Cave, cave, cave. Apparently Sesame Street has decided not to air this Elmo/Katy Perry duet thanks to Katy’s own duo — the ones in her skin-tight outfit that had grown-ups worrying about kids seeing “Cleavage Street.”
Or so the rumor goes, according to the folks at TMZ. (Yeah, yeah, I know. Look, I don’t use them as my source for MUCH.) Anyway, this was too cute a clip not to show you. So voila:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUsIGiYL5rk]
131 Comments
Definitely too hot for PBS: “I Kissed a Grouch and I Liked It.”
Perhaps those are the same people who don’t want anyone breastfeeding around their children because god forbid a kid see the multipurpose use of breasts. [eye roll]
I thought it was a cute clip too. My kids watched it and don’t LOOK scarred. 😉
Released to Youtube before hitting the show? Look at the production values here. We’ve all been punked by a publicity stunt.
But nobody minds that Elmo is NAKED!!!
I don’t see what’s so offensive about that clip. Little kids aren’t even going to be interested in her cleavage. They’re only going to be interested in the music and fast motion.
Katy Perry always has her boobs out so usually it’s not a big deal to see her like that. I’m not usually a prude but I do think her bouncing boobs are a bit much towards the end of the song. I mean, it is Sesame Street, couldn’t they put her in a normal top without compromising her fun, out there style? I could definitely see my 5 or 6 year old self noticing her boobs but at the same time I don’t know what harm it would have done.
I wouldn’t have paid any attention to what she was wearing if all these complaints hadn’t been made. As it is, I don’t think it’s that bad, and would have no problem showing this to my toddler, except for the part where I thought it paled in comparison to other celebrity/Elmo duets.
I’m a Free Range mom, but I’m also very critical of the current direction of children’s fashions (well, and some of the female adult fashions they imitate). I do not think Katy’s outfit in this video is appropriate modeling of fashion for kids. I understand the trends of fashion and the use of costuming for performances, but this is ostensibly a song/video about kids playing dress-up and I would prefer not to suggest to my child that it’s okay for her to dress like this. I certainly would never dress her in such clothing – even if it is half the stuff on the racks.
The rewrite of the song is cute, but I won’t be sharing this Sesame Street music video with my daughter. It would have been nice if they’d used a more appropriate dress.
bwahahahahahaha
What a riot! Seriously. My 3yo daughter sees way more cleavage when she plays with her barbie dolls. Sheesh. Women have breasts….sometimes they aren’t all covered up.
This is definitely NOT something I have to protect any of my children from. 😀
I don’t let our kids watch Elmo because of his lousy grammar, not because of how his friends dress. 🙂
I agree that Katy should’ve made some style concessions given that she was making a planned appearance on a show aimed at little kids – really, who’s she trying to attract here – but I also think the concern is way overblown.
Her outfit is certainly nowhere near as revealing as the outfits you see elsewhere on TV – nobody seems concerned with censoring the beach volleyball tournaments on ESPN due to the extremely skimpy garb.
Overall though, Elmo’s duet with Andrea Bocelli still rules ’em all!
Maybe they pulled it because Katy Perry is terrible?
On a rant-like tangent, have you noticed that many parents have no qualms whatsoever about their children seeing quite horrific video game violence, but recoil in terror over the prospect of their children seeing a woman’s breasts?
(And have you noticed the nasty double-standard wherein many parents think nothing of their little boys playing gratuitously-violent video games, but would never dream of allowing their little girls do the same?)
I’m doing my level best to ensure that he sees -neither- of these, but given the option, I’d rather my son see naked breasts – really, they’re made of the same stuff that elbows are – than to see some guy’s spleen blown out via bloody machine gun carnage.
I didn’t think it was a big deal until they had her running Baywatch-style through the street and her breasts were bouncing all over the place. I agree that all she need was a slightly higher neckline and voila – no controversy! To Mandyz – totally agree with you. Girls fashions in general are WAY to sexy at too young of an age. Has nothing to do with being free range, it’s about helping our kids be kids right? Not dressing like grown women.
Sesame Workshop actually has a statement about it on their facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/notes/sesame-street/sesame-workshop-statement-on-katy-perryelmo-video/432011464023
It’s cute. I hate Elmo and really don’t see much wrong with what she’s wearing. My kids have always been taught that there are words other people say that we don’t, things people do that we don’t (smoking anyone?), and clothes people wear that we don’t (like shorts with words on the butt).
Granted, my kids are 8 and 9 and aren’t watching Sesame Street anymore, but if anything, she looks dressed like a princess. I mean, come on… what is more cleavage revealing than those dresses from the renaissance which we as little girls died to get in to look like a princess? Those are from the 1500’s!
I love how people are blaming Perry for the dress. It’s not like she showed up to the taping in that outfit, and the director said, “okay, whatever, that’ll work.” A lot of people were involved in the making of this clip, and if they wanted a different look, they could have chosen different wardrobe, makeup, hair. I agree with the above posters–she’s not any more exposed here than a Barbie doll usually is, or than a woman at the beach would be. No big deal.
Why is this a “cave?” So someone produced a TV show, and then decided that something in it wasn’t appropriate for the kind of show they want to do, so they took it out. That’s not a “cave,” that’s a production judgment.
I’m trapped between my total apathy about her boobs and my profound dislike for both Katy Perry and Elmo, two stars famous for their bad grammar and annoying personalities.
I’d like it if an inclusive, liberal show like Sesame Street took some heat for including a singer that has a song titled “ur so gay” rather than for including her boobs.
Actually I think she did make concessions for the dress. It’s not strapless, it has a clear panel sewed on to hold it in place, like ice skaters wear, which is appropriate. I’m pretty sure most kids have seen more cleavage on teenagers at the swimming pool. Give me a break.
Much ado about nothing.
What? It’s Katy Perry’s outfit they’re concerned about? Elmo is completely naked!
I think Sesame Street went down hill with all of the celebrity guest spots in general. The whole point of PBS was non-commercial TV, yet commercial celebrities are constantly on it.
That, IMO, is a big cave. I thought the video was the perfect representation of a small child who can’t make up their mind, and is running circles around the adult. And naked. If you take your kid out of the house, your kid is going to see people dressed like that. And not bat an eyelid.
“We use parodies and celebrity segments to interest adults in the show because we know that a child learns best when co-viewing with a parent or care-giver. ”
So I’m assuming they’re presenting themselves to the teen mom segment of the population, because what she sings about I have nothing in common with.
Give me the cultural literacy of Mr. Roger’s any day.
Personally I don’t care about nudity at all, but I do care about messages that tell my daughters that they ought to be mainly eye candy. That’s not something that is communicated by a single outfit in a single song. But I’d be concerned if they started to have a lot of these sorts of clips. So in a way I’m glad there was push back, because they’ll be unlikely to start showing this sort of thing all the time. But i wouldn’t be outraged if my kids had been watching and it had come on.
BTW I couldn’t see the video that Lenore posted (blocked for my country on copyright grounds) but it’s available at http://www.katyperry.com/
The only thing offensive about the video is Katy’s terrible lip-syncing.
She’s supposed to be playing dress up so she dressed up as a fairy/pricess/bride (not quite sure what she’s supposed to be). It’s not supposed to be “normal’ clothes. Kids are smart enough to make that distinction I would hope.
Have y’all looked at the comments on the original Facebook entry, when the video was posted?
“Oh yeah? Well what if a stranger wanted to play dress up with YOUR child??”
OMG. Really? Have we really succumbed so deeply to irrational fears? I’m so glad my kids are 18 and 14 now.
My four year old son liked it.
I thought her outfit looked like any ballerina’s.
http://www.ballet.co.uk/gallery/nbc_swan_lake_raise_the_red_lantern_2008/st_swan_lake_zhu_yan_hao_bin_black_kiss_500
I guess I’m a prude, old-fashioned, and completely out of touch. I thought the dress was inappropriate and deflected from the video and song. I realize the video is intended for a younger audience, but I only have one kid in the house to ask – my 12 year old son turned beet red when I showed him the clip and asked his impression – he walked away mumbling “she should put some clothes on…”
I know the song from the radio, but I had never seen the singer/lip-syncer before, nor did I know her name before this clip. Sure she’s a lovely young woman with a great figure, but the outfit (or lack of it) was quite distracting and didn’t express “dress-up” to me at all except in the sense of “dressing up to go clubbing”, not like kids’ pretend dress-up. I loved to play dress-up as a kid, and even when I wore my mom’s formal prom dresses that I thought were so “feminine” – the look was decidedly different than that “dress-up” outfit. Kids are exposed to too much hyper-sexuality already. and as another commenter mentioned, the celebrity focus on Sesame Street is a feature I’m not wild about, either. It grooms for tabloid culture.
As far as Elmo being naked, sure, he’s naked, like a plush stuffed animal toy is naked, but similarly also completely asexual – other than a few language cues that he’s male, there are no visual cues at all. Somehow I doubt there would be a lack of comments if Elmo was naked complete with nipples and genitals.
I think they make videos like that so that fathers who are pestered into having their TVs seized for kiddy crap all day long have something entertaining for THEM.
Horray for me. As jealous as my wife is of other attractive women, the more kids-programming is like this, the less she’ll be inclined to blare that irritating stuff all over our living room, ha ha.
A co-worker of mine pointed out that it’s kind of like this:
http://blog.gg8.se/images/message-of-love-from-the-dolphins/dolphin-vase.jpg
Kids see dolphins. Really. What, you don’t see them? Trust me, they’re there.
Agreed 100% with Anna. It’s not about prudishness; it’s about self-respect. I’m raising my daughters to understand that yes, it’s fun to be attractive and yes, it’s fun to be looked at—-but think twice about instructing the world to value you for your sex appeal, which is what you do when you choose provocative clothes.
Regarding the video: would it really have been that hard to have her dressed modestly, and still have her be cute and bouncy and musical while not having her boobs hang out?
And I hate the celebrity thing on Sesame Street too–why in the hell should a toddler know or care who Katy Perry is?
Someone mentioned Elmo’s bad grammar, which makes this comment on the Facebook page especially appropos:
ok, I make typos. Especially when using my phone. But that’s just a head shake.
*scratches head*
That’s considered especially revealing? I see parents who dress like that!
Rich, that’s not dolphins. That’s a bad two-language pun.
Find the celebrities-are-extra-special-people-and-children-should-also-be-taught-to-give-an-expletive-about-them message much more irritating than anything she is (or isn’t) wearing.
Nothing wrong with that video as far as the costuming goes, and the costumes would have been provided by the show wouldn’t they?
Isn’t she a big superstar? This incident isn’t going to make it easier for Sesame Street to get top people on the show.
That said, her song didn’t seem to relate to anything, and is a fairly inane song that wouldn’t be of much interest to small children except to promote her name brand as a commodity.
I think it was on this blog that it was pointed out the Sesame Street introduction no longer shows children doing real things like playing outside, but is now an animated fantasy sequence instead.
The content has changed a lot too. Back in the 1970s they had a lot more artistic, subversive and interesting skits and performers on the show.
Everything’s gone downhill since they made others able to see Snuffaluffagus. What good is an imaginary friend that everyone can see?
@Erika Evans There are a lot of celebrities who have appeared on Sesame Street that young children are probably not familiar with. (Hopefully pre-schoolers are not familiar with Chris Meloni’s body of work, but he was part of a Sesame Street skit.) People like him get the parents interested in watching with their children, instead of just plopping them in front of the TV and walking away. This is what Sesame Street is so skilled at–creating something for parents and children. Their “Mad Men” parody was brilliant. My friend, a teacher, watched it with her kindergarten class. The kids were thrilled and quoted it all day though they don’t know what “Mad Men” is, and my friend was able to enjoy a really good parody of her favorite show. As for Katy Perry-the kids might not know her specifically, but a lot of them certainly know that song.
“But nobody minds that Elmo is NAKED”
Holy cow! You are right. The emperor is naked. Yikes.
So Sesame Street actually responded to parents who don’t want their little girls to be constantly inundated with the idea that the female sex should always dress in revealing clothing. Big deal.
No, I don’t think the clip was overly egregious, but as the mother of a girl, I would certainly PREFER my daughter to have MORE examples of modestly dressed women. If you can’t even get those examples on children’s shows…
Obviously kids don’t care about nudity at a young age and this is pre-puberty and it isn’t meant to sexually entice (at least not the kids, their dads may be another matter), but the problem is that over time, with this kind of stuff and the Bratz dolls and the skanky clothes on sale for girls at department stores and so forth, girls (and boys) will come to see a certain type of dress as normal and expected for females. Someone has to start pushing back about this expectation of revealing as the norm. Someone has to start pushing back against the idea that gets communicated to our daughters gradually over time in a myriad ways that the primary virtue of a woman is to look sexy.
I don’t think Seasame Street “caved” so much as it “responded” to the interests of the parents of its primary audience. That’s the FREE market at work.
I hate Katy Perry. I’m glad she’s not on Sesame Street. She’s not a role model for toddlers.
I guess I just really dislike it when, every time Person A complains and Person or Group B responds to those complaints, it’s called a “cave,” as though it’s morally dubious ever to change your mind or practice in response to someone else’s opinions.
What about the possibility that the folks at Sesame Street heard the complaints and said, “Yeah, you’re right, this is a kids’ show.”
Something doesn’t have to the “end of the world” or “traumatizing” or any of the other things that people are insisting this isn’t (and they’re right, it isn’t) in order for it not to be a good policy for a show to promote underdressed eye candy to preschoolers. But I guess for the “no caving” folks, once a bad decision is made, it has to be stuck to, lest you be accused of something terrible like “caving,” because obviously there’s no room for public persons or entities to change their minds about things.
“People like him get the parents interested in watching with their children, instead of just plopping them in front of the TV and walking away. This is what Sesame Street is so skilled at—creating something for parents and children.”
I guess I don’t see what’s so horrible about letting kids watch an hour of TV a day that doesn’t intrude the adult world into it. What’s wrong with “plopping your kid in front of the TV and walking away,” if that isn’t the ONLY way you relate to your kids? I don’t NEED young children’s programming to reflect my interest, and they don’t really need a parent to engage with their watching TV when they have parents around all the rest of the time.
I didn’t care for the song – it was hard to hear the lyrics over the music and niether of my kids (4 and 2) would have been able to follow it very well because it was so fast.
I didn’t like her outfit, it was too revealing – especially when she was running and bouncing all over the place. That being said, it probably WAS provided by the Sesame Street people. They should have thought about that before they filmed it. If they really like the song and/or the woman they could refilm it with her in a less revealing outfit.
I’m offended not because the clip is too racy for children but because Katy Perry is an untalented hack.
Actually, I guess that would be a GOOD reason to air this segment. Parents everywhere could point at Katy and go, “See, Little Timmy and Little Lisa, this is what untalented people sound like, now remember to pay attention to your piano teacher!”
I’d rather my child grow up accepting that their body and their sexuality are okay, instead of being ashamed and embarrassed– especially breasts since I’m in favor of breastfeeding . But in this country, I’m rather unusual that way.
Go to the grocery store on a summer day and you’ll see way more cleavage. Until their older (say 12 or otherwise entering puberty) they don’t think sexual thoughts unless they’ve been taught to think that way. Kids see boobs as either part of the body or for breastfeeding (if they saw it being done.) There’s a very unfortunate and misinformed trend of projecting adult sexuality on kids. Even Freud didn’t go that far!
I don’t understand why they felt the need to put her in such a revealing outfit. I would have expected them to have better taste than that.
Seriously, she looks like a Vegas showgirl on her way to a shotgun wedding.
Guess parents who think her outfit is bad don’t go to malls on weekends or pools or waterparks during the summer. I thought her outfit was not that bad for ‘dress-up’ play. Could have been a heck of a lot worse. And someone earlier had a link to a ballerina outfit… not more, no less that what KP wore.
Seriously?!? Running “Baywatch style”? I think not. It was like a figure skating outfit. And so what she wasn’t covered all the way to her neck. It’s adults who sexualize stupid shit like this. I think the discomfort is really about the possibility of being asked about breasts (which I’d doubt young Elmo fans care about). If you’ve seen Katy Perry’s Maxim photo shoot, you know this outfit is tame. There was nothing Baywatch about it. It was silly and cheeky. Personally, I’m more offended by Elmo’s singing that Katy Perry’s outfit. Of course, I am not, nor have I ever, been a fan of Elmo.
My 5yr old daughter just watched the video with me. She chuckled and informed me that they were playing chase and thought it was funny that they were running around the houses. At no point did she comment on Katy Perry’s outfit (or her cleavage).
I’d just add that if the kids do happen to ask about her breasts, its a perfect opportunity to discuss the body. I like those opportunities; they’re called teachable moments.
And Lenore…there’s nothing wrong with using TMZ as a source if its celeb news. I’d say TMZ is the place to get the most reliable celeb news. Harvey Weinstein is a lawyer and a seasoned journalist. 😉
Can’t read all the comments. But I have to say, I don’t see why they couldn’t have made the dress cover just a little more than it did. They have been in this business for how long? They really didn’t expect some parents to find that a bit much?
I have no problem with my daughters seeing cleavage. They know what that body part is and what it’s for. They’ve also seen at least that much cleavage before, on stage, in movies, and on the street. But, why not just cover it up for Sesame Street?
We don’t watch Sesame Street anyway. I can’t stand all the yelling and craziness. (It wasn’t like that when I was little.) Elmo is about the worst, with his high-pitched voice. Yuck. Actually, I think having actual singers come on for little clips is one of their few saving graces.
The same mindset that looks at any adult male as very likely wanting to do unmentionable things with children is now imagining that just weaned toddlers get those same urges about adult women.
As for the song, there are many more ways to hide bad singing today than when I started 25 years ago working with live music. Katy Perry is nothing more than a karaoke singer with a good sound engineer.
Katy Perry has no place on Sesame Street. I really think the dress was fine, not a big deal. It would be more than a little prudish to think that it’s a problem for kids to see cleavage…
No, the problem is that she is a person participates in the objectification of women. Just look at the California Girls video she did with Snoop Dog. Why would anyone think it’s okay for her to be on a children’s show? We don’t need toddlers to learn from her unclassy and very much regressive example.
My 5 y/o brother’s response was “Cool.”
‘Nuf said.
The only people who would sexualize her breasts would be the adults watching…I doubt there is a toddler/preschooler out there who who even really notice.
I also find Elmo’s whining and bad grammar much more offensive…Yay boobs.
My kids loved it more than I did.
Jesus, protect me from your followers!
In a recent pledge drive a PBS drone promised that children would never be exposed to anything their parents thought was inappropriate for them to see. We shall never see “I, Claudius” or “The Singing Detective” again, but puerile swill is A-OK. Such are the hazards of begging for government and corporate dollars and catering to misandrist feminists and other liberals.
If it weren’t for feminism we wouldn’t have be living in a risk-averse culture that devalues masculinity and smothers childhood independence.
ok, I swore I was going to shut up about this one. But
Freerange has nothing to do with feminism (or non-feminism, whatever that is) Republican or Democrat or Conservative or Liberal. If you took a poll, you’d find a pretty healthy mix of views on here. I’ve asked a number of people about this, and the first to respond were the liberal feminists who thought it was a non issue.
Honestly? I just don’t like Sesame Street at all anyway. Those puppets drive me nuts.
anyone remember Wonder Woman?
sigh!
Again, not about the kids. This is about holier than thou parents, trying to satisfy their own needs of security and quelling fears. Do these parents really think their kids are going “mommy, mommy look. boobs.” No, only the minds of the parents are thinking that. Simple test, ask your kids what they thought, without influencing them with your own perverted thoughts. They’re reaction…probably the same as Nicole’s brother’s…”cool”.
Really sad to see people making things worse than they really are. Doesn’t paint a very good picture of our society.
Isn’t that about what Tinkerbell wears, but with a longer skirt? Widen the straps and pull it up the top a couple inches and it’s perfectly normal summer clothing.
Elmo sure needs to learn how to communicate with his playmates though.
I just showed it to my 8-year-old, who still watches Sesame Street sometimes. When I asked her if she liked it, she shrugged “It’s ok.” Then I told her some people are saying she is not wearing enough clothes in that video. She said: “That’s not a very nice thing to say! She’s wearing plenty.”
The truth is, my daughter has seen ME wearing more revealing outfits (though in a very different style.) I’m sure I’ve scarred her for life…
It is really sad that we are so freaked out by breasts. Not just in this situation, Sesame Street removed all trace of Breast Feeding from the older videos when they packaged for DVD as well.
In my house, boobs are awesome! We do not do extended breastfeeding, but the toddlers are fully aware that I feed the youngest that way. They do not eat at mom’s anymore, but they do still fall asleep snuggling them often enough.
Boobs are not dirty and perverted!
I can’t see anyone being scarred by glimpsing Katy Perry’s cleavage. But doesn’t she have a stylist? Someone on her staff that can remind her to put a shirt on when she goes to tape something for Sesame Street?
@pentamom I wasn’t saying it was wrong to let kids watch kids tv alone. I spent plenty of time that way myself. My point was that sesame street was the first kids show that aimed to involve parents, particularly of low-income urban kids who weren’t in educational pre-school programs. I think that thy do a great job of offering something that doesn’t send parent screaming from the room.
I know this is completely beside the point, but I completely disagree about the jiggling. I think Katy Perry has found the most supportive strapless bra on Planet Earth! Actually wondering right now, what brand it was.
I have to agree that this seems to me more about a fear of a frenzy of dysfunctional sexuality being aroused in Dads (and maybe Mums who “kissed a girl” and cor blimey, who hasn’t?), and inciting confusion – uh oh – kid’s show, feeling arousal, must be a pedophile.
For a start, what cleavage? My kids see more cleavage from me! Secondly I watched this video with my kids – 5 and 7 – who already love this song, though I don’t think they know who Katy Perry is. Despite some fairly leading questions from me the only problem either of them had was the 7 year old thought the thing on her head was a bit weird. My five year old was aghast that rude grown ups had commented on her outfit (which, by the way, would almost certainly have been provided by Sesame Street).
Look I have as much problem as anyone with our overhyped sexualisation of little girls (and I’d have a real problem if it was girls dressed up to look like video clip softporn back up girls), but at the same time I don’t see the solution to this removing all objects that could be construed as having sexual meanings (ban boobs?). Katy Perry for five minutes on Sesame Street does not a role model make. I am comfortable and confident that the main messages about femininity and attractiveness they get at this age is from me – who doesn’t wear high heels, rarely make up, rarely jewellery and yes, often sports a v-neckline because I don’t actually see my cleavage as me advertising SEX SEX SEX. It’s not even a thing. It’s a space between other things. That yes, in some contexts are sexy funbags. But we surely are a sophisticated enough society to be able to see things in context.
I read this on the Australian website of the channel that shows Sesame Street here.
“Katy’s not the only star to be pulled by Sesame though – Chris Brown was scrapped earlier this year after pleading guilty to assaulting Rihanna.”
I say hooray to scrapping Chris Brown and boo to scrapping Katy Perry, she has committed no crime, no act of violence. This is tantamount to slut-shaming. Katy Perry’s breasts are as wicked as Chris Brown’s acts of violence? Get stuffed.
Modesty is in the eye of the beholder, or culture as the case may be. To many Muslims, western women, even church going super conservative save it until marriage types, are seen as dressing without modesty. Katy wore a short dress with a bit of clevage. So what. Everything is covered and let’s be honest, women’s boobs bounce when we run. I let my 2 year old girl watch it and really, all that she saw was Elmo, not the bouncing and not the veil. I wish that Sesame Street had aired it because even if katy is not of my generation, I still find the remake song catchy and fun and it helps on the tedium of the show. That said, I really really really like the idea of the song that the first poster mentioned “I kissed a Grouch and I liked it”. PLEASE make that! Please!
I saw nothing offensive or inappropriate in the clip. As for the parent of daughters who feel this is just another example of girls having bad examples of women/femininity, I have to disagree. I consider myself a feminist and think that young girls should see a variety of successful and confident women then CHOOSE who they most admire. I’m not a Katy Perry fan, but she is successful, confident, and not necessarily a bad role model for some young girls.
Why can’t we let women be themselves, whoever they are – sexy, funny, musical, smart, cute, athletic – and then allow girls to figure out who they are? Why can’t powerful and admirable women be cute or have cleavage? What’s so terrible about a woman having real breasts that might jiggle when she’s moving around? What does it tell our girls that we were so worked up over a woman playing a girl playing dress up, because she looked ‘too sexy’ even though figure skaters where the same clothing? I just think it’s awfully sad that so many people are upset over such an innocent and harmless clip.
It’s not like Ms. Perry was wearing a black, lacy bra with a thong and garters and suggestively licking a lolly pop. Geez.
Well, at least we can hope she was wearing underwear – unlike in a candid photo in the Grapevine section of the August Playboy magazine. Which, if anyone cares, would indicate that cuffs and collar don’t match.
So be grateful you didn’t get an eyeful of that on this video clip. That said, if the powers that be didn’t like the outfit, then they should have changed it. Kids love to dress up in old prom dresses though – perhaps they should have added a feather boa.
Elmo sucks anyway. Bring back Grover!
Doesn’t look too different than the wonder woman costume I watched Lynda Carter wear in the late 70s as a young child. I actually think she might have a bigger bust!
I am very concerned about Elmo……there he is running around peeking up Katy Perry’s skirt, then he hangs upside down over her head…again peeking where he shouldn’t be. Then all the way at the end of the video he TOUCHES her! OMG! What has Elmo become??
Called my girls into the room and we watched it together. FUN! LOVED IT!
I showed this to my 5 year old son before knowing about the controversy. My son loves music, dance, and the pageantry involved (i.e. Lady Gaga). I really don’t know that he thinks of any of it as sexy nor would I have noticed were it not for reading this email. It has really gotten out of control!
Tough call but ultimately the right one. In the end the producers are to blame for setting her up to fail.
Seems a bit hypocritical for these parents to be decrying the “sexualisation of our children” when they insist on covering up the breasts…err, actually nipples…of 6mo baby girls (not boys, strangely) with skimpy bikini tops in swimming pools! It is the parents themselves who are turning something unremarkable into a point of horror.
I used love that you could tell the nationality of swimmers at our local NJ pool: American babies with their skimpy sexy bikinis, European babies with – shock, horror – just pants, and the poor Aussie babies (mine included) covered from head to toe in sun protection!
I’m with the prudes on this one. I’m not a big fan of holding up or celebrating skanks on kids shows. I also can’t square the hypersexuality of Perry and Spears and their ilk with good ol’ fashion women-can-be-rocket-scientists feminism, but I suppose feminism means different things to different people.
But, mainly… Holy Cow! is that girl terrible! She can’t lip-sync or sing. Even her face looks fake, poor thing.
I’m also with the Elmo-haters.
Perry is generally a terrible actress it seems, but at the end she managed to convince me that she and Elmo and intellectual equals. At least I think she was acting…
We’ve checked out a few “Old School” Sesame Street videos from back before they let white folks on the show. Stevie Wonder performed and did skits. Those were the days!
@Colleen – I don’t think that five-year olds would think of pornography as sexy, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter whether they see it. At five, I don’t think sexy should make sense at all.
Somebody goofed in the first place. The song and the “artist” are well below the usual level seen on Sesame Street. As for the dress, yeah, it’s bad, but not unseemly.
And, yes, Elmo is a pain, but that was established long ago. FInally, am I the only one who thinks Katy Perry’s looks are incredibly “plain jane?”
DC Urban Dad: Are you kidding? This is fantastic for Perry. Tons of free publicity.
That is soooo…cute!
I’m usually on board with you Lenore, but I’m going to cross the floor on this one – ain’t nothin’ Free Range about the premature sexualisation of children.
Sure, the clip is cutesy, but whatever you think of the dress and the boobs, it’s not “harmless”. It’s just one more drop in the ocean of sexualised imagery that children are being exposed to every day, exposure which more and more research is showing to be deeply harmful to emerging minds.
Why? Because Katy Perry is one of the standard bearers of porn pop, and can’t just be excised from this public image and dropped innocently into a kids world (and if you’re going to try, for goodness sake at least put her in something it would be appropriate for the target audience to wear)! The influence of a clip like this is big to little minds. Katy Perry is famous; being on Sesame Street will increase her kid cred. They will see her outside Sesame Street and think the other stuff she does is cool and normal too. And want to do it to and be like her. At 4 years of age… Ick.
To me, the fact that so many people see nothing wrong with the clip, and are labelling those who aren’t as boob-fearing prudes, is proof of how toxic the mixture is. We are becoming so numb to it that we are starting to think that Katy Perry is a realistic representation of womanhood; do we really want our kids to put her up on a pedestal before they’re ready to tell the difference between fantasy and reality?
At the end of the day, Sesame Street has built their reputation on being a place where kids can be free to be kids, and on parents being able to trust that. There should be no place for the intrusion of adult concepts, and I think it’s pretty brave of them to so publicly acknowledge that they went too far and aren’t going to air the clip.
Looking under the kitchen table and what do I see?
20 naked Barbies staring back at me.
Katy is dressed in the same princess costume that they sell at the Disney store, the Halloween section of your local box store and on-line. That is what she is wearing. My five year old has three in various colors in her closet, and cannot decide which to wear for the school parade.
Playing dress up, with high heels, dresses, hats, gloves, purses and those awesome little lipstick samples from the Avon lady dates back before Katy and will be here long after she is gone.
Lol, if Katy Perry *had* any breasts to speak of, I could kind of maybe start seeing an argument here, but it ain’t cleavage just because it’s the skin between two breasts. And even when she was running there was hardly even a jiggle. Just because some adults have hangups about this sort of thing doesn’t mean we should pass them on to our children.
I’d be willing to bet if we asked 100 kids in the appropriate age range to tell us about this video, Katy’s cleavage (or lack thereof) wouldn’t factor into any of their responses.
There is nothing sexual about this clip.
The sex is only in the minds of the adults watching.
Parents’ reactions are what damage kids.
Last year, I saw presented the latest (Australian, BTW) research into the premature sexualisation of tween girls. It suggests the very opposite of what every media outlet seems to be crowing about. The fact is, as soon as a pop star like Perry (& Brittany & Hanna Montana) crosses the line from dressing “pretty” (as in this video) to dressing “sexy” (as in her career), the girls who had once admired and emulated her, reject her outright for being slutty or dirty.
Sex negativity and prudishness is the epidemic.
@tommynomad, interested in the research you are referencing? I live in Australia and as far as I know we are currently experiencing the opposite, i.e. a growing body of research documenting (and accompanying backlash against) tween sexualisation?
My 16-year-old daughter listens to pop radio, so we heard the original version of that song in the car a lot. The first time I heard it, I turned to her and said “Listen, it’s a Sesame Street song about opposites!” and started in a Grover voice: “You’re up and you’re down, you’re hot and you’re cold…”
She said I ruined the song for her forever 🙂
@Kenny – ruining a Katy Perry song forever? Now that’s love! 😉
@tommynoman – “Sex negativity and prudishness is the epidemic”? Little girls not approving of former tween-girl stars taking their turns at peddling sexuality (it ain’t girl-power folks) constitutes an epidemic of “sex negativity and prudishness”? What a wonderful epidemic!
It’s too revealing. It doesn’t matter that you can see teenagers and young moms running around in similar clothing. Women wear clothing that’s too revealing these days. I don’t want my daughter to see women belittling themselves in such dress at the mall, and I certainly don’t want her to see it on a TV show aimed at young children.
And I’m a huge proponent of breastfeeding. My daughter is 15 months old and she still nurses – a lot, so I don’t think we’re not stopping anytime soon. I’m not even one of those ladies who uses a cover to nurse in public.
To me, there’s a difference in the message portrayed in that old 70’s Sesame Street clip where a woman breastfed her baby and this.
Neither my husband nor I thought there was anything wrong with it, but then I let my kids watch Family Guy so I may not be the spokesperson for conservative parenting. I have to agree though with other posters about the clothes for little girls being way too grown up. I want my little girl to look like a little girl not like a 16 year old.
We saw the video on YouTube when it first came out, and before people started making a stink about it. My daughter and I enjoyed it several times and didn’t even think about or notice her boobs until it was pointed out. I guess we’ll just have to continue enjoying it on YouTube instead of watching it on TV. Not such a big deal. Saves me from having to rewind a certain segment multiple times.
@ tommynomad
I agree 100%.
No normal child would watch this clip and have any sexual thoughts. Only adults see it as sexual. Our over-reaction and sexualization of a child’s cartoon or TV show is the only damaging aspect of this clip.
And I do think most young girls are inclined to think that the once ‘cute’ girl they admired who is now dressing and acting too sexy is ‘slutty’ or no longer admirable.
Side story: I had to start wearing a bra much earlier than most girls. I’ve always had more cleavage than I’d like. I’ve been ridiculed, teased, called a slut, stared at, and marginalized over something about my body I’ve had no control over. Once, I even had a boss call me into her office and tell me I need to cover up my breasts. Mind you, I was 34 years old, 7 months pregnant, a size 34F, and was wearing only maternity clothing. I had to search high and low to find tops and bras that would fit. I left work crying that day. I was so tempted to start covering up my offensive pregnant cleavage by wearing the tightest, long sleeved turtleneck shirts I find. It was summer, though.
I’m sick of all the attention breasts get. Why don’t we stop it so our kids won’t learn to obsess over breasts as much as we do?!
We American think nothing of over sexualizing our children, then prosecuting them and placing them on lifetime sex offender registries when they act out on their over stimulated impulses.
When my 4 year old niece was sexually by a 5 year old neighbor boy, her parents were told not to allow her to play with Barbie dolls, as it could be over stimulating for her, and not to allow her to watch sexually provocative movies.
The mother, of course phooh phooh’ed the idea and allowed the child to play with them anyway because huge breasted sexually provocatively dressed dolls are the NORM, and ALL kids her age watched R rated movies, why should she be any different?
Later in life this same child began a habit of making false rape or molest accusations to get what she wanted.
When the presumption that “children don’t lie”, and “Children can’t make stuff like that up, how would they know about it?” became the norm, it was then decreed “retramatizing the victim” to suggest children are routinely exposed to sex and sex acts and are quite capable of “making things up”.
As someone who has been on the receiving end of a false accusation, you can call me a fuddy duddy all you want, but I vote for the black and white Pleasantville days of Leave it to Beaver, and you’ll forgive me if I’m not on board with Boobies on Sesame Street.
What is so bad about seeing boobs?
Or a cleavage?
American girl clothing is horrible as there is so little non-pink-kid-play-appropriate clothing out there unless you go to some really European or expensive clothing stores.
However, I find people are overreacting a little to this video. I do not think that kids need to be kept in a “perfect world scenario” without any exposure to different and other ways of thinking.
My daughter wants barbie dolls desperately or princess outfits. I tell her I do not like those for various reasons: barbie is not the image of a woman I would like her to play with, princess clothes is for Halloween and not for everyday, school, or playing outside. However, if she really wants those she is more than welcome to buy from her allowance.
All in all, it is not such a big deal. Playing with barbie won’t make her into a slut, watching this video does not either…
The real question is: when do you think it is time to teach your kid about the different gender and sex education?
For myself I am not afraid of questions and have always answered all questions honestly and with the truth.
Sky said: “Obviously kids don’t care about nudity at a young age and this is pre-puberty and it isn’t meant to sexually entice (at least not the kids, their dads may be another matter), but the problem is that over time, with this kind of stuff and the Bratz dolls and the skanky clothes on sale for girls at department stores and so forth, girls (and boys) will come to see a certain type of dress as normal and expected for females. Someone has to start pushing back about this expectation of revealing as the norm. Someone has to start pushing back against the idea that gets communicated to our daughters gradually over time in a myriad ways that the primary virtue of a woman is to look sexy”
Thank you!
I love for my boys to see moms breastfeeding their babies in public, and I don’t think that breasts are “dirty”. But I also don’t want them to grow up surrounded by images of women portrayed as empty-headed sex objects (and, I’m sorry, what else does Katy Perry offer?), and I don’t want the girls in their classes at school to want to dress like this by the time they’re in grade 5.
I’d like for my boys to grow up seeing talented women (can we get Tina Fey on there? Has she done sesame Street yet?) showing off something other than bouncy goodies. Like wit. Or brains. Or even a great singing voice. This has none of those things.
Little girls today are surrounded by advertising, dolls (God, I hate Bratz!) and even children’s clothing that tells them to act sexy before they know what sex is. Call me a prude, but I’d like to see girls growing up knowing that they’re worth more than whatever value society puts on their breasts.
Oh- and I think a big part of the problem with this is the role model they’ve chosen. It’s true that I would let my kids watch figure skating, where the women wear more revealing clothing than this. But then, I wouldn’t mind my kids looking up to them, assuming their non-skating lives aren’t too messed up. I don’t want my kids equating Katy Perry with Elmo and Sesame Street, then thinking that everything else she does should be emulated because, hey, she’s Elmo’s buddy!
If Katy Perry chooses to portray herself as a sex-obsessed bimbo and wants to show her goods on MTV, that’s fine- she’s a grown-up, people like her, and if she can respect herself at the end of the day, good for her. That doesn’t mean kids should want to be like her.
Okay – I watched it all now… despite saying that I don’t watch Sesame Street.
Yes, the dress was a bit skimpy. If I had been watching the show I wouldn’t have thought much of it; other than “huh, that’s a bit skimpy.”
No, she didn’t jiggle. I did notice that. I looked – very minimal jiggle. I was somewhat jealous – I’d have two black eyes if I ran in that get up.
I have to agree with the other comment – where does she get her support bra?
Y’know… until this video I had never heard of Katy Perry. She sure got some good exposure here (pun intended).
@Mrs. Ember
I agree. I caught a bit of the interview of a Sesame Street producer on ABC’s Good Morning America. The history of placing celebrities and parodies of TV shows geared towards adults, is to make the viewing experience better for parents. The producers wanted to target younger parents, who would probably be listening to Katy Perry themselves.
Some PBS programming is great, such as Fetch with Ruff Ruffman and even Electric Company don’t lower their standards. If we want to set a better cultural standard for pre-schoolers we can also raise the bar for younger parents also. PBS though needs to keep at a notch above the idiocracy.
And I just remembered watching Benny Hill as a kid and thinking it was stupid and gross. I couldn’t figure out why my parents watched it and thought it was funny.
Trust me, if a 9 year old doesn’t get the overtly sexual innuendos of Benny Hill and thinks it’s lame, then toddlers watching Katy Perry on Sesame Street will be just fine.
Also, Katy Perry is not the root of all evil. You’d think by the way parents are afraid to allow their children to even see or hear her that she has some super powers to transform children into slutty demons. Honestly, I’d be proud of her if she was my daughter – for being able to become a wealthy, international, and well-known star.
Does anyone realize she was brought up in a strict Christian home, forbidden to listen to secular music, and sang gospel as a young girl? See what happens when we shelter our kids… they grow up to prance around in provocative princess dresses with Elmo!
@ Rich Wilson
Free Range has very much to do with the ascendancy of feminism and the devaluing of masculinity, though it is not discussed in this forum.
Most women are, by nature, more risk-averse than most men are. This is reflected in many ways, such as the sorts of play they permit for their boy children, the safety laws they support, their investment choices, and their political candidate choices. Fathers engage in more aggressive play with kids. Teachers — mostly female — often initiate the process by which children — mostly boys — are given disease labels because they are not deemed sufficiently docile. Boys are punished by the feminized schools for even using their fingers to play shoot-em-up games.
As male influence has waned and feminist influence has waxed, more risky behaviors have been stigmatized, and childhood freedom has been circumscribed. The Free Range movement is a response, an antidote, to feminized culture. Remember, that the popular admonition has long been for men to “get in touch with their feminine side.”
Naturally some women oppose the feminizing of childhood, just as some opposed the female-dominated alcohol temperance movement. But they are the exceptions.
@Mrs Embers
Not sure if she’s done a regular Sesame Street show on PBS, but Tina Fey starred in the Sesame Street home video “Elmo and the Bookaneers”
http://video.barnesandnoble.com/DVD/Sesame-Street-Elmo-and-the-Bookaneers-Pirates-Who-Love-to-Read/Tina-Fey/e/891264001359
My husband says Tina Fey is “pretty hot”. But then again, he has a reputation for going for smart, witty brunettes with glasses…
XD
They’ve cleaned up Sesame Street so much that it is pretty much unwatchable. Even my 3 yo wouldn’t watch it-and I’m talking about a kid who can watch paint peel. Old School Sesame is actually interesting.
I wonder what parents would say to this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIe59nVD-_8
Yes, this is how my generation learned to read.
Looks remarkable similar to wonder woman’s outfit. Or for that matter any olympic figure skater. I know they are not as well endowed as KP -but still -I have no probs with my kids watching this. But then I’m not from around these parts.
Yes, I was distracted by how little jiggling there was and reminded of WonderWoman. There is not a strapless in the world that I could wear and run in. Other than that, the video did a good job of teaching some words like “out” that kids would probably already know perfectly fine by the age at which they would be watching this.
However, did no one catch the Free Range-ish message that Katy’s idea of playing was to walk around the neighborhood playing dress up and maybe making up stories, while Elmo’s was running around with no plan (the game Tag has essentially no structure)? These are both valid ways to play and way riskier than say playing with action figures or video games inside.
Remember kids, sexuality is a horrible, awful thing, and must be repressed at all times.
I watched an episode from 1969 this morning with my 2 and 3 year-olds, and Susan was wearing one of the shortest skirts I’ve *ever* seen.
This definitely has been good publicity for her, it’s all over the news. I had seen her name but didn’t know she was a singer, now I do and have seen a couple of her videos.
The song that she was singing a variation of, “Hot and Cold” has the lyrics “Yeah, you PMS like a bitch. I would know.”
It’s an interesting choice of song to get little kids interested in.
Let’s be realistic. Obviously not all of us are fans of Katy Perry. There are plenty of parents who are, though. Some parents completely shield their children from the radio. I am not one of those people. I grew up listening to whatever my dad was listening to, and despite hearing Eric Clapton’s “Cocaine,” I still seem to have turned out fine. So, my kids have heard Perry’s music, and they love it. My kids are no longer watching Sesame Street, but they love this little Elmo video with her.
Who cares that she is not an ideal role model? Does every musician need to be a perfect role model before I allow my kids to listen to their music? Are you kidding me? R.E.M. has been on Sesame Street, and I am not so sure Michael Stipe is the perfect role model for children. Who cares???? It is cute, the kids and parents like the music.
Our kids see people exposing more at the beach??? What about PTA meetings? Boobs are everyone. Get over it. Adults have sexualized something that was in no way sexy. It was just freaking Elmo and Katy Perry.
I don’t have cable due to cost and the lack of time we do watch tv, so I did watch the video California Gurls on You Tube including the ending in which she takes whip cream canisters and places outward from her breasts, never mind all the references of women being mere candy and her lying stomach down naked. You should read the comments, such as ‘pie & tits’ on You Tube of what her fans really think of her. She’s just a whore to them.
One of the problems with Katy Perry is that her target marketed audience is teenagers. When you have a celebrity let’s say a parody from Mad Men or REM either their entertainment is so mature that their is no cross-reference for a young child to see. Yet even with REM the topics they do sing about and social causes they do care about is something I WANT to introduce to my children over time, there is nothing positive I can introduce to older child/teen with Katy Perry.
Yes, there is truth to the harmful effects to overprotect and shielding of children, but we also need the common sense as parents to realize Katy Perry is a loser and has no business on PBS. Sure Katy Perry got some great publicity, but Sesame Street didn’t. I think it’s time to retire the show at the end of the season.
My local affiliate will be getting an email.
http://www.facebook.com
even if the dress is or isn’t too skimpy, she’s a pathetic role model, who I wouldn’t want my chidlren to identify with in the first place. If they become over-commercialized kids who crave pop music @ any price(integrity of the artist or quality of the music) then it’s my own fault if I let Sesame Street pave the way. The song is ‘rockin’, great beat, but she’s a tramp who doesn’t care what she’s showing or not showing, who wants the next generation of pre-teen-pre-schoolers to know who she is, so they’ll buy her cd & twitter about her boobs. free range doesn’t mean (to me) free to watch whatever. I like to guide my kids to quality stuff, quality people, who have integrity for the long-haul.
Your kidding right. The whole theme was play dress up thats what kids do when they play dress up. They put on mommy and daddys clothes. That looked like a regular prom dress that junior high wears. Now since when does Sesame Street cares about what people think. They had Snoop Dogg on their show and is he a role model? Hes been in more girls gone wild videos than the producer and just about every other word out of his mouth is a curse word, and lets not even talk about the drinking and pot. Sesame Street now wants to clean it up? lol OK sounds more like publicity.
I’m late to comment here but I have a confession – I’ve watched this video clip about 20 times so far because the damn song is stuck in my head! I don’t follow too much new music, so I looked into Katy Perry’s videos on YouTube. I agree, Califonia Gurls is a horrible video (but unfortunately another really catchy song). It was not at all sexy, just really vulgar (what WAS with the whipped cream squirting?) So I just have really mixed feelings here. I know it will be impossible to keep my kids from this junk. I just hope I’m raising my kids right enough that when they see something like that, they think it’s gross rather than cool.
What a beautiful dress. My child and I didn’t even notice her cleavage.
No big deal, my kids both nursed, so they know what boobs are *really* for, lol!
“Most women are, by nature, more risk-averse than most men are. This is reflected in many ways, such as ….their political candidate choices”
I’m not sure where you’re getting that from. Most women vote the same as their husbands. But other than that one, yes, that’s true — women are more risk averse than men on average. But that doesn’t explain why women are MORE risk averse when it comes to their children TODAY than they were a generation ago. And why men are too.
“Teachers — mostly female — often initiate the process by which children — mostly boys — are given disease labels because they are not deemed sufficiently docile”
You know, I’ve heard this a lot — that boys get ADHD labels because female teachers are trying to feminize them. But a couple of generations ago, boys were expected — equally if not more so than now — to sit still and be quiet and obey the teachers, and they had a majority of female teachers, and they weren’t handing out ADHD labels like candy then. Yeah, more was tolerated on the playground, etc., and they may have helped to get their energy and aggression out — but, in the classroom, accommodations weren’t being made. Their butts were in the chair and their mouths were supposed to be closed. And if you told them to be quiet, obey, and sit straight, their parents wouldn’t have accused you of trying to feminize them. They would have said, “Yes, boy, obey your teacher and stop acting up in the classroom.” Boys were always expected to be “docile” if by docile you mean obedient to the teacher. It’s just that in the past, teachers — yes, female teachers – were authoritarian, and now they aren’t encouraged to be. Authoritarianism is bad. We don’t want docile little children. We can’t even use the word “obedience.” But it’s hard to run an organized classroom with non-docile kids jumping out of their seats and talking out of turn. We haven’t “feminized” childhood. We’ve taken away the authority female mothers and teachers once demanded. We’ve “feminized” (by your definition of “feminized”) females.
whats the big deal with her tits
I think the amount of leg is more problematic than the cleavage (not that I mind either)! I grew up watching far worse on MTV when I was a toddler. This would do no harm….
@Sky – maybe you mean most men vote the same as their wives. Or most married couples vote the same as each other.
However, there is a gender gap in politics. It exists on the candidate level, the party level and the issue level. It is one of the many ways in which there is a noticeable behavior difference, ON AVERAGE, between the genders.
This is just plain bad TV ad that song is idiotic. Sesame street is usually a bit better than this.
My 13yo daughter just said, “Should she be wearing, like a shirt or something?” I started to defend KP, “Do you think 4 year olds would care what she’s wearing.” Quick as lightning the wise one replied,”No but the strict 4 year old parents would care.”
We didn’t do such a bad job raising her after all.
I don’t have a problem with what she’s wearing.
I have a problem with what she’s doing. It’s obvious that, in contrast to past stars that have worked with Sesame Street, she’s just using this as a marketing opportunity. That her real-world style is much more revealing and sex-charged concerns me that kids would become interested in her music. Then, if what she’s wearing on Sesame Street concerns you, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.
If you put her on stage or on camera and made her just sing for a living, she’d starve to death. Visual sexuality and suggestive lyrics are a HUGE part of her image and what has made her a star.
This is just trying to hook a younger generation on her crappy music, if you ask me.
Perry is an untalented moron. That is reason enough to keep her off the air, never mind any paranoia and insecurity about kids seeing parts of a human body.
As Russell brand said – sesame street will not be brought to you by the number 34 or the letter D. I thought her boobs were quite tasteful. It’s not like she was wearing pushups or anything.
That was so cute! Personally I thought there could have been a little more to her dress-up clothes. Isn’t the rule “legs OR cleavage”? She even had the inter-cleavage thing going on.
katy with elmo? ijin buffer dulu
I love your blog, but I disagree. I don’t think Katy Perry needs to be wearing clothes like that on sesame street. I am more concerned about the image of women that it portrays to our children.