Little Girls in Bikinis at Chinese Car Show Controversy
by Li on Tuesday, January 22, 2013
From Sina:
Little Girls in Bikinis Posing as Car Models at the Wuhan Automobile Exhibition Cause Controversy
As reported by Wuhan’s Evening Newspaper, at the “2012 Chutian Automobile Festival” held on November 16th at the Wuhan International Conference & Exhibition Center, several little girls in bikinis posing like car models, attracting crowds of onlookers.
Photos of these little girls in bikinis were posted on Weibo, inciting strong reactions, with comments nearly “all one-sided” against the organizer of the auto show, the automobile manufacturers, and the parents of these little girls. One visitor to the car exhibition who saw the “show” commented that having little children wearing bikinis as car models is businesses harming “the buds of our motherland” and that the parents were being absolutely irresponsible.
“They should get their minds out of the gutter?” said the mother of one of the little girls, feeling very misunderstood and wronged. She said that she had encouraged her daughter to compete in several children’s model contests, believing that the catwalk would keep her child physically fit and help to build a more confident and open personality. “And it’s not like its illegal for kids to wear bikinis.”
The show was co-hosted by Qisefeng Modeling Agency, whose director Zhang Ping said that they held a Parent-Child Contest at the car show, hoping to find potential future super models. There were only two events in the children modeling contest held on November 16th—a talent show and car model posing, and wearing a bikini was not required. Zhang Ping says these girls were just contestants, not car models, and there was no business relationship between the parents, the Challenge Contest and the organizer of the event.
However, Feng Jialin, a research associate of Hubei Academy of Social Sciences, indicated that wearing bikinis for show would have negative effects on girls of such a young age.
Firstly, it is probable that young girls that start modeling at a young age might easily think that it’s easy money; hence they lack the motivation to study hard at school. Secondly, overly-revealing clothing could have unfavorable influences on children’s psychological health, especially on their sexual development. Wearing bikinis at such a young age is beyond what people could accept psychologically, and is rather inappropriate.
From the perspective of child psychology, parents should try their best to keep children from forms of art or behavior that are not well-accepted among the public, especially little girls; and revealing clothing should not be worn by them.
