Abercrombie Thinks A 7 Year Old’s Chest Needs A Lift
We’ve always known the popular outfitter Abercrombie & Fitch targets a specific customer (see: young, rich, skinny) with controversial advertisements (see: racist, offensive, child porn-esque), but many teenagers are wiling to put all that nonsense behind them for the chance to wear an overpriced polo with an embroidered moose through the halls of junior high. We totally get that.
But there’s a line to be drawn, and we tend to think it’s somewhere around selling push-up bathing suits to 7 year olds. In their newest act of conscious idiocy, the brains behind the brand decided to forgo all rational thought in favor of sexualizing the bodies of 7-14 year olds via the Ashley top a striped triangle string bikini that boasts both volume and lift for the nonexistent bosom of a pre-pubescent girl one of the products in the company’s children’s swimwear line. To help you put this in perspective, these kids have been out of diapers for, say, 4 years, so they’re likely still wetting the bed every so often. In what world is this appropriate? In addition to the gross inappropriateness, it simultaneously teaches young girls to look at their bodies as something that forever needs improvement.
Apparently the bikini top is worth about $6 less without the sexual connotation attached though the product is still being sold online under the same moniker, the words “push-up” and “padded” have been removed, and now it’s on sale. Unfortunately, the padding itself is still in tact. So better, but not really.
Though the brand Abercrombie & Fitch doesn’t exactly boast an air of integrity, this blatant attempt at sexualizing children has mothers concerned, including this mom blogger from Babble, who sounded off about the ridiculousness of A&F’s blatant message under the header “strollerderby”
“But even the use of the word push up is unbelievably inappropriate. The push up bra is, effectively, a sex tool, designed to push the breasts up and out, putting them front and center where theyre more accessible to the eye (and everything else). How is this okay for a second-grader?”
Seems like any publicity is good publicity for Abercrombie & Fitch. What do you think? Are we just being overly sensitive?
