This Space For Rent

I am not a teenage boy (thank God), but I was party to a conversation with my son last week that confirmed something I had always thought, but NOT being of the male persuasion, I wasn't positive if my train of thought was accurate.

Let me back track a little.  I have never...let me repeat NEVER been a fan of clothing, specifically girls clothing, that has words written across the fanny.  Nor have I ever purchased said clothing, although Beanie did end up with a pair of hand me downs from a cousin with "Mudd" written on the fanny.  OH, let's be clear, my girls (specifically oldest) have let me know how ARCHAIC my reasoning was in this regard.  

Me:  No, I'm not buying you pants where the goal is to get someone (probably male) to stare at your butt under the pretext of  trying to figure out which words are written there.
Her:  MOOOOMMMMM, boys are NOT going to stare at my butt because words are on my pants.
Me:  Correct.  Because you are not going to be wearing pants with words on your butt.

High moral ground.  I was happy with my stance.

This year, for Christmas, she (my oldest daughter) asked for a pair of VS "Pink" Yoga pants.  At her current 5'8 and  one hundred and I hate you pounds, she HAS to have longs and VS is the only place I knew of that carried them.  And even then, pretty much only online, although I lucked out and found a pair in her size in the store. (her size? small, long.  Yeah, me too).  Of course, they weren't the exact ones she wanted (she had given me a VERY detailed Christmas list...with pictures...and sizes...for EVERYTHING...that was updated every 12 hours as her whims changed) but I figured she'd be happy.  I had a moment's hesitation buying them because they had "Love Pink" written on the back, but I justified buying them in that it wasn't written on the butt, but on a roll down band at the "waist" (Yes, I use the word waist loosely because after seeing them on her, they end up no where near her waist). 

Then, my 16 year old son set me straight as I listened to a conversation between the two of them the first time she wore them:

Him:  Why are you wearing clothes that beg guys to look at your butt?
Her:  I'm not.  And it's not on my butt.
Him: Close enough.
Her: And besides guys don't look close enough to read it.
Him: *raised eyebrows*
Her:  They don't care what's written there anyway.
Him:  You got that right.  They don't actually read the words, but they SEE that something is written and read it as "GRAB ME"

So, there you have it.  Once again, I failed to listen to that tiny voice in my head.  The barn door has been opened but my daughter knows that it is now FIRMLY closed.  The yoga pants?  STRICTLY for dance.  She doesn't get to wear them around town.  Future yoga pants will have no words on them.

I'm back to being the ARCHAIC mom.

And secretly...I had a little thrill.  My son DOES care what people think of his sisters.  But you didn't hear that from me.