'Little girls are not sex objects': Mother lashes out at Big W
An outraged Australian mother has lashed out at retail giant Big W for "sexualising" children's fashion.
The irate mother has vented with a rant on social media against the chain stating: “Little girls are not sex objects. Gender bias is disgusting.”
The Queensland mother-of-one, Nikita Friedman was shopping at her local Big W for her one-year-old daughter when she stumbled on what she describes as “inappropriate” children’s clothing, labelling a size one pair of girl’s shorts as “skimpy.”
The Emerald mother then posted her frustration on Facebook and her rant quickly went viral gathering more than 60,000 likes in a mere five days.
“Little girls shorts in a size 1 next to little boys shorts in a size 1. Why on earth does my 1 year old need to have shorts so short that her nappy is hanging out???,” the mother vented.
The post featured an image of the two pairs of shorts side by side in a photograph highlighting the difference between the two items of clothing.
The shorts meant for a female toddler in the image were roughly around half the size of the mid-length pair for the male of a same age and size.
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Friedman stated she felt it was crucial to flag her concerns with the retailers as otherwise “nothing will ever change” according to The Daily Mail.
“The simple fact is that numbers talk and maybe seeing 1600 parents agree with my post after only 5 hours might make Big W stand up and listen for once to what parents want,” the mother wrote in an additional post five hours later.
Explaining in more detail the mother wrote: “We're all just trying to be the best parents we can. I want to teach my child about self respect, modesty and confidence from a young age, and set standards now for what my expectations of her will be in the future,” Friedman wrote.
Upon seeing the popular post Big W responded with a comment thanking the mother for sharing her concerns and assuring Friedman that they took her concerns seriously.
‘We will certainly discuss yours and other views posted to this thread with the relevant team, those responsible for buying kidswear and where appropriate respond back to you directly,’ Big W responded in the post.
In response to Yahoo7 Big W released the following statement: "BIG W undertakes a rigorous buying process to ensure we stock a wide range of children's apparel to suit a variety of customer needs and tastes. BIG W welcomes customer feedback and takes customer concerns about our products seriously. We are looking into this matter and will respond to the customer directly."
News break Feb 9
