A young women with heavy makeup and stilettos modelling a dress, that has a cutting that goes down to the waist, poses “seductively” in a high-end fashion magazine, like Vogue.

There’s nothing unusual about that.

But…

What if that model was just a 10-year old child?  Is it still alright for her to wear a dress that cuts down to the waist, even if she was posing for Vogue Enfants (Vogue Kids)? And under which circumstances would this be appropriate?

Thylane Lena-Rose Blondeau is the child model I’m talking about and that was her photo shoot in Vogue Enfant, which brought up the issue of the “sexualisation of children in advertising and media”.

This issue affects children. Some children consider the models in fashion magazines to be their role model and when they see other children (same age) wearing makeup or wearing certain clothes, they want to fit in to their role model’s culture (visible artifact – behaviour, dress) by dressing like them. Even if the model doesn’t usually dress or look as he/ she does in magazines, viewers of the magazines are still under the impression that the look on the magazine is what is the accepted norm because not many people get to see what the model looks like on a daily basis.

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On the news, I hear about how the police has once again broken up another international child pornography ring, which the article has mentioned as  “one of the most pernicious ills of our era”, and the amount of people they arrested; but when a fashion magazine puts up pictures of children in seductive poses, I can’t help but wonder if these pictures are helping to fuel the sick fantasies of these people.

I believe that Vogue Enfants should consider the appropriateness of its advertised clothes for its target market (children and parents). Does persuading this group to buy clothes really need seductive poses?