"To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing,
if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?"
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803

Tuesday, July 13, 2004

It was just a few days ago I was having a discussion with a friend about how slutty young girls are dressing these days.  I’m no prude by any means, but nobody will ever convince me that a girl in junior high school needs to be wearing a thong.  So I was pleased to read this

An 11-year-old girl from Redmond, Washington, says she has had enough of the low-cut, tight-fitting styles of today. And recently she did something about it.

Rising sixth-grader Ella Gunderson wrote a letter to a Nordstrom department store, complaining of how few modest clothing choices were available for girls. She says she had two very important reasons for objecting to the immodest styles she found so prevalent on the store’s racks: “One, they’re not comfortable, and two, you really shouldn’t sacrifice your human dignity for the sake of fashion.”

The Seattle-area youngster wrote that, while clothes shopping at a local Nordstrom store, a clerk had suggested to her that “there is only one look,” a bit of fashion advice Ella resisted. “If that is true,” she wrote to Nordstrom, “then girls are suppost (sic) to walk around half naked. I think that you should change that.” Ella also stated, “I see all these girls who walk around with pants that show their belly button and underwear. Even at my age, I know that is not modest.”

The child’s letter, which founds its way up the Nordstrom’s corporate ladder—all the way to executive vice president Pete Nordstrom—drew an overwhelming response and prompted company officials to write back, promising to offer a wider range of clothes. And as Ella’s mother, Pam Gunderson, notes, not only did Nordstrom’s write back, but so did almost every girls’ clothier around. “There seems to be a note that was struck that really spoke to a lot of people about this,” she says.

It is quite possible to dress sexy and show off your figure without walking around like a $3 whore, especially if you haven’t even reached high school yet.