Padded bras for 7 year olds and push-up bras for tweens, what is wrong with people?!%@!?? They've been recalled, at least in Britain, but only after the guilty parties were shamed into it: Today in disspatches from obvious-land: 7-year-olds don't need padded bikinis. That's what the British clothing line Primark learned after it was lambasted by children's advocacy organizations for introducing a sparkly pink-and-gold bikini, complete with cleavage-boosting cups for the tween set. Primark removed the top from the racks yesterday, apologizing and donating any profits from the teeny-weeny bikinis to a children's charity. .
The bikini top is only the latest in a long line of sexualized products for children, from Tesco's ill-conceived kiddie stripper pole to "bralettes" for 6-year-olds and bikini waxes for prepubescent girls. Even the less outrageously explicit kids' toys have disturbingly grown-up undertones, like the scantily clad Bratz dolls. As Gigi Durham, author of "The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It," noted in her 2008 interview with Broadsheet, these marketing tactics are all kinds of bad news for kids. . .
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