By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist

The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney is taking on children’s clothing manufacturers who contribute to the cultural sexualization of young girls by marketing inappropriate clothing such as padded bras and other “Tweenage” underwear to girls as young as eight.

A news report on the Archdiocesan website details the Church’s support for a fast-growing grass roots movement known as Collective Shout that is taking on iconic Aussie underwear manufacturer, Bonds, and its bra marketed to eight-year-olds by calling for it to be removed from sale immediately.

“Children as young as eight do not need padded bras and if some are developing early, as Bonds claims, a crop top is all that is needed for support and to meet any issues of modesty,” says Melinda Tankard Reist, pro life activist and founder of Collective Shout.

Another clothing manufacturer agreed to remove a similar product in February after protests from the group. Marketed as a “Tweenage bra,” it was a push-up bra meant for girls between the ages of six and 12 and promised to give flat-chested pre-pubescent girls “adult curves.”
 
“Collective Shout instantly protested, pointing out ‘adult curves’ were unnecessary in children who had not yet reached puberty,” the Archdiocese reports, “and citing the Tweenage bras as yet another troubling example of the sexualization of children by corporations and manufacturers.”

The company apologized and withdrew the items from sale; but now, less than four months later, another well known Australian company named Bonds began marketing a similar bra to eight year old little girls.

“This is a further reflection of the sexualization of our children and what has long been known as middle childhood, the period from nine until 14, which is an essential and critical part of growing up, is fast disappearing,” Ms. Tankard Reist says and pleads for Australia’s children to be allowed to develop and grow into adolescence at a normal pace rather than catapulted into it by a culture that seems obsessed with sex.

“To its credit, from the time we made our objections known, Best & Less responded and within 24 hours of our blogs appearing on line, the Tweenage bra was withdrawn from sale,” she says. “I just hope Bonds will respond as quickly.”

Thus far, the company is defending itself, saying the new “Soft Cup Bra’ for eight year olds is a product line being driven by “consumer need” for girls who are maturing faster.

But Tankard Reist is skeptical, saying most cases of any so-called development by the age of eight is simply fatty deposits rather than evidence of a child entering puberty and the emergence of breasts.

“Certainly children at age eight do not need padded bras,” she says and refutes Bonds claim that it is responding to demand.

“I would argue they are creating a demand and if one or more little girls wear one of these bras, then others will want to be like her and others will quickly follow suit, with many worrying about the fact they have not begun developing and thinking there is something wrong with them,” she says.

Professionals are also weighing in with their concerns over the garments.

“A bra for eight year olds blurs the line between what is a little girl and what is a woman and in doing so violates an important societal norm that states that children should not be seen as sexual objects,” said Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, one of Australia’s best known psychologists and a former Associate Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Melbourne.

Dr. Gregg is calling on the company to withdraw the product and for parents to boycott all Bonds products until this is done.

“From a mental health perspective young children do not have the critical awareness and capacity to evaluate sexuality in popular culture and it can definitely effect their self image, self representation and self esteem,” says Professor Louise Newman, Director of the Monash University Centre for the Development of Psychiatry and Psychology.

The Archdiocese also cites many studies by academics around the world that have unequivocally shown the negative effects on a child’s mental health as a result of today’s continual barrage of advertisements, music videos, billboards and magazines that use the sexualization of young girls to grab attention and sell their products.

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