Christchurch Women's Refuge blog - Cotton On to the Effects of Sexed-Up Children’s Wear

Cotton On retail clothing chain is marketing sexualised t-shirts for children in a bid for sales. This marketing ploy is a tongue-in-cheek, adult snigger at such incongruous images as a little boy wearing a t-shirt that says “I like big boobs and I cannot lie”. Cotton On is putting sexualised words into baby’s mouths, masquerading as humour, for the purposes of profit.

And if it was simply bad taste and nothing more, then we could excuse them with a shrug and call Cotton On’s baby wear a visual example of the company’s unimaginative gaucherie. But there is a lot more at stake. Although the child can’t read it, older children can understand the message, which really says ‘you’re never too young to start being sexual’. Our children, girls in particular, are already over-exposed to relentless visual marketing of sexed-up images of themselves.

Sexualisation of children risks normalising and possibly encouraging sexual desire for children. If parents dress their little girls in flirty, sexy outfits then effectively there is a blurring of boundaries between childhood and adult behaviour. The child’s body becomes an object to be looked at and, possibly, acted upon.

Increasingly children are targeted by advertisers and marketers and sexualised in advertisements to ‘draw attention to adult sexual features that the children do not yet possess” (Click here to read 'Corporate Paedophilia' by Emma Rush). Cotton On is now depicting children displaying sexualised thoughts and attitudes they do not yet possess. This sexualised targeting negatively affects children’s general sexual and emotional development, resulting in such outcomes as unhealthy body image, low self esteem, depression and severe eating disorders at a progressively younger age.

The American Psychological Association (APA) has researched the consequences of girls’ frequent exposure to media images that sexualise them, linking depression, feelings of shame, impaired performance on mental activities, and eating disorders, to the negative impacts of such images and girls’ attempts to engage with and emulate them.

Our young women already battle with undermined confidence due to a bombardment of messages that objectify them and which attribute their value to society as a merely aesthetic one. Don’t we want confident New Zealand women who take pride in their achievements and who they are, rather than developing a neurosis about how they look, with all the accompanying emotional and physical health risks? We should be battling against media representations of our teenage children, not allowing our very young to trip on down that very path.

Allowing young children to be sexualised in any way is abusive, because it is not their choice. If we are going to accept such clothing as Cotton On’s explicit t-shirts for children, then I say “shame on you New Zealand!” Be responsible parents and citizens of this country and join Christchurch Women’s Refuge in the boycott of Cotton On. We endorse the Cotton Off campaign launched by the National Council of Women of New Zealand. We ask that you support it too. Click here to learn more.

UPDATE

The Cotton Off Our Kids campaign, launched by the National Council of Women of New Zealand (NCWNZ), is pleased to announce that the offensive t-shirts have now been removed from the shelves. This is a telling outcome for consumer power. A good lesson that we can make a difference if we are willing to make the effort. For more information regarding the boycott outcome click here.