless and childlike, being a woman means looking like a pre-pubescent and that they let themselves and their families and friends down if they don’t. And we thought puberty was already confusing enough! And mothers note, your role is not to encourage your bright, beautiful daughter to enjoy her childhood and to become an intelligent, dedicated adult, no it’s to ensure she is hairless. Can there be any higher calling in life? Why are we telling ten years (and younger!) they need to be “sexy”? Don’t they need to be children first?

Photo by Ladypain and used under Creative Commons Licence