Let Them…Wear Padded Bras?
I read this piece on the BBC website about a retailer pulling a selection of padded bikini tops from its shelves. The controversy: The bikinis were marketed to young girls. There was a great article in the Guardian about this, protesting the removal of the bikinis. It has some great commentary about sexuality, and the idea of girls being “oversexualized”; I also like the mentions of class in it, especially since we’ve just read Sula.
There is a distinct class element to this puritan agenda. Although the Mumsnet campaign is a broad one, politicians and the press have reserved special disdain for Primark, whose brand has become shorthand for cheap clothing marketed at the working class. This strategy sustains the idea that it is specific groups of young girls who are “sexualised” by corporate culture, and specific, morally bankrupt working-class mothers who buy padded bras for their daughters. [Emphasis added]
April 18th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
I see that the bikinis in question are marketed at young, elementary school age girls. But I wonder, if the target audience was older would people be more accepting of the padding? Generally, bathing suits have varying degrees of lining/padding so that the wearers’ bodies don’t show through the thin fabric when the suits get wet. I would think that preventing young girls from wearing very thin, potentially objectifying material would trump a padded bra.