Padded bikini for girls too much, even for Abercrombie's
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Abercrombie & Fitch needs therapy.
The clothing chain cannot stop itself from ticking people off.
The company is like that annoying kid in high school who enjoyed the attention he got from constantly thinking up ways to get into trouble.
The only difference is that the annoying kid in high school flunked out and now puts turkey gizzards in little bags for a living, while A&F earns a hot couple billion bucks a year.
The company -- which primarily markets to young adults, adolescents and children -- started its errant ways in 1999 when it shot and widely distributed a Christmas catalog that featured nude models and overt sexual content.
The company then set about offending Asians by printing T-shirts with the slogan: "Wong Brothers Laundry Service: Two Wongs Make It White."
A&F's next distasteful T-shirt read "It's All Relative in West Virginia," suggesting the state was an, uh, inbreeding ground, and prompting the governor to demand the shirts be pulled from the shelves. If that wasn't enough, in 2005, the company faced allegations of racial discrimination and agreed to a settlement.
A&F's latest and most egregious case in point: the recent introduction of a bikini with a padded push-up bra for 7-year-olds.
Seriously? Did somebody put Drano in the water cooler at A&F?
How does a company that builds 800 successful stores and a workforce of more than 62,000 people become ignorant enough, appalling enough and shameful enough to try to sexualize little girls who haven't been in school long enough to learn what a decimal point is?
Who gave the geniuses at this company the professional advice that a product such as this was acceptable in a civilized society? Did it come from the CEO's childhood imaginary friend? Did they hire a sleaze whisperer? What?
As if giving girls in their teens the message that their bodies are not adequate is not soon enough, A&F has to begin diminishing them before they even reach puberty?
What's next? Buy-one-get-one-free lace thong coupons in the ball crawl at Chuck E. Cheese's? Half-price pediatric A&F brand Spanx distributed in the girls' room before the third-grade class group picture?
It's appalling.
Listen, truth be told, I actually like Abercrombie & Fitch's clothes. I can't afford them, but I like them. And I'd be lying if I said I don't appreciate the aesthetic value of the oversized posters in the stores that depict sleepy-looking 20-something men with 36-pack torsos.
And I am grateful that A&F helps to employ our community's youth. I don't even mind that the store blasts shoppers' eardrums out with loud music so that we are too distracted to notice the price of a pair of plain white flip-flops.
But a store that makes half of its living from females needs to begin to value them, at every age.
There oughta be a penalty. Maybe we should force them to hire an average-looking sales clerk.
Gasp.
The clothing chain cannot stop itself from ticking people off.
The company is like that annoying kid in high school who enjoyed the attention he got from constantly thinking up ways to get into trouble.
The only difference is that the annoying kid in high school flunked out and now puts turkey gizzards in little bags for a living, while A&F earns a hot couple billion bucks a year.
The company -- which primarily markets to young adults, adolescents and children -- started its errant ways in 1999 when it shot and widely distributed a Christmas catalog that featured nude models and overt sexual content.
The company then set about offending Asians by printing T-shirts with the slogan: "Wong Brothers Laundry Service: Two Wongs Make It White."
A&F's next distasteful T-shirt read "It's All Relative in West Virginia," suggesting the state was an, uh, inbreeding ground, and prompting the governor to demand the shirts be pulled from the shelves. If that wasn't enough, in 2005, the company faced allegations of racial discrimination and agreed to a settlement.
A&F's latest and most egregious case in point: the recent introduction of a bikini with a padded push-up bra for 7-year-olds.
Seriously? Did somebody put Drano in the water cooler at A&F?
How does a company that builds 800 successful stores and a workforce of more than 62,000 people become ignorant enough, appalling enough and shameful enough to try to sexualize little girls who haven't been in school long enough to learn what a decimal point is?
Who gave the geniuses at this company the professional advice that a product such as this was acceptable in a civilized society? Did it come from the CEO's childhood imaginary friend? Did they hire a sleaze whisperer? What?
As if giving girls in their teens the message that their bodies are not adequate is not soon enough, A&F has to begin diminishing them before they even reach puberty?
What's next? Buy-one-get-one-free lace thong coupons in the ball crawl at Chuck E. Cheese's? Half-price pediatric A&F brand Spanx distributed in the girls' room before the third-grade class group picture?
It's appalling.
Listen, truth be told, I actually like Abercrombie & Fitch's clothes. I can't afford them, but I like them. And I'd be lying if I said I don't appreciate the aesthetic value of the oversized posters in the stores that depict sleepy-looking 20-something men with 36-pack torsos.
And I am grateful that A&F helps to employ our community's youth. I don't even mind that the store blasts shoppers' eardrums out with loud music so that we are too distracted to notice the price of a pair of plain white flip-flops.
But a store that makes half of its living from females needs to begin to value them, at every age.
There oughta be a penalty. Maybe we should force them to hire an average-looking sales clerk.
Gasp.
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