Children as puppets

Here are two images from Italian photographers Winkler + Noah. The exhibit includes 30 photos of children, retouched to suggest puppets.

From the artists’ statement:

How can we forget the scent of dolls? … They talk, laugh, dance and joke … like children. Because that’s what they are.
Children we ask too much of, to be perfect, like dolls.
Children who have become sons and daughters of perfection, pretence and image, manipulated by the media and the social context and who are inevitably losing their naturalness.
An exhibit which becomes a starting point for reflection, sociological research and introspection, to better understand ourselves and the world around us. And to understand that the best present we can give to children is to let them be children.

“I hope I die before I get old”

There was an interesting piece in Newsweek recently on the use of cosmetics and other beauty enhancements by children.

[T]his, my friends, is the new normal: a generation that primps and dyes and pulls and shapes, younger and with more vigor. Girls today are salon vets before they enter elementary school. Forget having mom trim your bangs, fourth graders are in the market for lush $50 haircuts; by the time they hit high school, $150 highlights are standard. Five-year-olds have spa days and pedicure parties. And instead of shaving their legs the old-fashioned way–with a 99-cent drugstore razor–teens get laser hair removal, the most common cosmetic procedure of that age group.
[B]y the time your 10-year-old is 50, she’ll have spent nearly $300,000 on just her hair and face. It’s not that women haven’t always been slaves to their appearance …. But today’s girls are getting caught up in the beauty maintenance game at ages when they should be learning how to read–and long before their beauty needs enhancing.

Two-year-old backstage at Toddlers & Tiaras

Source: flickr

Related posts:
Is it OK to eat and drink during labor?
Babies are individuals: Don’t fret the milestones
Things that make you go “Oooohhhh!” Why we can’t resist babies
Are married people happier? Are parents?
Padded bikini bras for seven-year-olds