The ladies at Jezebel think that this Gap commercial – featuring the dance stylings of a horde of be-sweatered pre-tweens – is maybe a little on the disturbing, junior Pussycat Doll side. We say… well, we don't know what we say. Have a look:
On the one hand… yeah. As the Jezebel piece notes, the little butt-slide at the 8 second mark is a little, I don't know, skank-in-training. But on the other hand… my daughter loves to dance – LOVES – and her moves are a little, let's say, unconventional. There's a lot of jazz hands and modified yoga moves and you know, when you take Downward Dog and incorporate it into a dance routine it looks a little risque. But she doesn't know from choreography, she just knows that dancing is a whole lotta bouncing and hip jiggling and is it really possible, with the exceptions, maybe, of Highland or Morris dancing, to have any kind of dance that doesn't involve a little bit of the hippy-hippy-shake or some such? (No, ballet doesn't count. Ballet has a dirty, dirty past, and you think that Sugarplum Fairy isn't just a great big flirt? Pfft.)
I don't know. Any excessive hip or butt jiggling by young girls I find discomfiting. But show me any kind of spirited, free-form dance that doesn't have a hip-toss or two, and I'll show you Morris dancers.
What do you think?
About Her Bad Mother
Unless I’m totally missing something, I don’t see the problem with this ad. And for the record, I have a 4 year old daughter and totally agree with your statement: “Any excessive hip or butt jiggling by young girls I find discomfiting.”
I didn’t see a problem with the ad either. I HATE the adult ad but I think that’s more of not being a fan of the campaign than the kids dancing.
Not all of it, but Yes, I think some of the dancing in the commerical is overtly sexual for girls of this age group.
I’ve seen far worse in an elementary-aged dance recital. It’s pretty hard to teach girls jazz dance without some level of booty shaking.
I haven’t viewed the video yet, but my almost 3yo likes to dance by, to quote her, “shaking my bootie”. And it cracks me up. (No pun intended.)
She’s almost 3, as I said. If I catch her spanking it while shaking it, I might have to talk to her.
ciao,
rpm
Um, no. not excessive at all, on the dance moves front. I’ve witnessed (much to my distress) girls about that age at a recital dancing to Lady Gaga’s “Pokerface”.
Now, attitude and crass materialism? Those, I may have a problem with. ;)
ciao,
rpm
I kinda like this commercial. And considering the first time I saw it, I thought, “Ah. Clothes me and my kid can agree on,” it’s kinda working for me.
My kids love this ad and they both dance and LOVE dancing. I curse, in advance, the first person who suggests that they shouldn’t dance because it’s too sexy in some way. I really REALLY don’t see anything sexual about this, if that’s what people are implying. That’s just ridiculous. People need to relax already. It’s kids. They are DANCING. Dancing involves moving your body. All body movements are not skanky. I defy anyone to dance WITHOUT moving their butt or hips. If the kids were wearing spangly bikinis, that would be different, I suppose, but let’s not demonize dancing just because some adults do it on tables for tips.
I think it helps a good deal that the girls in this commercial are, you know, actually wearing sensible clothes one might wear in the wintertime so as not to be cold. As opposed to some of the other little girls’ outfits I’ve seen in the windows at the mall . . .
A lot of those kicky moves done on the floor would seem a bit more risque to me if the girls weren’t wearing leggings under their skirts. And I think they would probably seem LESS risque than they do if all of the girls were wearing pants.
But regardless, I have to say, I can’t stand the um . . . is that supposed to be music? A cheer? Whatever. It’s lame.
They aren’t on the bar right? The Coyote Ugly Bar? Yeah, until then, I think it’s fine. Ha.
I really like the ad-it is so fun! The butt slide bothers me ALOT for girls that age(could have easliy been removed in editing), but it still isn’t as bad as little girl cheerleading, which is basically Pussycat Doll training camp. Dancing is great! I love to bust a move too-so much so my teenagers have set up rules for when and where I am allowed to dance. But in a society where we push kids to look like adults at 7 and then punish them for trying act like adults at 15, we need to be careful. That’s all I’m saying…
There’s at least one move in there that’s the stock and trade of strippers. Sorry…but it is. That said, it’s kind of inappropriate for little girls—unless of course you WANT your little girl to be sexy enough to attract the hairy eyeballs of skeevy men which hello? GROSS!
I think this is more about us projecting our own discomfort onto the kids’ dance moves. A butt is just a part of our body right? Until we make it shameful, jiggling all of our body parts is natural.
Right on Karen!