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Young Teen Girl With A Sexy Whale Tail
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The trend of wearing whale tail-revealing jeans started to dissipate somewhat in the late 2000s when American clothing designers started shifting focus from low-slung jeans and exposed midriffs to high-waisted trousers and cardigans. Jess Cartner-Morley, fashion writer of The Guardian, claimed that the whale tail and the muffin top (the bulge of flesh hanging over the top of low-rider jeans), "twin crimes of modern fashion", had led to the decline in the popularity of hipster jeans. She quoted Louise Hunn, editor of the British edition of InStyle, as saying — "When a look goes too mainstream, people start wearing it badly. And then the really fashionable people run a mile". While the thong still represented 24% of the US$2.5 billion annual market in women's underwear, it stopped growing by end of 2004. By 2007, thongs were overtaken by boyshorts and accounted for only 12% of the knickers market. Some vendors, including Victoria's Secret and DKNY, started selling thongs that do not result in whale tails. Adam Lippes, founder of the lingerie line ADAM, said, "Women got tired of it. And they got sick and tired of seeing string hanging out of the top of every celebrity's jeans."
Socio-cultural analysis
Attributing whale tails to mainstreaming of the sexualization of young women, The Press Democrat termed the trend as "stripper chic". Post-modern thinker Yasmin Jiwani and co-writers described the trend in Girlhood: Redefining the Limits as an attempt to redefine girlhood while acknowledging the debate around it. The book termed the trend as the "slut" look popularized by Britney Spears. Some experts even dubbed whale tail flashing as "thong feminism" for young girls. Other experts accused marketers of "outrageous selling of sex to children".
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