Short Response 10/05/10

When reading Sex “R” Us, I cannot help thinking about a little girl -- Suri Cruise. Now a only four-year-old girl, Suri has been a fashion celebrity for years. Fashion magazines, newspapers, and blogs never stop talking about her dressing. She is doing a lot of things, about fashion, what most girls before 12 or 10 (since Rebecca Walker first had sex at 11) would not bother to think about. She wears lipstick knowing that which color is better for going out. She wears shoes with heels, though not real high-heel shoes. But how many girls at her age wear that kind of shoes? I agree that girls and women have our rights to determine what we want to wear, but I can hardly believe that it is really Suri who choose to dress like a doll. Although I can always see “Suri picking lipsticks” and hear Tom Cruise saying that : “Suri dresses herself”, I still believe it is Suri’s parents , Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, who instruct her to do that. I do not believe a 3-year-old girl would wake up and know that which angle is best for shoot (Suri often stares at camera from certain angle). But why Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes “encourage their daughter to parade her little body around as a competitive activity”(ES159)? They must know well that how harmful it is for girl at such young age to wear lipsticks and people with basic knowledge would understand that shoes with heels are unhealthy to even grown-ups. Are they trying to catch men’s eyes? I doubt this either since Tom Cruise is rich enough that he can provide Suri an affluent life till death. But why do they make her an eye candy at risk? I think it may because Tom and Katie believe that, though they may never accept, girls are sexual object and they are born to look good!