A padded bra for a seven-year-old?

I was appalled to read today about a brand new Tesco product: a padded, plunge bra for seven-year-olds. Yes, seven. The £4 "bust-booster" is being sold alongside more normal vests for pre-pubescent girls in Tesco stores. Now what is this all about? How can we condemn the early and gratuitous sexualisation of children, particularly girls, and then have our biggest supermarket producing what they term 'pocket-money products' to get little kids to buy bras. I know little girls are interested in everything grown-up - my own girls, five and nearly three, love nothing more than parading round my bedroom in my highest heels, wearing vests as dresses and wiggling their bums, it's a kind of parody of being a grown-up woman. But actually buying a child, or letting them buy themselves, a bra to give them the appearance of breasts on a child's body must be a paedophile's dream. Is Tesco staffed by paedophiles? They've got form on this, I'm sure it was them who sold a child's lap-dancing pole set. To go with that famous Woolworth's Lolita bed-set. And Playboy pencil sets. And a selection of other astoundingly tasteless items. What are these shops trying to do? We need to make a big fuss about this. Kids need to be kids as long as they can - selling them bras at seven doesn't help make that possible!

Comments

Where can I get one

[Cece]

Gipsy, the bra in the picture (the subject of all this fuss) is clearly labelled by bra-size, not age, and is in a section aimed at 7-14 year olds. Clearly very few, if any, seven year olds will want or need a bra, but a huge number of 14 year olds nowadays will. And a plain white seamless bra seems absolutely ideal for them. Seamless bras are more comfortable in my opinion, and certainly look less noticeable under clothes (ie school shirts) and in order not to be transparent and to provide any support at all, seamless bras do need to have a bit of solidity and structure, which looks like padding. I have huge bosoms, so certainly don't wear a 'padded' bra, but the bra I have on today looks quite similar to the one above.
Why should a girl wear a polo-neck bra? Do you seriously think that if her bra isn't cut like a support garment for a 60-year-old the average 14 year old is going to be more sexually active? I bought my own 15 year old nice Calvin Klein lingerie for her birthday. It looks a bit like the bra above only with a lace back and in different colours. She likes pretty clothes. It's not a crime.

[Gipsy]

Susan you are saying that the bra you saw in Tesco's was labelled specifically for a 7 year old and not just next to the 7 to 14 year old clothes?

Cece - I've not nothing against a 12 year old having a bra - I was wearing them (and needed to) by then. It is very natural.

I do have something against a 12 year old wearing a padded bra designed with a plunging cup line (which bra's that are intended to be worn with low cut tops showing cleavage have). Why would they need padding, or a plunging cut?

And if what Susan says is true, I do object to stores marketing bras at 7 year olds.

[Cece]

Also, a seamless bra like this one (much better and less obstrusive under t-shirts etc) offers almost no support unless it is fairly solid with a bit of padding. I am wearing a similar version today. It is quite hideously unsexy in my opinion and worn solely for my comfort!

[Cece]

Is there supposed to be something wrong with a girl of 12/13/14/15 having breasts? This is such a stupid hyped up story. The bra is sold in bra-sizes, not by age, so it's for whoever fits it. I think the old 'rite of passage' of buying a first bra was absolutely mortifying. Much better to get a bra with the weekly shop. And is anyone seriously saying that a plain white bra is 'too sexy' for a teenager? A little bit of padding helps cover chilly-nipple syndrome, which plenty of young girls (and us older ones) find slightly embarassing.

[Susan]

This doesn't surprise me; my boyfriend had to hold me back from marching to the manager and complaining in our local tesco a few months ago when I saw bra and tap-pant sets for 7 year olds. Not NEXT TO the girls underwear, but clearly marked and sized for that age group. Sorry for my naivete, but why does a CHILD need a bra? The Tescopoly, as the author notes, have form for exploiting kids- wasn't it them who got caught using Bangladeshi children in sweat shops two years ago?

[mumoftwo]

I think girls today do hit puberty quite a bit earlier than a generation ago, I know that my cousin started her periods/developed breasts around the age of 10, and looked about 14/15 as a result. The main problem was not with her, she was quite accepting of her new body, but with the unwanted attention of men staring (she was, and is, an exceptionally attractive tall girl) and reacting differently to her, as if she were a nearly woman, not a little ten year old. It was a tricky few years but her parents handled it very well, as it must be quite disconcerting to have such an adult looking child. I was as flat as a pancake at that age and still into horses, pets and my exceptionally innocent rubber collection...

[Baggofbones]

Ad-Mum: I'm with you on the sympathy for the shelf-stacker front (sounds rather dodgy in this context, non?)
Spell-Girl: I still don't own a bra and I'm 35!!
I would get one if only I had something to put in it...

[Spell Girl]

God, I didn't get a bra til I was 13 and it was the tiniest little thing. As a mother of a 2-year-old this makes me sad.

[Gipsy]

Download Firefox from http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

[j]

dunno, I am at work where I get them anyway(guilty grin)- google them and see if there are free downloads?

[Kieransmum]

OK, how do I get netscape/firefox onto my computer?

[Gipsy]

Thank you J! I just switched from IE to Firefox and got my middle column back again.

[j]

and firefox, sorry meant to say

[j]

gipsy are you using internet explorer? it has a problem displaying this site at the moment but netscape is OK.

[Gipsy]

sorry to go off topic, but I just wanted to ask - can we have our middle column back again please? Pretty please?

Or is it just me who seems to have lost it...

[Liz]

What kind of 7 year old has a 30 inch back?? I'm 36 and have a 32 inch back. I really don't think they are aimed at 7 year olds.

I think that these bras are probably more likely aimed at the 12-14 market but are bundled together in the kids underwear section. In our Tesco it always looks like a jumble sale.

And yes I wore a padded bra when I was 13 (mid Madonna wannabe phase) so I'm hardly surprised that 23 years later there are still young girls who want to wear them.

Storm in an A cup!

[Ad-Mum]

Kids see all sorts of 'inappropriate' things in supermarkets, from condoms to misshaped organic carrots which accidentally appear to resemble mens genatalia. Just because a bra happens to be next to the kids section doesn't necessarily mean that kids will feel forced to buy them. I think that we're all getting our brassieres in a bit of a twist over this one.

[Gipsy]

Look I'm not normally prudish or up in arms over these things. How many times can Tesco claim to have just had these sorts of things in the kids sections by mistake? The shelf stackers put items where they're told to. It is someone's job to strategise and work out the precise placement of items to get the highest level of sales. It is a science, and taken very seriously by all the stores.

If they weren't thinking about how these bras might be positioned to encourage 7 year olds to buy them, then they are now. And that can only be a good thing.

[Ad-Mum]

It's a totally manufactured story. I just feel sorry for the poor pubescent shelf stacker who put the bras next to the 7 year old vests and is probably now blowing his nose with his p45.

[Kim]

Loll is right - the Sun photograph clearly shows the label saying 30A. The text of the report says "The £4 “bust-booster” is being sold alongside vests in the seven to eight-year-old age range." No evidence that the actual bra is aimed at seven year olds.

Manufactured outrage again. Though I agree that the Playboy stationery aimed at little girls is pretty unpleasant.

[Maxine]

I was quite amused (and shocked, I have to admit) to see the 9-14 padded bras and bikini tops in New Look the other Saturday. Then I looked up to see the pre-teen area was is right next to the maternity clothes, so one can progress straight from wearing one to the other, one presumes?

[The Mommy (or Mummy, depending who's calling)]

Oh yes, for me too it would have been heaven to throw one in with the weekly shopping.

We lived in a small town and we went to the only clothes shop in town for my first bra. My over-excited mother raced to the back of the shop (the "lingerie" section, such as it was) while I lingered reluctantly at the front door. To my horror, she then yelled "darling, how about this one?" while brandishing it above her head for all to see.

I was so upset that all the carefully sized bras went into a drawer, and by the time I felt the need to wear them they were too small.

[Loll]

...so I now have checked and they apparently sell them by size not age. I don't think it's a sexy bra - it's plain white and no embellishment - we're not talking half-cup red lace here. And I bet the bra pictured is in large cup size to emphasise the point. If it was any other retailer (and I bet M&S do similar in the same size range) no one would give a toss.

I don't like our sexualised culture and I don't particularly want my daughter to grow up in it, but get a sense of perspective. This boils down to middle-class mothers finding an excuse to cast their hands up in horror at chav mums dressing their children inappropriately. I remember going to buy my first bra - I also submitted to being poked around in a cubicle by some stranger with my mother tutting at my chest and frankly I would rather have bought my bras with the week's shopping and not have had such a big deal made about it.

[Gipsy]

that's the thing though Loll, 7 year olds aren't pubescent.

I got my first bra at 11 (training bras as they were called at the time), and was pretty well developed by the time I was 12. I didn't want to add any padding to that - it was mortifying enough the attention you got from males at 12 without adding to it.

[j]

Loll I can see that at 14 you might want coverage like the M&S T-shirt bras that hide evidence of chilly femininity, but they dont have to be as padded as that.

I'm with dear old M&S on this. When they first fitted my daughter they told her she should not buy underwired bras till she was at least 16 as it would damage her growing tissue. No idea if it is true or not, but it was a million miles away from prurient. Fitted by a nice motherly lady who made me stay in the cubicle.

That's how your first bra should be, a bit of milestone, going out with your mum to M&S. Not some Lolita trash from the age of 7.

Tesco, you need to change the age range of this one.

[Loll]

But it's not a bra exclusively for 7 year-olds, is it, if it's a range from 7-14 as Sarah suggests. Frankly, I can't be bothered checking. And no, I'm sure you don't get baying 7 year-old boys, but a group of 15 year-old boys don't check your age when they're staring at your boobs. Which is lovely when you're a 12 year-old girl.

Pubescent girls have to buy bras somewhere, why not from Tesco.

[Gipsy]

Mmmm LOLL I can sort of see the point you're making. But surely there aren't any baying 7 year old boys are there? I know it is only a few years, but there's a big big difference between 7 and 11.

[Loll]

Agree with NS, surely paedos rather avoid bosoms?

I think girls are reaching puberty earlier than ever; I had to start wearing a bra when I was 11 and found it deeply humiliating. My peers really made me suffer. Oh, and I do recall stuffing padding down my bra during games, not to make my boobs look bigger, but because boys used to line the cross country course and howl at us girls whenever they saw anyone's nipples through their PE kit. And there were a lot of nipples on show in February, let me tell you.

So Eleanor Mills, I challenge you that this isn't sexualising 7 year olds at all, but normalising puberty and providing a fairly sensitive response to the "Oh my god, those repellent baying little boys are jeering at my nipples" issue.

[Jean Jones]

" But I don't think we do any good getting all Daily Mail-outraged over largely fabricated issues like this."

Hear hear. But this surely applies to the majority of 'issues' in newspapers. Journalists have got to fill acreage of paper and they do so by whipping up manufactured indignation about things that are usually not as they say they are. And when did comments on a newspaper article change anyone's mind about anything?

[Sarah]

Actually it looks like the bra is part of a range of girls clothes up to age 14. You still might be rightly uncomfortable with this for your 14-year old, but many girls at 14 are young women physically, so it's hardly the same as a bra aimed at 7 year olds. It seems like a manufactured controversy to me, stemming from the fact that this item happened to have been placed next to some clothes for younger girls. The same with the pole-dancing kit, which was actually for adults, and accidentally put in the toys section of the website. That mistake, possibly says more about the pink-and-sparkly infantilisation of products for adult women than anything else. The 'Lolita' bed appears to have been an unfortunate error of judgement, but not intended as a sexual reference.

I agree there's a problem that girls are being made to feel far too body conscious and under pressure to conform to the 'sexy' beauty standard, and this pressure is affecting them earlier than it used to. But I don't think we do any good getting all Daily Mail-outraged over largely fabricated issues like this.

[Clucky]

Presumably Tesco have researched the demand for this product - but I can't believe that seven year olds or their mummies would be queuing in the aisles for this product. Alas, my less-than-32AA chest is so small after breastfeeding my two little ones that perhaps I should rush to the stores to be head of the queue?

[Jean Jones]

Tesco are in business to make money. If an item sells well they will keep on stocking it, if it doesn't they won't. Little girls who are bought bras will soon find out that they're a lot more comfortable in a vest than a bra and they will end up in the dressing-up box. Market forces, dear girls, market forces.

[NS]

I never understand it when people say that making children look like adults will make them targets for paedophiles. Paedophiles are sexually attracted to children, with child-like qualities, not pseudo-women. Somehow I don't think that a padded bra will make them all hot and bothered, they prefer the flat-chested look.

At any rate, I think a padded bra for a child is pretty useless and I can't see the appeal unless, once again, it is just nipple-phobia. Any suggestion that women have nipples and breasts is supposed to be quashed unless of course they're being used to sell beer or cars or are there simply for men's pleasure. It's the same reason why breastfeeding in public is met with such derision but cleavage that leaves little to the imagination is A-ok.

[Lazy Mummy]

I remember complaining on AM last summer about how all the little girls' bikinis were in porn star styles & how I had been phenomenally rude to shop assistants about this while shopping for something suitable (and in the end, just using a t-shirt). Same exact comments & same exact principle apply here. It's appalling. I wouldn't pander to it but sadly many are stupid enough to do so.

[Mr Potarto]

So Tesco say the bra is not aimed at seven-year-olds and The Sun say it is. Is there any more to this story than "The Sun told me..."?

The pole-dancing kit was also not aimed at children but the Daily Mail said it was so that's all the evidence you need I suppose.

[Andrew Milner]

The only good thing about this bra for sub-teens is that the price is reasonable. Everything else about it sucks. Hope Tesco gets charged with reckless endangerment. Encouraging seven-year-olds to become child-abuse targets in paedophile-crazy UK is so reprehensible. Look at a jailbait kid like that the wrong way, and your feet won't touch the ground on the way to the slammer. Furthermore, the "I thought she was over 16" justification is more likely to stand up.

[supermother]

I don't like bikinis for little girls either. My children were tom boys really until their teenage years. I'm not sure banning things is a good idea but parents can vote with their feet and not buy this kind of product.

[meg]

i bet you anything they'll attempt to justify it on the grounds of nip-coverage. bogus!