Of the many perplexing curiosities one finds in the United States, for me the pre-teen beauty queen ranks among the strangest, and the most disturbing. We have strict laws and registration requirements to contain pedophiles — outlawing even the possession of child pornography in digital form — yet parents allow and assist their twelve year old daughters to display themselves as sexually mature women, as evidenced by this photograph I made during a parade down the main street of a Southern city. Men will recognize that provocative look, and wonder how and where she learned this signal.