In an ABC report a controversial video streaming the internet was exposed and debated. Written by John Berman and Sarah Netter, the story goes on describing the video. A group of young girls, ranging between 7and 9 years old, took part in a dance competition held by the organization W.O.D. (World of Dance). The girls danced to Beyonce's "Single Ladies" in a not so young and innocent way. The video, which can be watched on YouTube, shows the reactions to not only the live audience, but the internet audience as well. Some people, including the parents see nothing wrong with the production. Others, including much of the YouTube audience and myself find many reasons why the dance in inappropriate. First off, the age of the girls is frightening. Young children especially girls, are growing up too fast. In an article, part of the NY Daily News, Dr. Phil McGraw weighed on the video and reality of girls growing up too fast. McGraw uses justifiable statements to describe the video such as "wildly inappropriate" and "sexually provocative." As a young woman myself, I could not agree any more with the words described above.
Children ages 7,8, and 9 should not be dancing inappropriately, especially trained to perform such behavior in front of thousands of people. Where are the parents in this? Do they realize the image the girls are making for themselves? The parents of one dancer had an interview with "Good Morning America" about the issue. The parents stand firm with their girl and state the video has been "...taken completely out of context." The father also stated "The girls weren't meant to be viewed by millions of people." With that said does the fact the girls are bumping and grinding and wearing provocative outfits at such a young age make it alright? No of course not! Just because the girls routine wasn't meant to be showed to anyone outside of the crowd does not make it acceptable for them to be behave in such a manner.
The actions taken by the parents, or lack of, is just as unacceptable as their daughter's actions are. With good parenting this story would have never existed. Hopefully the controversy paralyzes the need for such dancing and actions by children in the future and results in more effective parenting in the lives of their youth.
Children ages 7,8, and 9 should not be dancing inappropriately, especially trained to perform such behavior in front of thousands of people. Where are the parents in this? Do they realize the image the girls are making for themselves? The parents of one dancer had an interview with "Good Morning America" about the issue. The parents stand firm with their girl and state the video has been "...taken completely out of context." The father also stated "The girls weren't meant to be viewed by millions of people." With that said does the fact the girls are bumping and grinding and wearing provocative outfits at such a young age make it alright? No of course not! Just because the girls routine wasn't meant to be showed to anyone outside of the crowd does not make it acceptable for them to be behave in such a manner.
The actions taken by the parents, or lack of, is just as unacceptable as their daughter's actions are. With good parenting this story would have never existed. Hopefully the controversy paralyzes the need for such dancing and actions by children in the future and results in more effective parenting in the lives of their youth.
“The ‘World of Dance Tour’ is the largest West Coast urban dance competition,” as stated on the World of Dance website (http://www.worldofdancetour.com/event.php?eid=10) and that’s exactly what these girls were doing, they were showing off their dance moves in this national competition. I understand some of your points about how this particular dance might be ‘inappropriate’ for girls in this age range but if you really think about it think of the professional dancers, I’m not talking about strippers, that exist now. Do you think that they started at age 20 and learned how to dance like they do now over a few days? No, they had to have years and years of experience and practice. Upon doing some research, I found that “most dancers begin formal training at an early age—between 5 and 15.” (http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos094.htm) With the skill that these girls have, I doubt that this is just for fun it probably includes a dream they wish to fulfill one day. The parents of these young dancers have also stated ‘that the girls were not trying to be overly sexual, but instead gotten many of the moves from the Alvin and the Chipmunks kid’s movie that was recently released.’ So should movies like ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel’ not be showed also because of their inappropriateness?
ReplyDeleteThe outfits that they were wearing in this video were a little ‘provocative’, as you said, but at the same time the costumes are suppose to relate to what the dance is or the vibe your suppose to receive from the dance, so I think the outfit was a perfect selection for this particular dance. These costumes shouldn’t really reflect who the kids or parents are or what they stand for because there is a very big chance that these 7, 8, and 9 year old girls wear things like these on a regular basis. So should the question really be about this performance being inappropriate or should it be whether the parents are taking the step to make the distinction between what’s appropriate on stage and what’s appropriate off stage with their daughters?
I completely agree with Savannah, I used to be on a competition dance team and started off at a young age myself. These girls are doing very advanced dance moves that most people don't learn until there a teenager and it is pretty impressive. Maybe there outfits are alittle "too grown up" for them but it does go along with the song and the style of dancing that they were doing. When they have these advanced dancing skills they'll be doing more dances like this to showcase there talents. I will agree that some of the dance moves were more provocative then most 7 or 8 years old are usually doing but it wasn't awful.
ReplyDeleteThe blog's picture was ultimately what drew me in to find out more. Upon reading the title, it was clear to me that these young girls had competed in a dance competiton and that their outfits where bring up great controversy. It definitely, caught my attention and gave me a reason to continue reading.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to know how this was allowed. I wanted to know why these young girls' parents had not pushed for outfits that were less revealing and more age appropriate. Had these young girls been put in outfits that were less destracting and less sexy, then more people would be able to appreciate their ability to dance. The dance moves these girls displayed were, in fact, highly developed for girls of their ages (7-9). However, the outfits were quite provacative and therefore their talent is being overlooked by many.