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

[JustineMumsnet]

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

Oops I didn't read the bit about links! I'll try again.

Here's the images

The website (not to promote a different campaign but so you can see what we are about before you decide whether to talk to us!)

www.thefrontpagecampaign.org.uk

I have just read a report in trade journal "Property Week" about Mumsnet outrage following M&S subletting its Bristol Harbourside store to Hooters restaurant chain. The change from shop to restaurant required planning permission (stay with me here, its not that boring).

Mumsnetters should be aware of the changes to the planning system being proposed by the Coallition Governement, which will give much greater say to local communities about the planning decisions made in their area. November will see the release of the Government's Localism Bill, which will contain more details on how this will work in practice, but to date everything suggests there will be more local say and indeed more responsibility at the local level. Mumsnetter local groups would be well placed to make their views about similarly inappropriate planning applications heard in the future.

I wrote a response to this campaign:

lurehumano.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/if-youre-looking-for-bad-mums-the-word-puns-youve-come-to-the-wrong-blog/

I'd be genuinely interested in your thoughts.

Sorry, click here - didn't realise it was HTML!

I have just sent an e-mail to Tesco.

I visited your Home store in Netherfield today and was unimpressed to see that in your "teen range" you are selling padded bras as small as a size 28AA. This is a size often appropriate to girls as young as 8 or 9 and I believe that targeting padded underwear for children from this age up to young teenagers is utterly disgraceful.
It is interesting to note that you back Mumsnet's "Let girls be girls" campaign and therefore have agreed not to sell products which exploit, emphasise or play upon 'children's sexuality'. You may be aware that Dr. Andrew McCulloch, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation, is quoted as saying "Girls and young women are being forced to grow up at an unnatural pace in a society that we, as adults, have created and it's damaging their emotional well-being. We are creating a generation under stress."
Can you provide an assurance that these products will be removed from your shelves immediately?

I write to draw the attention of mumsnet followers to the actions of Marks and Spencers in Bristol and call for mumsnet to ban this retailer from the 'Let Girls be Girls' campaign. Marks and Spencers CANNOT be allowed to have their company name associated with this campaign whilst at the same time renting out a unit in Bristol to the restaurant chain Hooters. This chain, as I am sure many follwers of mumsnet are aware of, sell babygros with the following slogans on 'Future Hooters Girl' and 'Does My Bum Look Big in This'.
M&S, by renting this unit to Hooters, have created a situation where they are facilitating the selling of these babygro outfits while at the same time trying to present their company as supporting the campaign to eliminate the sexualisation of young children from our society. They cannot have it both ways so I call on mumsnet and the followers of mumsnet to ask M&S to take the necessary action to untangle themselves from this unsavoury establishment and if they refuse mumsnet MUST disasociate themselves from having dealings with this company and be open and public about the reasons for doing so.

Ban M&S from this campaign because they are renting their retail unit in Bristol to Hooters. Mumsnet CANNOT contniue to allow this retailer to be associated (and promoted) with the campaign when they are facilitating the sexualisation of children through alternative franchaise chains. This could capture the attention of the media, keep the campaign in the news and expose M&S for the hypocrytes that they are currently demostarting themselves to be.

Remove M&S from being associted with this campaign, you know why and it makes a mockery of what this campaign is trying to do!!

I think you are right in the under wear situation, but it is also the parents fault. if parents by the products/items then it shows to the shop that people are buying them products/items so they will get more of the products/items made. My 2 children are young so i have not been in the situation to buy the products/items.

I'd like to point out the difficulties faced by mums trying to buy clothes for tall children. My 8 year old DD is the size of an average 10 year old, and with many high street stores being skimpy on material, that means I have to buy age 11 or 12 in some shops (M&S is particularly bad, I have to buy age 15 tights from them). It's very hard to find age-appropriate clothing when your 8 year old is well within the 'teen' range in many shops. Children are getting bigger, so why can't clothing reflect this?

On another note, a 'Pop Princesses' CD I bought for my daughter, all pink and girly and clearly aimed at her age range, included a DVD of pop videos, including the Pussycat Dolls. I'm not particularly prudish but that video was almost soft porn.

Totally behind this campaign - it is much needed.

The argument that there is a market for this stuff so therefore we should just accept it is a bit odd. Does this mean we should just let dealers sell illeagal drugs because there is a market for them?

The point is we need to shrink the market for clothes, toys, films etc that sexulise young girls. Firstly by stopping buying this crap ourselves and then by making it socially unacceptable to buy this stuff so that the majority of other parents stop buying it too. Retailers will soon stop selling this rubbish if it doesn't make a profit and damages their reputation.

The 'we can't do anything about it' argument is lazy - if we all had that attitude nothing would have changed since the days of the caveman. Well organised, targeted campaigns do change things - off the top of my head - mandatory seatbelts in cars, massive reduction in drink driving, votes for the masses, votes for women - list is endless.

Lets go for it!

Until we start addressing what young girls are emulating, we cannot begin to deal with the problem. Children emulate the society around them so women and men need to set a better example to children as an equal problem exists amongst boys where 24% of 18 year olds in a recent Havens survey would have sex with a girl against her will, 46% would continue with sex if the girl wanted to stop (both of these constitute rape), 66% would have sex with a girl who was crying, 29% wouldn't accept no as meaning no and a similar number wouldn't accept a girl pushing them away as meaning no .

What a great campaign Though my daughters are a bit older now, I still feel there is a sick undertone in society that has crept in over the past 10 years or so. We need to have proper role models and take on the shops and mags and tv shows that ignore the complaints that they have received regarding this. Take the X factor, if your male you can sing without acting out sexually however for a female the more flesh on view the better. As I mentioned my children are older but something needs to be done now if we are to stop this being the norm before the watershed.

A FATHERS PERSPECTIVE: As a father of two girls I wholeheartedly support this campaign, but I can't help but feel this clothing merchandising is just a symptom of a far larger problem - that of gender sterotyping everywhere you look in the high street. I'm so frustrated and angered by my constant struggle to find toys and, more importantly, literature, beyond the realms of princesses and fairies (all of whom seem only interested in finding a prince, wearing dresses and getting married). The toys in the science section in John lewis are aimed almost exclusively at boys. And its not just products. The gender stereotyping comes through in the promotional words that are used. Pretty princesses, pretty dresses, pretty clothes - what does this tell girls about their value.
I feel retailers should be tackled on all these issues, and would love to hear what other mumsnet readers think.

I am a father of 12 year-old twins (boy-girl) and have always been very involved in my children's lives and taken a keen interest in the social environment in which they live. The most important influences on my children are those they face day-to-day because they are the ones that impinge on their lives to the greatest extent. These influences are family, friends and the wider community, which, for most children, largely means school.

I agree there is a very worrying trend towards the sexualisation of girls (boys also, but in a less obvious and overt manner) and it makes me very cross indeed to see this being played out. I am sorry to say that in my experience it is mothers who are almost entirely responsible for this trend. When I hear some of the attitudes and opinions that many mothers display and express, their general over-concern with their children's appearance and the inappropriate language which they use to speak of the innocent relationships that children have with each other, it surprises me not one bit that children are increasingly playing 'let's pretend to be grown-ups,' and taking the associated risk of being regarded accordingly. It seems to me that too many mothers use their daughters as proxies to extend the scope and interest of their own sex lives, but are so careless and lacking in understanding of themselves and their own behaviour they do not realise they are doing it.

There was much fuss made about a tee-shirt being sold in children's sizes which had the slogan 'Future Porn Star' printed on it. There is another children's tee-shirt slogan that many mothers would more usefully consider. It reads 'I'm Not Your Second Chance.' I observe that for too many women their concern and interest in their own identity as sexual beings extends to the point that they expect their daughters be that second chance when they are far from ready for the role.

I think Mumsnet is the perfect organisation to campaign on this issue because, in my view, it is their membership who are in largest part responsible for the problem. I believe that the campaign is mistakenly focussed on secondary issues, such as lad-mags, clothing manufacturers, etc.,, that are more in the nature of effects than causes. Even a little bit of reflection should allow a fair-minded person of reasonable judgement to come to this realisation. I don't wish to be ungenerous to women, but they do have a rather strong disinclination to consider the consequences of their own actions and are even more resistant to the notion that they may be responsible for them. If mothers are sincere in their concern about the sexualisation of their daughters, I think they should consider with a far greater degree of seriousness than they do their own contribution to this.

I am a father of 12 year-old twins (boy-girl) and have always been very involved in my children's lives and taken a keen interest in the social environment in which they live. The most important influences on my children are those they face day-to-day because they are the ones that impinge on their lives to the greatest extent. These influences are family, friends and the wider community, which, for most children, largely means school.

I agree there is a very worrying trend towards the sexualisation of girls (boys also, but in a less obvious and overt manner) and it makes me very cross indeed to see this being played out. I am sorry to say that in my experience it is mothers who are almost entirely responsible for this trend. When I hear some of the attitudes and opinions that many mothers display and express, their general over-concern with their children's appearance and the inappropriate language which they use to speak of the innocent relationships that children have with each other, it surprises me not one bit that children are increasingly playing 'let's pretend to be grown-ups,' and taking the associated risk of being regarded accordingly. It seems to me that too many mothers use their daughters as proxies to extend the scope and interest of their own sex lives, but are so careless and lacking in understanding of themselves and their own behaviour they do not realise they are doing it.

There was much fuss made about a tee-shirt being sold in children's sizes which had the slogan 'Future Porn Star' printed on it. There is another children's tee-shirt slogan that many mothers would more usefully consider. It reads 'I'm Not Your Second Chance.' I observe that for too many women their concern and interest in their own identity as sexual beings extends to the point that they expect their daughters be that second chance when they are far from ready for the role.

I think Mumsnet is the perfect organisation to campaign on this issue because, in my view, it is their membership who are in largest part responsible for the problem. I believe that the campaign is mistakenly focussed on secondary issues, such as lad-mags, clothing manufacturers, etc.,, that are more in the nature of effects than causes. Even a little bit of reflection should allow a fair-minded person of reasonable judgement to come to this realisation. I don't wish to be ungenerous to women, but they do have a rather strong disinclination to consider the consequences of their own actions and are even more resistant to the notion that they may be responsible for them. If mothers are sincere in their concern about the sexualisation of their daughters, I think they should consider with a far greater degree of seriousness than they do their own contribution to this.

Well I was in Tesco yesterday and to my horror saw some girls pyjamas with a picture of 'Justin Beiber' on the front for age 5-6yrs. There is NO WAY I would let my 5 yr old wear those (she wouldn't want them anyway). I also saw 'JLS' pyjamas in the same size which is just as bad!

I would like to commend all the mum's (and grandmothers and dad's etc)that are proactivley complaining to retailers who sell sexualised products for girls. In the Torah there is an expression; If a person has the capacity to speak out but doesn't then that silence is taken as consent. Inspired by other mum's I shall be contributing to the growing number of mum's (grandmother's, father's etc) in complaining to retailers each time I see sexualised products on their shelves.

I don't agree with suggestions that demand creates retailers to provide sexualised products for children. I do think that mother's who actually want to dress their children in sexualised clothes are a minority. I do think there is a problem for mothers'/parents generally in the lack of availability and affordability of decent children's clothes especially in current economic climate and whilst some of us shop around and even pick bargains in charity shops (recycling too - ecologically friendly), but when Primark sell provocative sexualised T.shirts for kids at 50p, for those on the breadline is it really a choice?

Mama4life, well said.

Snooker, good point, what is mumsnet LGBG organisers response?

PuffingPanda - Great to hear a dad voice the comments you made. I hope you pass on your comments to the retailers too. James Garner Fin has written some alternatives to traditional fairytales, such as 'politically correct children's bedtime stories', they're a bit wordy and slighty academic for young kids but I been reading them to my kids since they were 2 and now (age 7) they independently request to be read them. Also a good website for great kids books is www.letterboxlibrary.com Babette Cole is also a good children's books author. When your dd's become teenagers there's plenty of books on women's equality, when I was a teenager my father bought me several feminist books which I still have on my bookshelves and still apprecaite both the books and that my father bought me them.

Andre1960. Don't blame the victims. Se my comments above re economic circumstances and choice and bear in mind the gender pay gap, on average during the course of their lifetimes men earn quarter of a million more than women which is enough money for those men to invest in retail business ventures that sexualise children's clothes! Perhaps you could donate your share of higher earnings to campaigns that advocate for women and girls equality or to educational trust funds for girls but to blame mothers for structural inequalities that have grown out of historical positions of male privelage, tut, tut, tut!

Keep up the good work mumsnetters

Another company who'd like to get their hand's on our children -

Dove Deodorant Hits the Road with Noted Author
from Happi Breaking News by Christine Esposito
To reach influential AP/deodorant customers?moms of tweens (8-12 years old)?Dove deodorant last Fall-Winter teamed up with author Rosalind Wiseman on her nationwide Girl World Tour. The book tour brought together daughters and their moms for an evening of bonding with interactive discussions about confidence, friendships, sweat-inducing moments and common mother-daughter challenges......
For more....
www.happi.com/news/2011/01/25/dove_deodorant_hits_the_road_with_noted_author?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HappiBreakingNews+%28Happi+Breaking+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Just to keep you all up to date on Walmart's plans for your daughter's - the Daily Mail has now covered the launch of Walmart's new personal care line for tweens.

Walmart Geo-Girl 'anti-aging' make-up targets EIGHT-year-olds
Daily Mail
All 69 products in the range will be paraben, phthalates and sulfate free, a strategy that is designed to attract parents worried about the excess chemicals...
I see this issue as being very linked to the sexualised clothing issue. What do others think?

I agree, Militant! Can we do anything about this?

Have your say in this consultation process: Independent Review to address parents' concerns about the pressures on children to grow up too quickly

Ideas I sent to government-

backing David Cameron's campaigns to protect children from premature sexualisation link- www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cameron-condemns-inappropriate-sexualisation-of-children-1903287.html

? I agree with the banning of sexualized children?s clothing-padded bra's and other inappropriate merchandise e.g. playboy pencil cases etc.

? Move lads mags up to the top shelf again in newsagents, the shop owners could just select their favourites if there?s not enough room, they shouldn?t be as low that children can easily see them or even pick them up!

? Stick to the 9pm watershed carefully on tv and even radio.

? remove porn and music channels from cable/freeview/sky, with an opt in scheme instead.

? Reduce sexualized advertising before the 9pm watershed

? Cleaner billboards with less sexualized images on them, just keep them in magazines for adults and on tv past 9pm or wherever appropriate.

? Age limits on some magazines for girls so that they read the appropriate content for their age and the same for lads mags, they should be I.d?d at the counter, you get I.d?d for knives, alcohol, cigarettes and dvd?s etc but there?s no strict rules for porn, including soft porn like zoo and nuts, or the sun newspaper.

? Make software more available so it?s easier for parents to control viewing content on internet and tv

? There is however the problem of controlling the downloading of music on the internet or videos from utube, perhaps on the back of an I.d card/learners/drivers license/passport/birth certificate etc they?d have to select the form of I.d and type in a code, even if it were a once they?ve done it once for a site they don?t need to again or something and it?s up to the people around them if they want to cheat this system-could also use a third party to check age like virgin mobile.

? No porn in public- an extension of the usual no porn at work rule, e.g. not viewing rude magazines on public transport and leaving material around etc

?Stricter rules on nudist beaches- I think better sign posting and someone patrolling the cut off line to prevent children wandering into them, like I once did!

claire king