M&S calls young girls 'things'

[lcakethereforeIam]

This isn't just any misogyny, this is...

https://archive.ph/6XLUT

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11/03/ms-trans-row-advertising-girls-first-bras-for-young-things/

Eta link

Yeah, me neither. It's not a new or original phrase. And I've never heard anyone say it's dehumanizing when it's been used in other situations.

Were they trying to avoid "girls"? Maybe, but I think it's a maybe, not a probably. But not offensive in itself.

"Bright young things" was a not necessarily complimentary phrase used about a young, flamboyant, and not necessarily pleasant bunch of aristocrats and bohemians in the 1930s. Evelyn Waugh, Anthony Powell and Nancy Mitford wrote a lot about them.

That's exactly what I thought of. It seems a completely weird marketing strategy.

am aware. thanks.

I don't think the word "thing" is designed to be inclusive to males who want to wear bras (as several PP have suggested) as trans girls would be included (in their mind) in the word "girl"
It's surely designed to be inclusive to females who do not identify as such, so trans boys and non binary females.

It's nonsense though, I agree. I've not seen M&S's apology though, do they acknowledge it was an attempt at inclusivity, or just clumsy wording?

Yep.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14230458/

A 'thing' is an inanimate object, so referring to human beings, regardless of how bright or young they may be as 'things' is a bit warped, or screwed up.

On the other hand it could be the immaturity and ignorance of young women who have not lived through the 1960s and 1970s when women were expected to act and appear a certain way, when there was no abortion never mind the morning after pill.

I'm just trying to envisage a situation where M&S used the term fearless young things about teenage boys. Without sounding hopelessly condescending.

As an aside, their ads for kids' clothes keep cropping up for me, and they're so bloody try hard, I doubt any teen would go near them.

So maybe it's just a total miscalculation by their marketeers.

Seriously reaching

Heard regularly about children in my world:
Funny little thing
Happy little thing
Bright little thing
Sweet little thing
... and lots of other similar descriptors.

I really don't see a problem with 'thing' in this context.

It's an old fashioned phrase, based on objectification, that sounds fairly distasteful and a bit creepy.

Yes, calling women and girls 'things' is part of the thousand tiny cuts of sexism in our culture that remind us in a thousand tiny ways daily that we are ornamental second class citizens.

In and of itself it's fairly slight and seems inconsequential, I agree with those posters. No big deal.

If one quantifies and notes every little message that tells a girl that the measure of her is how well her body and appearance measures up to some imaginary requirement of beauty and desirability, that at base she is an object whose worth lies in how <pretty> an object she can be, that she must flirt, primp, starve, abase, simper, pose, pout, giggle, appease, smile, adjust, filter, make-up, fix, check, groom and present herself just to be accepted as worthy of being looked at, we may see why some object to it.

It's fucking relentless and our daughters deserve better.

The last thing tween girls need is a nod to the male gaze on the back of a fitting room door.

Used by whom and about whom?

Adults. About young children. With affection

Male or female adults about boys or girls?

Merriam Webster says 'thing' is a gendered term.

'a young person
especially : a young woman'

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/young%20thing#:~:text=%3A%20a%20young%20person,2

About pubescent children buying theIr first bra though?

I don’t know, I wouldn’t necessarily have made the leap to appeasing the gender ideologues - but I do find it pretty hard to imagine a similar campaign referring to preteen and teenage boys ‘things’. So it that sense it does seem a bit off to me - ‘girls’ or ‘people’ would have been better.

Eh I really think you need to climb out of the well. It isn't a social movement it's a marketing ploy.

It's a marketing phrase that strangely enough is for younger demographic who due to being born less than 20 years ago don't carry that list!

Bright Young Things was a phrase coined by the newspapers for the ‘scandal’. ‘The Bright Young Things of the 1920s were the original party set. Wild parties, sex, drugs, drink and outrageous behaviour.’
I doubt it’s a known play on a phrase that a young girl getting her first bra aspires to.

Because phrases ALWAYS stick to their etymological roots don't they? They never make their way into the language and have their original roots set aside.

As others have said, the young won’t understand the adult historical reference as easily as older people. ‘Thing’ is literally object-ifying and othering - I know most children would understand that. You mention etymological roots. Kill the root and the plant won’t grow. Kill the objectifying and the misogyny is dead.

’Bras for frightened old things’ 😹

What will they have next ? Bras for the " old things" ?

That works especially well if you imagine the "old things" to be the breasts themselves, flatly dangling.

Plus, we all know that once we reach a certain age we morph from"young things" to "old dears", so can I suggest, for M&S's next catchily objectifying slogan: Bras for old dears' old things.

I'm starting to wonder if there are people on this thread who aren't native English speakers. As a few PPs have pointed out, "thing" is commonly used to mean "person" as in "you poor thing" (which I say all the time), or "dear little thing" or whatever. Are there seriously people on here who haven't heard this usage?

It reminds me of the time Munroe Bergdorf got angry at being described by Emma Nicholson as a "strange creature", apparently oblivious to the widespread use of "creature" to mean "person".