Talk about needing to protect kids. A British retailer was selling 2 piece padded bikini style bathing suits to 7 year old kids. Looks like the fashion industry wants to really destroy the self image of little girls at a young age.
Luckily some members of the British government and others spoke out against this type of child abuse so they were forced to pull the product.
Here's the story:
"U.K. retailer withdraws padded bikini bras for kids
LONDON — A major British clothing retailer withdrew a children's bathing suit from sale Wednesday after a front-page tabloid story criticized the store for selling padded bras on bikinis aimed at 7-year-olds.
The bikinis also angered children's advocates and top candidates in Britain's upcoming national election, who say it was yet another product that sexualizes children and encourages them to grow up too fast...
Primark, a popular discount chain, is not the first retailer to draw criticism for offering padded bras for kids younger than 10. But the outcry of protest is prompting a growing number of companies to pledge support for Mumsnet's "Let Girls Be Girls" campaign.
The popular online forum said such clothing indoctrinates the idea that sexiness is the most important quality for girls and "encourages a culture in which children are viewed as sexually available."...
The retailer acted within hours of a front-page article in The Sun denouncing the product as a "paedo (pedophile) bikini." Politicians swiftly joined the clamor...
There has long been a global concern that products and images may encourage the sexualization of children or direct sexual abuse at them. Barbie dolls have often been criticized for being unrealistically curvaceous. Teenage Disney star Miley Cyrus' bareback picture for Vanity Fair magazine was slammed for being too sexualized, as was 15-year-old Brooke Shields' ad for Calvin Klein jeans in which she said: "You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing."
The American Psychological Association, in a 2007 report on the sexualization of girls, raised concerns about other ad campaigns, such as Skechers' "naughty and nice" ad in 2004 featuring Christina Aguilera dressed as a pigtailed, lollipop-licking schoolgirl. The association also fretted about thongs for 7- to 10-year-olds with slogans such as "wink wink."...
Researchers such as Penny Nicholls of The Children's Society, a British charity, say their studies show that commercial pressures toward premature sexualization and unprincipled advertising damage children's well-being...
"By over-emphasizing their sexuality through fashion, it may make it harder for girls to value themselves for other aspects of their identity," the report by psychologist Linda Papadopoulos said.
For the full story click here
Americans and Brits have a strange sense of "protecting" our kids. The retailer had said that the padding protected the "modesty" of young girls. Whereas, most adults with common sense realized they wanted to sexualize young girls at a young age into the fashion industry.
Let kids be kids, they will have plenty of time to grow up. And if you go to Europe especially to France, Spain, and Germany you will realize that most kids enjoy wearing one special kind of bathing suit. It's called a birthday suit.
It's always in style.
And that's a major fear of the fashion industry as they can't sell bathing suits to people who like wearing their birthday suit.
Tom Mulhall
Terra Cotta Inn clothing optional resort and spa
Palm Springs, California
http://sunnyfun.com
For more info or reservations, call 1-800-786-6938
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