'Why Are We Dressing Our Daughters Like This'

Lianne George was a writer for New York magazine and Metro TV, and a reporter on the arts for the National Post. Currently, she is a senior editor for Maclean’s, in which the article, “Why Are We Dressing Our Daughters Like This” was published. Maclean’s is a popular magazine which covers national and worldwide political and social issues concerning families in the United States and Canada. The targeted audience is educated, in the higher middle class, and around forty years old with an equal men and women reader ratio. In the article, George clearly shows how in society younger girls are shifting towards dressing more provocatively from marketers introducing them to sexual trends. Although George uses generalized ideas and doesn’t seem to have a strong voice on the topic of girls being dressed more sexually, her goal to raise awareness is effectively presented by constructing a common ground with the readers, and allowing the readers to critically think about the problem by providing contradictions. In the article, George begins by saying how provocative clothing is becoming more popular with little girls in schools, and how school officials have had to change the dress code due to

She frontloads the paper with many quotes and ideas from sources such as a fashion photographer Sante D’Orazio, Ron Crocco the principal of St. Augustine Catholic High School, and Lyn Mikel Brown the co author of Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters from Marketers’ Schemes”. Although there are too many quotes that hides George’s voice, they also give her credibility on the topic, making her ideas seem more reliable to the audience by providing a credible source. Since the audience is well educated, they are more likely to believe what experts would say on the topic of sexualized clothing rather than the editor of the