Every so often a segment on NBC’s “Today” grabs my attention enough where I’ll actually sit through it.
(The morning show hasn’t been the same since Meredith Vieira left.)
Anyway, the segment was about a new French lingerie line geared toward girls age 4 to 12.
And let me tell you, I was disturbed.
It wasn’t so much that this company was making pretty undergarments and loungewear for girls and teens. What’s disturbing was how Jour Apres Lunes showcased these young models. They’ve got big, teased hair; they’re wearing pearls over their bras. I’ll be honest, it borderlines child pornography. At the very least, it suggests that.
And why? Why in the world do we need to sell push-up bras — thank you, Abercrombie & Fitch — and slutty outfits to little girls? What’s the end result? Money? A second home in the Hamptons?
And it’s not like Jour Apres Lunes is the first company to do this. Turns out, according to a recent study that looked at websites of 15 retailers, one-third of the clothes marketed to tween girls are sexualized. I’m talking T-shirts with suggestive words, leopard-print bikinis, skin-tight jeans.
Honestly, this is ridiculous. The hyper-sexualizing of young girls — and boys, too — has got to stop. This does nothing for the betterment of our society or the advancement of our culture. Nothing. We’re just giving yet another outlet for disturbed pedophiles and another reason for females to feel less satisfied with their bodies.
Great. Like we needed that.
8 Comments
Unfortunately, the only way to change behavior at these retailers is for people to simply not buy their products.
Good grief… some things should be sacred.
i dont believe anything from NBC
makes me sick! I’ve worked in child care over 20+ yrs. and this just drives me nuts… WTF.
Disturbing.
Yuck. I have to wonder how many of those ad execs or designers have children (and actually raise them) themselves. What happened to soceity protecting and honoring its innocent youth? As if they don’t grow up and face the real world too soon anyway.
It’s not art, it’s not fashion; it’s just trash.
I don’t know how widely popular things like this are, but we do seem to have too much money and too much time on our hands. I agree; it is disturbing.
If a store sells stuff like this, on a rack or on a shelf visible only to people who are looking to buy underwear, I don’t much care what they sell. The glitzy modeling and advertising of it is the problem.
I have a daughter who is 15, and my wife pays for her clothes, and does her laundry, so her sense prevails in such matters. I’m sure she wouldn’t have gone for stuff like this when our daughter was 5 or 11.
WRONG!