It seems like August has turned into “inappropriate photos of minors month” first there were the French Vogue editorial spread with 10 year old Thylane Loubry Blondeau and now Urban Outfitters is in hot legal water over this explicit photo of 15 year old model Hailey Clauson.  The parents of the teen model are suing Urban Outfitters and Jason Lee Parry the photographer.

According to the New York Post:

“The Manhattan federal court filing accuses photographer Jason Lee Parry of making “her crotch area the focal point of the image,” adding that he also styled it to show “what some observers believe to be pubic hair.”

The court documents also claim that Parry agreed to not release the images after Clauson’s then-agent complained and accuses him of working with L.A. boutique Blood Is The New Black to sell t-shirts featuring the image.

I don’t know about you but personally I have had enough! This really going to far. enough is enough! As if the American Apparel ads with the pubic hair were bad enough but a 15 year old with her crotch spread on a motorbike is just too much! When is this going to stop? Has it gotten to the point where we have to seek legislation because we have no compunction to see what is right or wrong? Maybe it’s me, but I think it is hypocritical to think that this sort of imagery if young girls is  is acceptable, because it falls under the guise of art (where photography is art, I think that it at certain times, in particular situations when is it used for in commercial nature, it enters another category and can be subject to a level of censorship  i.e. the idea that it is illegal to show teens in ads smoking or drinking) and on the other hand we are freaked out about pedophiles and we have Chris Hansen staging stings  “To catch a predator” while we are creating ads that feed their fantasies and make young girls that objects of their desires. It’s just wrong. It’s is detrimental not only to the young women objectified in these photos, but to the other young girls who are looking at these images and trying to understand how they relate to them, and where they fit in this idea, or concept of the teen age ideal. the sexualization of these young ladies in these ads only adds the fuel of confusion and pressure to emulate those images in order to be cool, fit in or be “desired”.

It’s time we stood up and spoke out. What do you think?