Mall Rant.

Posted on February 16, 2009 by elizabeth

I'm beginning to dislike mall shopping in The OC. For one thing, I always forget to
dress up. Shopping is not a hobby for me; it's a mission. I dress  in
comfy clothes, walking shoes and throw a couple extra diapers in the
umbrella stroller. I think designer diaper bags and fancy strollers are
about as necessary as gold plated toilets and hubcaps.

I mean, they're cute and everything. But I don't have 1.5 children and money to burn.

Even with my get-in-get-out shopping methodology, the mall bugs me. Why does Victoria Secret throw 20 foot posters of some
chick's boobs in my sons' faces? I try to rush past, but my sons turn
into slow-motion robots, walking and staring and crashing into people
because they can't tear their eyes away.

"EYES ON MOMMY! EYES ON MOMMY!" I've started calling out before we pass
the store. But even that doesn't work because the next store is just as
bad.

This week at South Coast Plaza, the maternity clothing store displayed a picture of a model literally leaping through the air in a "sexy" maternity outfit. First of all, pregnant women don't leap through the air. And even if they did, they wouldn't do it while wearing 5 inch stiletto heels.

Good grief. If there's ONE TIME in a woman's life when she shouldn't have to look like a "sexy" pre-pubescent teenager it's while she's heavy with child! Honestly, who comes up with these offensive advertising campaigns? The same people who thought up the TV concept of "sexy OC housewives"?

It's enough to make me swear off mall shopping for good.

Or at the very least, go alone. My sons don't need to see the blatant objectification of women.

Especially women who are expectant mothers.

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  • http://confusedagnostic.blogspot.com/ Hannah

    Look on the bright side – at least you don’t live in the UK. Here, we’ve got a high street shop called Ann Summers (lingerie in the front, and all things leather and…containing batteries…in the back…) – their window displays don’t tend to be particularly subtle…

  • http://www.sixblessings.blogspot.com Carmen

    If I do go to the mall it is alone or with only one or two of the kiddos (a bit easier for me to distract them if they are fewer in number). I try to shop online! It’s much safer and you can even wear your p.j.’s and no one’s the wiser! : )

  • http://xanga.com/niksuela Nicole

    Having only daughters, this is an interesting one for me. Of course I don’t want them feeling like they have to live up to some imaginary air-brushed Victoria Secret standard, but at the same time I want them to know that feminine beauty is a real and beautiful thing. I don’t usually feel the “look away!” urgency with my girls, but I like to talk to them about it too. Anyway, it’s another one of those parenting moments that takes wisdom, I guess. Maybe I should pray for wisdom in the mall parking lot before we go in. . :)

  • http://www.heidijowhatdoyouknow.blogspot.com Heidi Jo

    the imagery is everywhere. and keeping it from our kids is next to impossible. what scares me is that at some point our sons will become immune to the beauty of the body…they will have seen so many images that it will no longer bring the response seen in the eyes of an 8 year old boy. that is sad.

    chad teaches theology of the body to ninth grade boys, and i have already informed him that we’re starting earlier than that with ours at home!

  • http://www.conversiondiary.com Jennifer (Conversion Diary)

    It never ceases to amaze me just how much our society has accepted it as true that a woman is only as valuable as she is sexy, thus pushing women to be sexy in EVERY SINGLE phase of life, from childhood (Wal Mart was selling thong panties for elementary school-aged kids for a while) through pregnancy, and even when they’re elderly (remember that “sexy” photo shoot Sophia Loren did a few years ago when she was in her 70′s?) It’s so sad.

  • http://flourishingmother.blogspot.com Andrea

    I agree. Almost as bad as the one Victoria’s Secret store that “kicked out” a lady nursing her baby. (I forget where this was.) Insane and messed up. Yeah, you can blatantly show your b**bs but to use them to feed your baby? Well, you get my point and my rant.

  • http://churchyear.blogspot.com Jessica Snell

    Hee. I like mall shopping in the OC (though I tend to head to Brea), but mostly for the air conditioning and the fountains and the chance to people watch.

    You are very right about feeling out of place if you don’t dress up. (Reminds me of that hilarious youtube fan commercial for Trader Joe’s: “all the hot moms in their yoga clothes”.) And about the giant pictures of other women’s breasts.

    I don’t know, maybe as my kids get older and notice more, I’m going to like going less.

  • http://www.famosix.blogspot.com WendyLou

    RIGHT THERE WITH YOU!!! I have two girls (11, 5) and two boys (9, 3). We rarely go to the mall together. One factor is Victoria’s (not so) Secret, and the other is who wants to take 4 kids to the mall!! Aack!! We talk very frankly about girls, and to a much lesser degree boys/men, who dress inappropriately. We are trying to teach our kids that their bodies are for their spouses to enjoy … LATER. Keep up the good fight!! Don’t give up, Mama!!

  • http://www.usborneconnection.com Tressa

    I hear you, sister!

    It’s so hard to teach our children (10,6) that women are just pieces parts. My son put it best when we saw a Victoria’s Secret poster, “Mom, where are her eyes and her smile? Why do they just show her breasts?”

  • kim

    Yes! I agree with all of what you’ve said on this subject.It is offensive and sad.I remember when I went to the grocery store with my first son, he was a baby at the time.All of sudden, I saw all the magazines in the check-out lines differently. All the scantily clad women and here we are, waiting in line, basically forced to look at them all. Young children are desensitized early on about seeing lots of skin and inappropriate poses. I’m glad to read of someone else’s discouragement on the subject.