What'cha think flist?

[laurabryannan]

The store I work at sells padded bras for tweens. We're talking about an inch of padding. I find this disturbing, to say the least.

Would you let your prepubescent daughter wear clothes that gave her the illusion of tits when she didn't have any yet? I can't figure out why a parent would allow or encourage such a thing.

When said to my manager, "I can't believe there are padded bras for girls," he replied, "Just wait till you see the thong underwear for infants." *jaw drop*

Am I being an old fart here, or does anyone else think this is a trifle creepy?

Comments

[kiri-moth.livejournal.com]

Just to play devil's advocate, they are probably selling padded bras because many dresses and tops for tweens are made to accomodate breasts, so if a girl doesn't have them the top gapes open and looks bad. OH WAIT THATS NOT A GOOD REASON. :|

If they were lightly padded, as in the padding that keeps your nipples from showing, that'd be one thing. Padding like a push-up bra is creepy.

[laurabryannan.livejournal.com]

They sell girls bras with thick material to keep nips and titty hard-ons hidden. I've no problem with that. The puppies I'm talking about will make a girl with no breasts look like an A cup. I personally can't think of one reason why someone would want their little girl to look older than she is, but clearly there's a market for them.

[gallo-de-pelea.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's not the parents want the girl to look older, but the girl get made fun of by classmates for not having developed yet? *shrug*

IDK, I just remember desperately wanting to look like the other kids.

Still not a great message for young girls, though.

[laurabryannan.livejournal.com]

I would consider a padded bra for a 13-16 year old who is developing later than her peers, if she wanted one, but these bras are sized too small for a teen. They're in the little girl's department.

[orvida.livejournal.com]

That actually sounds damn creepy and than some so you are not alone on that score.

[laurabryannan.livejournal.com]

I was almost shocked to see them. :P

[m-barnette.livejournal.com]

Creepy. Seriously creepy.

[laurabryannan.livejournal.com]

Sad, eh?

[m-barnette.livejournal.com]

It's right up there with the "dance poles" that some company came out with for like, the 5-9 crowd. Sure, teach your female child it's not about brains or ability, it's all about sex and selling herself as an object of male desire.

This sort of sexist crap just makes me sick.

[laurabryannan.livejournal.com]

OMG, they sell poles?!?!? *shakes head in sad amazement*

[m-barnette.livejournal.com]

They were selling them a couple of Christmases back. Parental outrage got them taken off the shelves pretty fast, but still, some genius marketing guru thought that was a good idea and got them in stores.

Ya just gotta wonder, ya know?

[laurabryannan.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear there was parental outrage. I'd like to see folks vote with their wallets enough to make the tween padded bras disappear as well.

[kiyala.livejournal.com]

Definitely creepy.

And maybe I'm just speaking from the perspective of someone incredibly flat-chested, but I really don't see what's so great about having boobs anyway - every time I wear chicken fillets or padded bras, it just feels like my chest gets in my way. Why would you want little girls to have to put up with that earlier than they really have to?

[laurabryannan.livejournal.com]

One would hope that a little girl's parents would be the first defense against our culture's messages that she's not beautiful unless she's got tits. For a parent to buy such a thing saddens me.

[hidden-gems.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on that one!

I seem to remember reading about some padded bikinis for girls sold here in the UK that ended up being withdrawn after too many complaints.

[laurabryannan.livejournal.com]

I'd love to see them off the market.

[akayalovesyaoi.livejournal.com]

First if I had a daughter I'd try to make her sure that small breasts are cool and she does not need padded bras, two thongs for infants. Jesus, fuck.

I love nice lingerie, I adore it, sexy or not it depends on the mood, but I wouldn't want a 13 year old girl to wear a padded bra when she does not need one :|

It reminds me of this Little Miss things immediately :/

[laurabryannan.livejournal.com]

Same here. I would hope to get the message across that tits don't make the woman. I can understand a pre-teen girl wanting to feel grown-up, but there are lots of pretty non-padded bras they can get instead.

[3-jane.livejournal.com]

DDDDDDD:

Nothing like slingshotting these poor kids into body anxiety just when they're getting to be even more vulnerable to self-doubt. (And the fact that it's in regard to something they have no control over? Yeesh.) *would not be twelve or thirteen again for all the tea in India*

I don't know how you'd even begin to raise a girl - or a boy, for that matter - to not buy into all the crazy that comes with societal expectations for body image. A commune? A commune on Svalbard without TV, or magazines, or internet, or ... on second thought, that wouldn't even work. Raising kids on the moon would probably still entail the same problems, because it's so pervasive. How does anyone get around that? :(

[laurabryannan.livejournal.com]

It makes me glad I have a boy, that's for sure. I agree, society is bad enough, but when your mom buys you a padded bra at 10, it solidifies the worst message I can imagine. >:-[

[dungeonwriter.livejournal.com]

Majorly creepy in the worst way possible.

[laurabryannan.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks so.

[dungeonwriter.livejournal.com]

The question is, will girls feel abnormal that they need the help? Body issues are already so rampant.

[laurabryannan.livejournal.com]

I would hope an 8-11 year old girl wouldn't feel abnormal for not developing breasts yet.

[ekaterin24.livejournal.com]

The preteen padded bras are super creepy and an awful example of marketing (of clothes and of the poor girls) over good sense and responsibility. Thongs for babies is totally insane.

On the bright side, I was at a science fiction convention this weekend where a girl's t-shirt proclaiming "Self-Rescuing Princess" was sold. Saw a little girl wearing one the next day. There is some hope...

[laurabryannan.livejournal.com]

Hee! Great t-shirt phrase. I love it! :DDD

[amaterasu08.livejournal.com]

thong underwear for infants

WAT.

[laurabryannan.livejournal.com]

My response exactly. :P

[bftly.livejournal.com]

Totally agree, heavily padded bras for those without actual boobs to put into the bras ... well it just defeats the very purpose of wearing a bra.

They sell the padded stuff for pre-teens down under too, along with a range of disturbing underwear and costumes. I'm appalled, but then again, for one reason or another no one else in society seems to say anything about it?

Is it just me or has there been an increase in the sexualisation of kids? (Then again, Lolita was written decades ago,... so maybe I'm just overreacting?)

[laurabryannan.livejournal.com]

I keep asking myself, "Who would buy this stuff for their daughter?!?"

And, yes, it does seem that children are being sexualized in advertising more than 20-30 years ago. *sigh*

[bftly.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm not sure - do kids buy this sort of stuff for themselves nowadays? I seem to see a lot of tweens going into shops for their own clothes now so I thought they just have the freedom to buy whatever they want? But then again, parents probably buy this stuff after their kids tell them that it's "normal" amongst all the other kids etc etc. LOL kids are being taught the art of blackmail and persuasion much too young.

*sigh* indeed, it seems anything can be sexualised nowadays, ironic considering the increased prosecution of child pornography in general.

[laurabryannan.livejournal.com]

I don't know how an 8-12 year old girl would have the money to buy such things themselves. A parent would have to be funding such shopping misadventures. A daughter of mine would find the padded bra back on the shelf. :P

[bftly.livejournal.com]

Well, I have seen parents who do give a generous allowance to their kids to do as they please because of lack of time etc etc. And there is basically no supervision of how the allowance is used. If you don't mind me asking, how were your parents when you were young? Did you get an allowance? Did they come with you to buy clothing, or when did they start allowing you to buy things on your own? Did they ever snoop through your things? (Just trying to get an idea about whether my brought up was strict or not compared to the kids nowadays.)

[laurabryannan.livejournal.com]

I had an allowance, but it wasn't enough to buy much with. I didn't start buying major things like clothes until I was 16 and had my first paycheck. Thankfully, my mom was not a snoop, but there were still certain rules I had to follow about clothes...namely, I wasn't allowed to leave the house in anything that made me look like a "floozy." :D

But, I'm old. I was a child in the 60's. Times have changed a lot since then, of course.

[bftly.livejournal.com]

You're not old and you sure don't sound like you were a wild child from the 60s :) I grew up in the 80s/90s and pretty much had the same experience as you, I wonder if the times have really changed so much in the last decade or two...

[laurabryannan.livejournal.com]

I didn't go wild until the 70s. ^_~

[bftly.livejournal.com]

XD Really stupid question, but just didn't get the opportunity to ask anyone else before - were drugs really that much more common back then? (And no, I'm not implying in any way that you were involved or used them)

[laurabryannan.livejournal.com]

Drugs hit our area when I was 13, and we were all curious and experimented quite a bit. As for whether they were more common, I couldn't say. The quality has improved (along with the cost) but the availability seems the same, from what I can tell.

[bftly.livejournal.com]

O_O Amazing! LOL just wondering - was it widely available? Were they selling it behind the counter of shops or were they random individuals selling them to friends' friends etc?

*looks at you with awe and admiration* You really were a wild child!

Just wondering - do your kids know about this?

[laurabryannan.livejournal.com]

Hee! Nothing sold at shops, unfortunately, but pot, mesc and other goodies were not hard to acquire from other kids.

And yes, my son knows I experimented with drugs. I wouldn't want him messing with them as early as I was, however. He seems cool with the idea that, like alcohol, such things are for grown-ups.

[bftly.livejournal.com]

O_O What an awesome mom!!!