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Mumsnet campaigns

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Campaign to stop retailers selling products that prematurely sexualise children - let us know what you think...

782 replies

JustineMumsnet · 05/01/2010 12:58

So quite a few folk on the MN campaigns thread mentioned that an issue they'd like to see MN get involved in is the premature sexualisation of children.

So we've put together an outline for a potential campaign, along the lines of Let girls be girls, summarising the issues and some of the research. The aim is to encourage retailers to make a simple, public pledge that commits them to selling only products which do not sexualise children.

Please do have a read and let us know your thoughts, ideas, suggestions.

Thanks.
MNHQ

OP posts:
solo · 09/01/2010 02:34

See, I think it's down to parents to not buy it/allow their Dd's to wear this stuff.

AppleTreeWick · 09/01/2010 10:06

Great idea - I would fully support this.

I haven't read all the comments so apologies if I am going over old ground here. However tactically I would focus on the "clearly unacceptable" like poll dancing kits and sexulalised styles and sloguns for girls clothing rather than kicking off your statements with the baby heels thing. The latter seemed just like a piece of throwaway daftness to me.

Am excited though!

Heated · 09/01/2010 12:28

Am going to go back and read all the comments, but this is an excellent campaign. I'd support it in the hope of at least making producers and designers of children's clothes & toys aware of a significant public dissatisfaction.

And the premature sexualisation and gender stereotyping starts very early.

Am always very irritated by the narrow gender coding of toys in ELC which are usually pink nurturing/ shopping/ passive toys presumably for girls and exciting action-toys in blue for boys.

Wanted to buy a non-pink, non-frilly bike without impractical white wheels or a doll-seat(fgs) for 3yr old dd and couldn't find one. Got excellent advice from MN but had to spend twice the money to get it.

And clothes! I do not want to dress my 3 yr old dd provocatively or as a pop-star likethis or, for that matter, my 5 yr old ds like a 16 year old, yet 3-16yrs or 5-16yrs is often the norm for children's clothing ranges.

I do see it as part of an insidious message: girls are meant to be sexually attractive and also passive/nurturing and boys active and aggressive.

SpeedyGonzalez · 09/01/2010 15:47

Hey, solo! It's the new me - we met at the Nintendo thingy in London last summer...umm...am pregnant - does that give you a clue?

solo · 09/01/2010 16:53

Hello Speedy! why the namechange? I know who you are!!! how's it going?

solo · 09/01/2010 16:55

That seems very strange saying hello Speedy...Speedy was my nickname as a young(er) woman!!! due to my bike riding I'll hasten to add!

KimiLovesHerFamily · 09/01/2010 16:59

I think this is just wonderful

SpeedyGonzalez · 09/01/2010 18:35

How funny we share a nickname! Can't post for long, but I decided to change as I've got caught up in one hairy debate too many and decided to turn over a new leaf. How's you? - I'm well, btw.

gottodash!

wukter · 09/01/2010 18:41

The inappropriate products are a symptom, not the problem itself. The real problem is the sexualisation and coarsening of culture as a whole. How can you protect your kids from that? Sure, you can ban telly at home, but they'll hear it all in the playground anyway.

Despite how Mary Whitehouse-ish I am being, I would like to see watersheds adhered to on tv.
Tit mags on the high shelves.
Decorum (cringey word) exercised on front pages of newspapers.

Basically I want to return to the past .

Sorry if I'm going over old ground.

Pennies · 09/01/2010 19:22

Great idea. Hate all this stuff in the shops and as the DDs get older the pester power will increase. Not looking forward to that at all, so anything that avoids that AND helps to prolongs their innocence and childhood is a good thing IMO.

reikizen · 09/01/2010 20:06

count me in thanks

solo · 09/01/2010 20:31

Speedy, I'm glad you are good. How's the pg going? how far now?
My ME is bad atm, but I'm trying to be more optimistic about everyting

SpeedyGonzalez · 09/01/2010 20:36

Ohh, I didn't realise you had ME, that's awful. Really sorry to hear that. How long have you had it for?

I am about 6 months' preg now, still managing to do most things such as touch my toes (well, if I squat I can reach them ). This preg is great, much easier than the first - which was pretty easy as well, except for the odd hiccup. I feel incredibly lucky at the mo (apart from the fact that I have no money!).

solo · 09/01/2010 22:35

I've had it 10 years Speedy.

Glad pg is good. Welcome to my club of no dosh tis crapola but you certainly appreciate things more. I'm sitting at home here in a jumper, cardi and beeny hat of Ds's. I bought some babygrow style pj's for Dd yesterday as she gets really warm in bed, throws off her bed clothes and then freezes. Trouble is, they are a tad short(she's only just 3 and they are 3-4yrs, so I'm butchering old ones and lengthening the new ones. Look Ok too!

StewieGriffinsMom · 10/01/2010 09:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

duchesse · 10/01/2010 09:15

As a mother of three daughters I'd be delighted not to have to trawl through mountains of hooker tat in the high street stores in order to find them stuff to wear that doesn't make them dangerous. It was worse about 5-6 years ago when my older daughters were 6 and 8. There seems to be a lot more nice little girls' stuff out there now.

I'd go along with any such campaign.

duchesse · 10/01/2010 09:44

In fairness what irks me the most about it having to trawl through piles of crappy tat to find things that don't repel me. I spent about 1/2 longer in Next looking for two outfits for my 1 month old that weren't shell pink (and found one in blue and white and one in dark dark fuschia and burgundy). I found some bibs that were inoffensive, unisex and without slogans in Sainsburys. I found ditto in Tesco. I found some in Jojo Maman Bebe (she's a mega dribbler, I've since had to buy a dozen more). The point is, I had to actively search for these things- it took me more effort and more time. People with less of an axe to grind might not want to spend so much time, buy the inappropriate stuff and thereby end up unwittingly end up colluding with the store's buyers. So perpetuating their belief that its what's people want, when in fact they're maybe just not as militant as some of us.

duchesse · 10/01/2010 10:04

There's a MN user with a name that would be excellent: My Child's a Child. non-gender specific, still fairly snappy, not too "trendy" sounding.

sockmonkey · 10/01/2010 10:24

Oooh. Put my name down please!
I'm expecting my first girl and am dreading the clothes shopping as she grows.
I'm not a massive pink fan, but there seems to be little choice about that, but as she gets older would like to have modest age appropriate stuff.
Also clothes she can actually play in. I often feel sorry for girls, especially at soft play places, little denim skirts etc are not the easiest things to climb/jump around in.

babymutha · 10/01/2010 13:17

Could this go further and ask for a consideration of children in the over sexualisation of public space??
I AM SICK TO DEATH of seeing soft porn images of women every time I leave the house. BC it was a mild annoyance now it is something my 2year old DD is subjected to every time we leave the house (we live in London)-either on buses or hoardings or in lads mags when we buy milk in the local shop. I have a choice about what clothes, toys etc I buy for DD but I have no choice about the 100 foot hoarding of an air-brushed model in her underwear or a splayed celebrity on the front cover of nuts. How many of these images will she see before she even starts school!

CiderIUpAndSetIFree · 10/01/2010 13:35

Yes, the whole spangly princess/porn star pre-teen culture is depressing and insidious imo.

Apologies if this has been linked to before, but the Adams 'Tainted' range aimed at 2-11 year olds made me wince.
Tainted girls

It's not so much the clothes themselves - they're rock-chickish rather than princessy, but the 'Tainted' name and the attitudinal styling of the young models just made my toes curl.

donnie · 10/01/2010 14:26

agree. Children are children - not whores in the making.That 'tainted' range....why would a parent want their little girl to be associated with the notion of being tainted?

MuchaFriki · 10/01/2010 22:31

I am also in the Something Must Be Done, But Probably Not This camp, for all of these reasons:

There's no action plan yet in the campaign proposal. You say "a Mumsnet campaign". Does this mean "the community" will have the chance to sign a petition, send a form letter to a retailer and a link to their Facebook friends? Given the huge community you have already have here, so much more can be done.

In any MN campaign it would help to have practical actions that supporters can sign up to. Quick simple things we can do, that in doing, also encourage others to get involved. There were some fun suggestions on the OOA bad advertising thread, like meeting up to dump dirty nappies in the ad agency's offices. Flash mobs of sarcastic mums can figure out how to stay on the right side of the law and also have fun.

But right now the campaign message is negative - "stop doing X". More positive campaign would help - "encourage doing Y" - . Positive campaign will support morale of people involved in it; a negative one will attract flames and put people off.

A positive campaign message would help focus on the real goals. With a negative message you risk negative coverage, attracting Mary Whitehouse type sympathisers, encourage people to yell at each other on the internet even more, just what the advertisers would like. And if you can't think up practical actions for supporters of your campaign, are you doing any good, or just helping to get people worked up?

Retailers need a business benefit to change their practises. It's easier to sell a carrot than a stick. Persuade just one big chain to present clothes and toys in one space with no gendered boundaries, more neutral colours, etc, and that would draw a lot of mums there and get the other stores' marketing people worried. Fairtrade, organic, renewable, etc, is all very nice, but if it did not have a marketing and money benefit for stores, they would not stock that stuff.

In a couple of places the text at www.mumsnet.com/campaigns/let-girls-be-girls talks about "children" where it really means "girls". There is already an overfocus on girls. They are hassled over appearance enough, are the object of others' decisions enough. Campaigns like this are for everyone, for future society's sanity.

A couple of people pointed out Pink Stinks, trying to do very similar things. MN staff could work to promote their campaign and ask MN mums to support it. That would also show that it is about the cause, not the coverage, for MN organisers.

Okay, done for now.

natapillar · 10/01/2010 23:40

was in asda this afternoon and went past the magazines with my 7yoDD,and there on the shelf(not even the top shelf) was a lads mag,zoo or nuts, with the image of two naked women cuddling each other!! no u could not see their nipples,but it didnt exactly leve much to the imagination.
i was shocked and quite annoyed that such an image be allowed on the lower shelf by the TV guides! my kids have to face this sort of thing EVERY day. having 3 DDs it is quite a worry. i don't like them seeing things like this. not because im a prude or some mad feminist with hairy armpits,but because it is constant sexualisation of women. we might as well all say 'oh well we have breasts that we can use to pay the bills'.
i would much rather encourage kids to see that women are not just there to be sexy.

mamaafrica · 11/01/2010 10:07

Great idea, I like the suggestion:
Childhood for Children.
Also, too much camo print for boys, I have a ds nearly 7 and another ds nearly 5 and I've managed to resist camo style fabrics so far.
Long may it last.
Too much macho influence for boys too.