Sexification had me stopped in my tracks

Have you ever seen something that so utterly shocked you that you literally stopped thinking for a minute?

This happened to me at a middle school the other day. As I was walking to class, I passed two sixth-grade girls and overheard part of their conversation.

Girl one asked girl two if she thought her butt looked sexy.

Utterly stunned. Stopped in my tracks. Befuddled. I couldn't believe what this tiny, seemingly innocent child had said.

I'm 25 and I don't think I have ever wondered if my butt looks sexy. My assumption is no, but now I feel like I need to know for sure.

After contemplating what these girls had said over several packets of M&Ms, I realized that I shouldn't have been surprised. This wasn't unusual, this was normal.

Think I'm wrong? Consider that in the last year several magazines marketed to pre-teens ran cover articles about "How to get a killer body." Look at the Bratz dolls, which have introduced an entire generation of little girls to fishnet stockings and miniskirts and made Barbie look like a church secretary.

Yet the fact that really makes my point comes from clothing manufacturers, which reported selling $1.6 million worth of thongs (the underwear not the shoe) to girls ages 7-12 in 2003.

Who in their right mind buys a child a thong? Thongs are designed for two purposes: To prevent underwear lines from showing on tight dresses or to temporarily incapacitate men's ability to focus.

So what purpose would thongs serve for a child who is still somewhat likely to pull their dress over their head when shy?

It's part of the sexification of America, where sex has penetrated every facet of our culture and oozes from our collective consciousness. Sexier ads, sexified clothing, adult situations on network TV.

I can see Janet's nipple on the television, hear the Pussycat Dolls tell me my girlfriend isn't hot enough and read that the top search terms on Google involve sex symbols.

Beginning with my generation, known affectionately as the MTV generation, the emphasis became less on relationships and more on sex and frankly, we were OK with that.

When it started, everyone older than us figured we would grow out of it when we stopped being horny teenagers, but the opposite happened. We became horny " yet productive " members of society.

Now, as we become parents, we are passing the sexification onto our children.

This sex-polosion became apparent to me while walking through Carson High School recently. Even with the dress code, I saw more breasts than in a KFC freezer.

Now, I admit I was enjoying the benefits of this sex-aissance, again, in girls my OWN age, and I love thongs, but there has to be a line and " I think, maybe " that line is somewhere around thongs for 12-year-olds.

Here's a general rule: Thongs for 25-year-olds? Great! Thongs for high school upperclassmen? Acceptable. Thongs for pre-teens? Not even close to appropriate.

But, hey, what the heck do I know, I can't even decide if my butt is sexy.

Got a comment? Tell me about it.