This Fashion Brand Got Backlash For Its Kids Clothing Line That Hypersexualises Little Girls. It Is Inappropriate And Sickening.
I am a 90s kid so obviously my childhood photos mostly feature me in a mismatched set of T-shirt and sweatpants smiling awkwardly into the camera. It could seriously crack you up and that’s why its stuffed somewhere back in some box. My mom never thought of dressing me up in a skimpy lace dress and heels and I am grateful to her for that. My fashion diaries were as dull as me but things have clearly changed since we were kids.
These days, kids not only have access to screens (some of them really be having their own social media accounts), but also a fashionable wardrobe that could bring even a supermodel to shame. They dress up stylishly in slip dresses, leather jackets and crop tops that practically make them look like grown-ups. What’s more is that their photos (or gram-worthy photoshoots, to be precise) with inappropriate poses make you cringe with disgust instead of bringing a smile to your face.
Fashion brands are cashing in on this trend and designing kid’s clothing lines which are more enticing, less innocent. And I am not just talking about tight-fitting silhouettes and flesh-baring outfits that are probably very uncomfortable for kids BTW, but styles that are specifically meant for adult women and are a form of sexualisation. For example, booty shorts, stockings, bikinis, bralette tops and leopard print clothing.
A fashion label recently got serious heat for its clothing line that was deemed inappropriate for kids. US fast fashion retailer Fashion Nova launched its kid’s clothing line Nova Kids which primarily consists of super stylish outfits for little girls. It didn’t sit well with some parents and social media users who condemned the brand for hypersexualising kids with their collection that was unsuitable for kids. Why can’t we let kids be kids?
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Also Read: #Voices: Google Images Show School Boys As Innocent Children But School Girl As An Adult Woman In A Sleazy Uniforms. This Hypersexualises Young Girls And It’s Disgusting.
Angela Stanton-King, a Georgia-based U.S. House candidate shed the light on the problematic clothing line by tweeting, “Can we talk about @fashionnova new clothing line for little girls? #saveourchildren.” Some of the clothes from the line are okay, honestly like a legging sets and poufy party dresses. It’s the miniature versions of some of the sultry clothing trends like cycling shorts, body hugging middies in animal print and lace tops that is completely bizarre to be included in a kids’ clothing line. I mean, what were they thinking?
Plus, the outrageous clothes aren’t the only thing that pose a problem here. In the photoshoot, kids don’t look happy or innocent but pose as models with a stern face. Not cute. They look like tiny influenzaas. No one wants to see a kid pouting in a sultry outfit, except a sick paedophile probably. So, you get the point. Also, by dressing these kids in such sexualized clothing and asking them to pose like grown up women, we are teaching the girls that this is how they need to behave and it’s okay to put their bodies on display with act like an adult even before they hit teen age. This not only promotes hypersexualisation of young girls and at the same time normalises kids looking ‘sexy’, which is just disturbing.
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There’s nothing wrong with kids wearing short outfits (as long as they are comfortable in them, of course) because let’s face it, if clothes defined the rate of sexual offences against children like child pornography and rapes, infants and fully clothed kids wouldn’t even be on the hit list of such crimes. Suggesting moms to cover their kids from head to toe and judging them for dressing their kids stylishly isn’t something we’d want to promote as a society. And we most certainly do not want to declare that crimes happen because kids wear such clothes and put the blame on kids (that’s what we do to our women, sadly).
However, the point here is that wearing particular sexualized clothes impacts the innocence of a child as these fashion styles are meant for adults and can really hamper their confidence growing up. Also, the poses and highly sensual portrayal of the kids in the photoshoots which sexualizes young girls are the real problems here which is often sidestepped. Kids can be super stylish as long as their clothes are age appropriate and comfy for them.
Maybe instead of teaching our kids the rules of fashion and cladding them in trendy outfits without giving a proper thought to it, we should teach them to have a sense of style that is comfortable and age-appropriate for them. Fashion Nova, maybe you need to redo your cringe-worthy photoshoot and come up with a clothing line and a campaign that’s apt for real kids, not tiny models. No one wants to see that.
