Apropos Nothing

As a social phenomenon, you might expect that this would be right up my alley, given its likelihood to increase the incidence of sexy-looking young girls in the population. If so, you would be wrong and you should be ashamed of your appalling misjudgment of me.

It’s pretty sad to see a prepubescent girl wearing a pink baseball cap with a Playboy bunny on it, or a t-shirt that says “porn star”. In fact, it’s pretty sad to see anyone dressed that way, regardless of age.

However, at least on a chavvy teenage girl such fashion choices only advertise the wearer’s own bad taste. On a child it becomes an advert for the deep-seated retardedness of the child’s parents. It forces you to momentarily contemplate what fate holds in store for that child, and you know it’s not going to be Nobel prizes and big platters of Ferrero Rocher at the ambassador’s reception.

Anyway, here’s the reason I brought it up: this story about Wal-mart, which I see has now been followed by this one.

Wal-Mart are well worth reading up on. Their takeover of Asda doesn’t seem to have had the dramatic effect on the UK that people were predicting at the time but their level of influence in their home territory is incredible.

This influence extends to the recording industry, such that record labels who want their CDs stocked on Wal-Mart’s shelves are forced to produce sanitized versions of their albums – a “parental advisory” sticker alone isn’t enough.

Their moral code seems strangely selective.