Sexualizing Child Models: Lines in the Sand

Yesterday Jezebel’s Jenna Saunders had a fascinating piece up on the fashion industry salivating over 10-year-old French model Thylane Loubry Blondeau. Before you go any further, you should click that link and at least scroll through the piece to see the pictures posted with it so you’ll know what I’m talking about here (although I recommend actually reading the piece, in part because Saunders, who was herself a child model, brings an interesting perspective to the table).

Back? Okay, so. What was your reaction to the photos in the Jezebel piece? Mine kind of went like this: When I saw the three photos along the top of the piece, I was most drawn to the black and white shot on the right, where she’s staring fiercely into the camera lens. That would be an astoundingly good shot for an adult model (or actor) to nail, much less a kid — although at 10 now, and having worked as a model since she was four, Blondeau has been doing this long enough to already be an expert.

But if you scroll further down, you’ll seem some photos that some might say cross a line into sexualizing, and lastly, one of implied upper nudity. And here’s where my own line in the sand starts to get a little blurry.
For me, the pic where she’s lying facedown on a bed and is made up to look older than she is crosses a line, but the last one with implied nudity doesn’t so much. In that shot, she looks like a fierce little tomboy playing in the forest, maybe running around with a pack of brothers or something. When I look at that photo, I think: Well, would that picture bother me if it was a 10-year-old boy? Absolutely not. So if I don’t believe that female breasts should be subject to censorship (and clearly, I don’t), then why should this photo be seen as sexualizing, just because she’s a girl?
There are lots of European immigrants in our area, and it’s not unusual at the beach down the street to see totally naked babies and toddlers, and young girls running around only in boy trunks or bikini bottoms with no top on — although I’ve noticed that usually that stops around age six or seven here. I don’t have a problem with it, but I have seen other moms raise an eyebrow or talk loudly about it being “inappropriate.” Really?
The point Saunders makes astutely in her piece is that the question is whether it’s the images themselves that are sexual, or if it’s our own moral and cultural perspectives that we bring to viewing them that make them feel more sexual to some people, and less so to others. What do you think? Are these photos inappropriate? Put another way: Would you be comfortable with your 10-year-old daughter being photographed that way?