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Jewish World Review / June 25, 1998 / 1 Tamuz, 5758
Cal Thomas
PEOPLE LOOKING FOR CAUSES of the cultural decline -- including
why girls are engaging in sexual activity at ever-younger ages
-- might wish to consider the Spice Girls.
At a recent Washington-area appearance of the four
(formerly five) women, a near-capacity crowd -- including
mostly female children, some as young as 4 -- dressed up in
leopard-print miniskirts, platform shoes, midriff-baring tops
and hairdos that emulated the performers onstage.
I called my 13-year-old granddaughter to see what she thinks
of the Spice Girls. "I don't like them," she said, "because of
the way they dress and how I hear they behave offstage."
Suddenly the cost of private school and the benefit of parents
who provide direction and don't let her follow wherever her
glands might lead appear to be paying off.
One of this minimally talented group's popular songs is called
"Naked." The women sit behind four chairs and perform in
a way that suggests they are wearing no clothing. Do parents
think this is cute? Other songs, such as "Do It" and "2
Become 1," have sexual overtones. Still others, such as
"Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves," have feminist
connotations.
A Washington Post story on the group's appearance mentions
20-year-old Lisa Pillow, who apparently suffers from acute
maturation disorder. She calls herself "Kitty Spice" and is
dressed in baby-blue fur panties and matching cropped top,
white fishnet pantyhose and a white marabou boa. She has
brought her 5-year-old niece, who is similarly dressed, to the
affair. A reporter says Pillow's outfit might be cute if she were
10, but on the 20-year-old, "one can't help think centerfold,
centerfold, do you have a coat?" Someone should have
arrested this woman for contributing to the delinquency of a
minor.
Spice Girls are a long way from "Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs" and similar wholesome entertainment available for
people of this age group when I was a child. But then our
generation mostly stayed together as families, only one parent
worked outside the home, drugs were bought at the local
pharmacy with a doctor's prescription, and sex was too
private to be talked about outside the locker room where
more fiction than fact was told.
Also attending the performance were an assortment of drag
queens and other adults adorned in various costumes so that
an uninformed observer might take the event for a
Halloween party. How did parents explain that? One writer
said that "adults transform the Spice Girls from earnest
representatives of young girls' need to feel powerful,
appreciated and cool into high camp." I don't know about the
powerful and cool parts, but children used to count on
appreciation coming from their parents. Apparently this is
another privilege that has been ceded to culture and day-care
workers because two-income households no longer have the
time and lack the moral authority to properly train their
children.
We increasingly teach young girls to adopt the culture's image
of what they should be, judging themselves by their level of
coolness, attractiveness and ability to sexually manipulate
boys. Parents who are co-conspirators in this cultural rape of
their daughters ought to be ashamed of themselves, but they
obviously have no shame or they wouldn't take their kids to
see the Spice Girls.
Too many parents have surrendered their child-rearing
responsibilities. They think that having a pouty face and a bad
attitude are the worst things that can happen to their
daughters. They aren't. Out-of-wedlock pregnancy, STDs and
broken homes are far worse. Parents who take their young
daughters to see such things as the Spice Girls are accessories
in eroding their daughters' innocence, in complicity with the
sex educators in many of the government schools.
Girls are being herded at earlier ages into attitudes and
practices far from the "sugar and spice and everything nice"
we used to think, or at least wished, that little girls were made
of.
Sugar and Spice Girls
The stage names, even the real names, of the Spice Girls are
less important than the messages they send to the mostly
pre-pubescent audience. Even more disturbing is what is
going in the minds of parents and other relatives who take
them to the concerts.
Oh, ain't they just delicious, ah, wooden? 
