French Lingerie for 4-12 Year Olds Sexualizes Young Girls

Oh my goodness, have you seen this?  A french designer, Jours Apres Lunes, has proudly designed the first "loungerie" (loungewear + lingerie) for children ages 4-12 years old.  

This company is catching flack across the world for sexualizing young girls, not only with their designs but more so for their catalogue images.  

I get trying to be innovative, edgy and pushing the envelope.  But this should be done with adult fashions, not for young children.  Children this young don't need lingerie.  They need cotton underwear with cute bows and child-like images.  Not sexy underwear.  But what's worse, is the ads from the company's catalogue which has young girls, most of whom appear to be around the age of 4 or 5 years old, styled like sexy adults and posing in suggestive positions. 

Now, I know Europeans often have more relaxed and often healthier attitudes towards sex and sexuality than we Americans so.  And, I tend to be more on the relaxed end of the spectrum myself, but I don't think these images qualify as healthy images.  In a society that often sexualizes young girls (often encouraged even by their parents) this goes way over the line.  It's just creepy.  A 4yo girl shouldn't be sexy.  Period.

For the most part, I don't think the designs themselves are that bad.  The real problem is marketing the collection as lingerie and the catalogue photos.  I think most of these designs could be styled and marketed in a much different way that's much more appropriate for young girls with very little problem.  It's not so much a problem of design as it is a problem with marketing.

What do you think? Is this sexualizing young girls, or are we just uptight Americans?