Go ahead and yell at me, but I like the occasional animal print. I know it’s trashy and tacky, but sometimes I find an animal print jacket, dress, pillow or rug to be very cute. Such is the case with this zebra-print dress that Katherine Heigl wore in Germany. It’s just the right length, just the right fit, and just the right amount of zebra. I LOVE IT. And it looks great on her figure too – very slimming, right? My only issue with this look is Dame Heigl’s hair – bitch has hair issues, and while this style is an improvement from her teased-up, white-blonde grandma style, it’s still pretty ugly.

Anyway, last week, everyone was talking about Heigl’s latest essay/blog post for iVillage. I always forget that Heigl is a “blogger” too – she writes about mom stuff, and it’s usually pretty boring for me. In last week’s post, Heigl too on that show Dance Moms and the early sexualization of young girls. Here’s part of her blog post:

I’m not much of a reality TV watcher. I tend to stick mostly to the comedies and dramas that I love, but I recently happened to catch an episode of Dance Moms and watched with open-mouthed amazement as girls as young as seven were encouraged to dress provocatively and shimmy around a stage doing a dance performance that could just as easily been a burlesque routine. I kept thinking all these girls were missing is a pole! I was also horrified by the way their instructor spoke to them when she felt they weren’t up to snuff. It was demeaning, belittling, and downright unkind.

My daughter was in the room at the time as was my mother and I kept looking over at my perfect, innocent and beautiful child wondering how can I protect her from what the world is becoming. My mother was outraged and — never one to hold back an opinion — vented that it was not even remotely necessary to speak to a child the way the dance instructor was, that no one during the course of my performing and early years as a child model and actor had ever talked to me like that. She insisted that the tough-love attitude was totally misguided and not what makes anyone succeed — and certainly not a child. She reminded me that I was loved, encouraged, and held through the journey of my career and was never demeaned, berated, or told I was not doing my best and look how well that has worked for me.

She is right, of course. My mother worked hard to build up my self-esteem, to protect it from those who did not, and made it her priority to see me grow into a young woman who had a sure and steady sense of herself that could not be torn apart. The example my mother set for me is what I hope to achieve and emulate on behalf of my own daughter. I think we all know through experience that the world gets tough enough soon enough. I strongly believe there is no reason to break anyone down in order to prepare them for inevitable disappointment or unkindness. There is no reason to diminish anyone’s self-esteem in order to get them to try harder next time. Especially not a child’s.

I believe a significant part of my role as a mother to a daughter is to shelter and build up her self-esteem. This is not to say that I will sit around and tell her she can do anything and everything and is perfect in all that she does. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and when I came home from school with a bad grade on another math test, it was apparent that algebra would never be my strong suit and my mother didn’t pretend it was. I was told I needed to pass the class but I was also told it was okay that I didn’t excel at it, that there were other things I was good at. That’s the direction I was encouraged to follow.

…It terrifies me, the amount of value we place on a woman’s looks, body, and ability to drop it like it’s hot on the dancefloor. It’s one thing to walk into a club and see twentysomethings embracing their sexuality and having some fun, but it’s another thing altogether watching seven-year-olds shake their booties, bellies, and nonexistent boobies on a stage in a room full of adults and be handed a trophy for it. What in the world are we telling them? That sexy is the prize and is the talent they have?

I used to perform in a local dance academy when I was growing up and we did jazz routines that were fun, imaginative, high energy, hip and age-appropriate! The young girls on Dance Moms are wonderfully talented, spirited ladies who should be encouraged to perform since they seem to truly have a knack for it. I just wish they were being inspired, instructed, and supported for their gifts as I was when I found my creative path. I wish they were being shown and taught by example that they are wonderful, unique and valuable for far more than their bodies, and their ability to be perfect at all times.

[Heigl’s iVillage blog post]

It didn’t seem that controversial to me – Heigl was simply coming out for more age-appropriate dance instruction for young girls, and she was drawing from her own experiences as a child performer, with her mom acting as “momager”. The whole “nurturing your child so they understand they are the most special flower in the world” is a debatable issue – I understand nurturing, I understand encouragement and being a cheerleader for your kids in a tough world. But at some age, kids do need to learn how to fail and how to get back up. And hopefully when they learn that, it’s not on the set of Dance Moms.

There’s also a vein of hypocrisy, sure – some of Heigl’s performances as a child actor were in sexualized roles, which Heigl glosses over. But seriously – Dance Moms is a horrifying show. And now the moms are really pissed off at Heigl too – they’re issuing statements and telling her to “suck it.” They’re probably just happy with the extra publicity, though.

Photos courtesy of WENN.