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I spent an interesting few days recently on a business trip in South Beach, Miami. It’s the sort of trendy juxtaposition of tourists and celebrities which obviously draws customer care professionals into the mix. And hip-hoppers… let’s not forget them. Apparently at the same time we were in town, there was also a Hip-Hop awards festival… and they outnumbered the customer care folks by about a zillion to one.

It was kind of all these people to come into town and demonstrate how desperately culturally out of touch I actually am. I mean I already knew that I had no appreciation for the music. But I didn’t realize there was a uniform. The guys are all dressed in oversized basketball or football jerseys with enormously baggy shorts or pants. Large gold chains with medallions are optional but encouraged. Okay, I can cope with that. But the girls’ uniforms make you want to ask where their mother’s are, and why they let them out of the house that way. Bikini tops over shorts cut so narrow that your butt hangs out both the top and the bottom. A viewable thong sticking out the top is encouraged as are fishnet stockings. Heels are mandatory. Not to disparage the youth culture, but they look like a troop of prostitutes going down the street. Curiously, many of these girls did not possess the sort of figures which you would expect to find in these sorts of outfits. It was just too much – in many respects.

I hardly consider myself sexually repressed or prudish. But sexy has clearly given way to slutty here. It wasn’t appealing. And maybe as a parent who was old enough to be many of these girls’ father, it was horrifying. I’m sooooo glad I have boys.