Melinda Tankard Reist is a Canberra author, speaker, commentator and advocate with a special interest in issues affecting women and girls. Of late she has taken the lead on a number of issues around early sexualisation of young people. She brought to my attention that the department store Best and Lest were selling a push up bra to 6 to 12 year olds. This is what she sent me:
"We magnify the body, we perfect the silhouette, we help to cheat."
That was said about push-up bras by a woman who manages a French company which invented them.A bra now being marketed to girls who haven't even hit their teens and, mostly, will not possess anything that needs support, let alone need a lacy push-up number.In yet another example of the sexualisation of girls, Best and Less is selling the Tween-age Push-up Bra. Tweens have been defined as aged 6-12.
Now, as most people know, push-up bras are designed to show off cleavage. Obviously the inventors of the tween push-up bra don't care if there is no 'cleavage' to start with. They will help a young girl cheat and make it look like there is. Underwire padding, boosting: helping create the illusion that this little girl is much more developed than she really is.
And why would you want to do that exactly? Why would a child need to have her body magnified? What is a perfect silhouette for a child? Why would a child be required to cheat? Why adultify little girls? We are telling little girls that their bodies are not acceptable as they are. And that their bodies are supposed to draw attention, primarily male attention. The earlier these messages hit them, the more ingrained they become. They are being groomed to see their bodies as sexual objects.
Normalising and encouraging the appearance of breasts on prepubescent children puts them in danger. We are witnessing the disappearance of spontaneity, unselfconsciousness, curiosity and fun in girls – qualities that were once valued for their role in developing a strong sense of self identity; enabling girls to journey into adulthood in a natural and healthy way. But now they are body conscious – indeed self-loathing – at younger ages, wracked by fear and self-doubt, wondering if they are good enough. The manufacturers of the push-up bra for little girls know this, and are preying on it.
Melinda felt that the store needed to be held accountable and she asked us to email Best and Lest to tell them what I thought. This is my email to them:
"...I am a child and adolescent psychologist who works in the media and I am incandescent with rage with the bone brained individual in your company who thought it would be a brilliant idea to sell push up bras to prepubescent girls!
There are so many reasons why this runs counter to what we know is in the best interests of young girls - it is difficult to know where to start.
I can only refer you to the American Psychological Society Taskforce report (www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualization.html) on the impact of early sexualisation and hope that you reprimand the cretin who made this decision and immediately withdraw the product.
Sincerely
Dr Michael Carr-Gregg"
Yesterday they sent me this email:
"Best & Less prides itself on its strong family values and has strict guidelines relating to the sale of products for young people. As such Best & Less does not stock or sell push up bras for children."
"The bras in question were intended to be a women's petite range from size 8AA through to 12B. They were made to current Australian standards for women's bras and were displayed in our women's underwear department."
"Regrettably an error resulted in the incorrect branding and labelling of these bras as 'Tweenage'. As a consequence, they were removed from sale in all of our stores across Australia as of yesterday, 2nd February."
"We have taken procedural steps to avoid any future branding or labelling errors of this sort."
We won.... never underestimate the power of the media to get things done...and long live Melinda Tankard Reist.
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3 comments:
Oh good on you both of you for fighting the good fight. What a great outcome.
I wanted to say thank you for writing your books, I hope you realise what a fantastic resource they are for us parents.
Thanks again
Elizabeth
Hi, I am a 22 female professionally fitted as a size 8A bra. I have tried wearing a illfitting 10B but experiancing extreme pain in my diafragm and side of my breasts. Experiancing extreme weightloss following illness and surgery, I am at 45kgs, and am 165cm tall. An older friend (71) after chemotherapy weighs 41kg, at 160cm tall so may be a 6B or 8B. These weights are not Eating disorders, it's the result of surgeries, allergies, cancers, and other illness.
My bra-search was unsuccessful at Target, Best & Less and Myer. I couldn't find a bra padded enough to hide my fully-developed nipples (in winter). My breasts bounce when I run so bra-less is not an option. The available bras were all jersey cotton, in soft baby pastels, grey and polka-dots. I couldn't find a padded 8A cup-bra in white or nude, much less something pretty or sexy. There is a need for an attractive bra appropriate for older ages in small size ranges.
PLEASE think about people who do need the product before you try and ban it please. It's not right underwear companies should be targeting children, but when I am old enough to be married and want a feminine bra, I need to be able to find it too.
And my followup:
Hearing about the Soft-cup bra yesterday, I headed to the bonds factory warehouse to try one on, turns out it's not "padded" but rather just thicker material that the crop-tops, and are labeled "my first bra". More like my hundredth, but I digress. But alas, the 8A doesn't fit my back as I'm too tall (the white did but not the black) and in my frustration the shop assistant, my mum (yes, in my twenties I still go bra-shopping with my mum), and I resort to the kidswear section of the factory to try on a 12-14 halter crop. Too big still, I now have a collection of children's size 10 crop tops, at 22 years old. Yes, they are the cheapest bras I've ever bought in Australia, at $3.40 each. But they also have pink and purple love hearts all over them, and remind me of the underpants I gave up wearing at 4 years old. They also are un-padded enough to show my nipples through my t-shirt, just what I want as I head off to church on Sunday.
Your report on the pornification of children and over-sexualisation was one sided, discriminatory against the "smaller" built women who have been victims to their weight outside of their control, and resulted in the pulling of a valuable product off the shelves which could have helped build my confidence at a time where post-surgery, I feel my body is disgusting. Instead of being able to view it as sexually attractive, I'm forced to be treated as a child as I revert to the size clothing I haven't worn since 13, 10 years ago now. I agree children don't need to be treated like adults, but adults neither need to be treated like children simply to find underwear that is appropriate.
Congratulations. You won in ruining the dignity of woman like me, by downgrading our underwear shopping experiance to that of being treated like children.
Sharon, your post makes no sense and actually proves the point that Melinda Tankard Reist and Michael Carr-Gregg were making, that this is a sexualised item. You wanted something 'sexy' and found it in the children's section. The fact that you want this bra to help you feel 'sexually attractive' highlights exactly why they shouldn't be marketed to children. Your health concerns, while obviously difficult for you, are not a reason to be marketing bras to little girls.
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