In the last little while, parents have been up in arms about pop culture not being appropriate for their little kids. Specifically, there is a lot of discourse about little girls and concerts.
Pop icons like Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter have both been touring in the past year. With each tour, parents are taking to the internet to rant about how the show wasn’t appropriate for their elementary aged kids.
This shouldn’t be as shocking to parents as it is. With one listen to the Short n’ Sweet album, grown-ups should understand that may not be for a nine-year-old. Lyrics such as “Pick me up, pull ‘em down, turn me round” or the more straightforward “Wanna try out my fuzzy pink handcuffs?”, along with a multitude of profanity litter the entire album. The album has an explicit tag. These should be clues that the tour won’t be appropriate either.
The same thing happened with the GUTS world tour. With songs titled “All American B*tch” and lyrics like “In whose sheets” convey that the album and subsequent tour is not for the elementary age range.
So why in both of these tours were people surprised by the innate sexuality of the tour? Why did parents get mad over the “Juno” positions or the “Obsessed” dance? At the end of the day, it is not the artist’s responsibility to tailor their image for younger audiences. Neither Rodrigo or Carpenter claimed that their target demographic was elementary schoolers. So why are the parents mad at them?
Personally, I think it is rooted in two assumptions (both of which are sexist). The first one being that all women must be appealing to kids and/or like them. I should not have to say that this is not true. It is perfectly acceptable for a women to not be interested in having or being around children. Not all women want to be mothers or even want that maternal energy. And that is perfectly fine.
The second assumption is that feminine things are not for adults. Both of these artists have a very feminine side to them. They wear sparkles, they like pink, their stages and album covers have hearts and kisses. This does not make them any less adult. Women can like pink and still be mature. It is perfectly fine for artists (and all women) to wear sparkles and talk about sex. Tapping into your more traditionally feminine side should not have to cancel out the fact that you are an adult.
Through these assumptions, parents of young girls are getting led astray that these tours and music are for their daughters. When in reality, they make music for adults. Not everything that is labeled as ‘girly’ is actually for little girls.