Off The Record
When She Was 8 Years-Old She Was Dubbed As The Most Beautiful Girl In The World
Teenage girls frequently enter the workforce and find success in the fashion industry.
After years of actively fighting the sexualization of young girls and supporting fair treatment and healthy lives for minors, the naming of eight-year-old Kristina Pimenova as the “most beautiful girl in the world” comes as a bit of a surprise.
Pimenova is a Russian model who was born in Moscow in 2005. At the age of three, she signed contracts with Armani, Benetton, Fendi, and Roberto Cavalli for their respective children’s lines.
The mother’s Instagram account has 416,000 followers, and she has been featured on the cover of Vogue Bambini.
While it’s not new for children to be used as models, Pimenova’s predicament is especially concerning because of the global reach of her large social media following.
She has been labeled a “babe” and “flawless,” and her long legs and other body parts have been remarked upon by various readers.
While Pimenova is still too young to walk down the aisle, she has received marriage proposals.
However, after recent media attention, both Pimenova and her model mother, Glikeriya Shirokova, have become the targets of violent attacks.
A parent posted on Instagram, “My child would never wear shorts this tight and small—ever.”
Another person remarked, “Parents like you are why girls grow up with many issues… Also, so many sick people are out [there] who sexually view these.” One person even referred to the disturbing images as a “p*******e’s dream.”
Shirkova responded to the complaints by telling MailOnline: “You must think like a p*******e to see something sexual in these pictures, so it is time for you to see a doctor.”
She insists that there is nothing sinister about the photos.
She has been accused of exploiting her daughter’s beauty for financial benefit, but she maintains that the real problem lies with those who suffer from mental illness.
To which she emphatically said, “I do not accept those claims about sexualizing my child.”
The question of how young is too young is one that will never stop being debated.
Perhaps it all started with a 1980 Calvin Kleins ad featuring a 13-year-old Brooke Shields.
At the time, she asked, “You wanna know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” Still, Angelina Jolie, Liv Tyler, and Cameron Diaz began modeling at 14, followed by Charlize Theron and Cameron Diaz at 16.
Despite standards put in place by organizations like the Council of Fashion Designers of America to discourage the industry from using younger models, children have continued to feature in too suggestive positions in recent years.
Dannielynn Birkhead, then six years old, was the first Guess Kids Girl.
After quitting Dance Moms, dance prodigy Maddie Ziegler, who appeared in Sia’s latest smash hit music video “Chandelier,” has started pursuing a career in modeling.
Kaia Gerber, Cindy Crawford’s 11-year-old daughter, was recently announced as the new face of the Versace Kids line.
Each of these young women has faced criticism due to the way they look, and beauty pageants, which have been around for as long as anybody can remember, exist only to evaluate the physical attributes of young women.
Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., on the website Parenting Science writes “the most common worries are that girls will learn to view themselves as sex objects, or that girls will develop anxieties when they fail to meet popular beauty standards.”
The psychologist is interested in whether or not media portrayals of sexualized girls affect public perceptions of children and whether or not viewers are more likely to believe that young girls are willing participants in sexual behavior when they see children in vulnerable positions in the media.
Boys, for whatever reason, are not held to the same standards as girls.
Recent kindergartener Hudson Kroenig has already been in several fashion shows and a Chanel marketing campaign.
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The news that Romeo Beckham had been chosen as Burberry’s new face was met with a wave of positive reactions from the public.
This is yet another illustration of the unreasonably early emergence of double standards.
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