What was with all the short dresses that allowed the underwear to show?

Cindy Brady, Elizabeth Walton, Doty (M3S), etc... all wore really short dresses. Did society think it was cute or something? Pedophiles are elders.

I've made some posts before about Dody on M3S, but a grown-up Dawn Lyn evidently commented she had no problem with it. I wonder what Susan Olsen would say.

I'm not sure why around 1970 it was the thing to do on TV. I'd think any kid would be embarrassed to walk around on camera showing their underwear. And the parent right there allowing it.

And the parent right there allowing it.
There is a movie scene with Shirly Temple where she is in a bus or train and she is handed over the seats by men, one by one until she reaches the back of the vehicle. She is wearing a short dress there too.

Very gross.

Mini skirts made a come back in the late 60s early 70s. You also get 3 glimpses of this in early episodes. On the teeter totter episode Marcia wants her dress hemmed up for the wedding. In Fright Night when the girls are making the ghost, Jan says "it seems kinda long" Marcia explaims "Have you ever seen a ghost in a mini sheet?"
And finally the episode Ugly Duckling where Marcia makes over the girl. You see Marcia making her skirt short.
This was the style back then even for young girls.

You see Marcia making her skirt short.
This was the style back then even for young girls.
We are not talking about mini skirts.

Did society think it was cute or something? Pedophiles are elders.

I believe there is a strong "eye of the beholder" element involved. To wit, to an observer who is determined to see something "dirty" about it...then that is all they are gonna see.

Remember the suntan oils ad that had the dog tugging at the little girls swimsuit, exposing her untanned buttocks? Do you see a "pervie" element in that as well?

Back in the 1960s we had an automobile Seat Cover shop here locally, and their logo was a cartoon of a little girl wearing a pair of "trap door" PJs with one of the trap door buttons undone, exposing one cheek. With the caption under it stating "We got You covered".

The girl, as depicted, could not have been older than 8 years old. And that logo was on the shops main sign, on their TV ads, and on every newspaper ad.

I'm certain that the "torch and pitchfork" brigade would have a fit with such ads today.

People looking for a reason to be offended generally succeed.

I believe the intent with the specific scenes you mention was more intended to portray innocence...as in the child being naive to the fact of their exposing themself,....much more so than to gratify prurient interests.

I'm not sure why around 1970 it was the thing to do on TV. I'd think any kid would be embarrassed to walk around on camera showing their underwear. And the parent right there allowing it.

I believe there was a Seat Cover Charlie shop down there in Indy as well Steve, do you remember the "we got you covered" ads from back then?

We are not talking about mini skirts.
A short skirt or short dress, its the same thing. It was the style. Just google fashion trends of women's dresses and skirts in the late 60s and early 70s.

Look at the mini shorts the NBA players wore in the 1980s. People laugh today and cant imagine it but it was the fashion trend back then.

Women showing leg no matter the age was not seen as taboo as today. To call people pedophiles as you did in your first post is way beyond common sense.

I think there is an additional element at play as well. If the actor being "exposed" knows that they are in fact well covered, there is no real offense.

High kicking dance hall girls in old burlesque movies come to mind, if they are wearing a bathing suit bottom underneath those hoop skirts, the fact that they are high kicking with no modesty really isn't exposing anything that you would not see on a public beach.

But to the un-initiated viewer, they might think they are seeing the moon.

Women showing leg no matter the age was not seen as taboo as today. To call people pedophiles as you did in your first post is way beyond common sense.

We are not talking about women. We are talking about little girls. Like 2-7 years old, little girls. We are talking about dressing little girls in such a way that they become fodder for a pedophile.

Seems to me that one if the actresses on the old "Little Rascals" comedy series had chronically visible undies, too.

I was born at the end of 1964 and my mother made a lot of my clothes. They were short but not 'show your undies" short. That was just the style then.

Her own dresses and skirts were short too. That's all that was available at that time.

I was born at the end of 1964 and my mother made a lot of my clothes. They were short but not 'show your undies" short. That was just the style then.

Her own dresses and skirts were short too. That's all that was available at that time.

Except we see Shirley Temple in her little girl years and Darla from the Little Rascals dressed in "show your undies short" and they are not from the same era. It seemed to be something to do to little girls from many eras.

I think it's a lot like a rorschach inkblot test. They depict nondescript items, that if the viewer being tested reports 'oh that one is a cow" and "that looks like a sunset"....it really doesn't mean anything worth further attention.

But if they say "Oh that one is a mass shooting at McDonalds" and "oh, that one is my teacher being taught to mind her own business"...it serves as an indicator and guide for further examination.

95% of people could probably watch those Brady episodes and say " that dumb kid doesn't even know how to be modest"

But perhaps the 5% pervies in the audience see something else entirely?

I've often thought that the little old ladies claiming moral outrage over some explicit temptation, were mostly distraught because no one was interested in their withered fruit.

What episode does any dress show underwear? The Shirley Temple dress was a costume, not a dress Cindy wore.

Actually, I recall it was papa Brady who tried to take underwear "mainstream"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jElVDJ2iV8c