Recently I went against my instincts and walked into an Abercrombie and Fitch in Charleston because I was told they had polo shirts on sale and I needed a couple. As I walked to the clearance section, I was reminded why I had not been in an Abercrombie in so long. The images were nearly pornographic in the store. Though I probably should have turned around, I plodded on and found the shirts and took one into the dressing room where, to my surprise, my relatively fit 6’1″ 220 lbs frame that normally fills a large shirt was constricted inside an XXL. I felt like Chris Farley, “Fat guy in a little coat…”
All of that led me to believe once again and even stronger than before that nothing in Abercrombie fits. They size their guys shirts to make young boys feel like big men (honestly, why else would a XXL be cut to fit a guy under 200 lbs?). They size their women’s clothes to help teenage girls bear as much skin as humanly possible and promote their stores with advertising that suggests promiscuity and over-indulged sexuality more than clothing.
Of course, its not just Abercrombie, its lots of retailers today that help our children and teens look more like citizens of Sodom than citizens of heaven. However, I don’t blame the retailers alone. Sure, they are partly responsible, but ultimately, parents, you are to blame when you allow and encourage your children to over-sexualize themselves.
In an opinion column for CNN recently titled Parents, Don’t Dress Your Little Girls Like Tramps, LZ Granderson wrote,
It’s easy to blast companies for introducing the sexy wear, but our ire really should be directed at the parents who think low rise jeans for a second grader is cute. They are the ones who are spending the money to fuel this budding trend. They are the ones who are suppose to decide what’s appropriate for their young children to wear, not executives looking to brew up controversy or turn a profit.I get it, Rihanna’s really popular. But that’s a pretty weak reason for someone to dress their little girl like her.
I don’t care how popular Lil’ Wayne is, my son knows I would break both of his legs long before I would allow him to walk out of the house with his pants falling off his butt. Such a stance doesn’t always makes me popular — and the house does get tense from time to time — but I’m his father, not his friend.
Friends bow to peer pressure. Parents say, “No, and that’s the end of it.”
I’ve read some of Anderson’s other stuff and I’m not always in agreement with him, but he has hit the nail on the head with this one.
Nothing in Abercrombie fits because their goal of selling clothes that over-sexualize does not line up with God’s goals for our bodies. For believers, this has to be a biblical question and we must provide our kids with biblical answers. Why do we care about what they wear and how they present themselves?
- Because their body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19-20)
- Because we are called to present our bodies as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1-2)
- Because we are called to flee youthful lusts (2 Timothy 2:22)
- Because in addition to God, our bodies belong also to our spouse or (to the unmarried) future spouse (Song of Solomon)
- Because lust is a BIG DEAL and causing someone to sin is a BIG DEAL too (Matthew 5:27-28, Matthew 18:6)
