Outcry over the John Lewis bras for two-year-olds
Parents brand ‘sexualised’ range disgraceful
JOHN Lewis has been accused of ‘sexualising toddlers’ after advertising bras for two-year-old girls.
Charities and campaigners last night condemned the department store as a ‘disgrace’ for selling replica women’s underwear to fit children aged between two and five.
The £8 ‘vintage floral bras’ attracted dozens of complaints from mothers, who branded the supposedly family-orientated retailer ‘disgusting’.
They were sold both in store and online as part of John Lewis’s ‘Girl’ range.
Following the outcry, the collection was removed from the retailer’s website.
A spokesman insisted it had been a mistake and that the bras were meant for girls aged 11 and older. But the cotton bras, which are still being sold in stores, are alongside matching vests and knickers in the same fabric which start at two years of age. They also measure only 20 inches around the chest in the smallest size – which is actually slightly smaller than the average two-year-old.
The knickers in the matching pink and white floral pattern state clearly on the label that they are for two-year-old girls.
‘Unacceptable and very disturbing’
The news comes as Prime Minister David Cameron this week promised a crackdown on sexualised images of children on the internet.
Siobhan Freegard, founder of the UK’s biggest parenting website Netmums, said last night: ‘There is no need for a bra measuring 20 inches. It’s unnecessary and unsavoury to ask tiny girls to dress in replicas of women’s underwear.
‘Some may try to justify it saying it’s for little girls who want to copy their mums, but we shouldn’t be encouraging toddlers to be body- conscious.’ Claude Knights, chief executive of the charity Kidscape, agreed, adding: ‘Bras and two-year-olds in the same sentence just doesn’t compute. If this is so, it is unacceptable and very disturbing.
‘If you spoke to any mother or father of a child of that age, it would be out of their orbit of thinking.’
Mothers on parenting forums described the products as ‘wrong’ and ‘dangerous’. One wrote on Mumsnet: ‘The sexualisation of small girls makes me so sad.
‘Childhood seems to be something we get nostalgic about, not something we allow children to actually have any more.’
And a user called Percy posted on the Baby Centre forum: ‘They do matching knickers too ... I am flabbergasted! They’ve got a proper bra clasp! That’s a health and safety issue for a start.’ Parents also took to social media to condemn the store. Chris Sanderson wrote on Twitter: ‘A bra for a 2 year old?! Appalled at John Lewis.’
This is not the first time the store, well-known for its heart-warming Christmas adverts, has been accused of selling inappropriate clothing for very young girls.
One range sold on its website has girls’ clothes for ages 6 and up that are based on their adult collection.
This range, called ‘ Mango’, includes skimpy black faux-leather hot pants which are dry clean only, a short denim mini-skirt and a pair of tight tweed shorts.
Campaign group Let Clothes Be Clothes said they ‘weren’t surprised’ to find bras for toddlers. ‘ This i sn’t the first time we’d brought up the question of John Lewis selling sexualised clothing to young girls,’ said the group’s co- founder, Ruth Lopardo. ‘In fact, John Lewis Girl stands out as displaying some of the worst gender stereotypes we’ve found.’
A spokesman for John Lewis said it does not sell or condone the sale of bras to young children, adding: ‘Bras are designed to stretch, so our 28A bra will fit a 28-inch chest even if it measures at a smaller size when on the hanger.’ However, despite the label inside saying 28 inches – the chest size of a typical 11-year-old girl – when a Daily Mail reporter stretched the bra to its full capacity it only reached around 22 inches.
The spokesman added: ‘ We sell bras by size and not by age and the products are clearly marked in this way and labelled by size in our shops. An error occurred when the product was put on our website, meaning that it was categorised by age and not size. This was corrected straight away.’
Several other retailers have faced criticism in the past for selling inappropriate girls’ clothing.
In 2010, Primark was forced to withdraw padded bikinis for sevenyear-olds after the Prime Minister branded them ‘disgraceful’.