Primark pulled this item from its stores.
There is a trouble brewing in the UK over a major retailer, Primark, selling padded bikini tops for girls ages seven and up. Under pressure from politicians (it’s election time) and parenting site Mumsnet, the store has pulled the tops. Primark has agreed to give a children’s charity profits from the sales of the tops before they were yanked.
I am opposed to products that are too sexy for young girls and I believe inappropriate media messages and marketing campaigns can be damaging to a young girl’s psyche, but something about the situation in the UK bothers me.
Perhaps it’s the fact that someone, either associated with the product or with Primark, was quoted off-the-record explaining the padding was added so that the shape of a girl’s nipple didn’t show through the fabric of the top. Now that might just be damage control but it might also be a reasonable explanation. I can understand a preteen – and her mother- wanting some extra coverage at the beach.
More likely, it’s the hints of victim blaming in some of the news stories. Several people are quoted referring to the top as the “paedo bikini.” Let’s be clear. Girls and their clothes are not to blame for pedophilia. Pedophiles are to blame for pedophilia. And then there are the protesters who are questioning why girls should ever wear two-piece bathing suits or clothes made from shiny pink fabric with gold stars. The answer to the over-sexualization of young girls is not to dress girls in Polly Flinders dresses until their wedding day. It is to hold a reasonable dialogue about what is appropriate and what isn’t. And it is not to let society dictate appopriate behavior for girls. That should be the responsibility of the family.
A single item of clothing is not the problem. If I saw a young girl at the beach in a shiny pink two piece bathing suit, high heels, makeup and hoop earrings, that would disturb me. (That’s also the reason I would never attend a beauty pageant.) But if I saw a young girl at the beach in that same suit and the rest of her clothing and her behavior were age appropriate, I wouldn’t think twice about her outfit.
Yes, we must be vigilant about inappropriate marketing to young girls. And yes, I support asserting pressure on the people who make and sell inappropriate items. But in doing so, let’s not impose upon our girls a narrow definition of what they should and shouldn’t wear. Girls are not the issue. And their clothing choices are not responsible for what’s wrong in this world.
Now, this, is a problem.
