Fiona on the A & F Padded Bikini Outrage: How Effective is a Girlcott Anyway?
Abercrombie & Fitch and American Apparel have done it again. In the past, Abercrombie & Fitch has come under criticism for T-shirts with racist and sexist sayings, thongs for girls as young as ten, and semi-nude advertisements in their catalogs. In 2005, the Women and Girls association of Pennsylvania led a “girlcott” against sexist T-shirts, which read “Who needs brains when you’ve got these?” and “I had a nightmare I was a brunette.” Abercrombie & Fitch eventually pulled the shirts. Now, Abercrombie & Fitch has decided to sell push-up bikini tops for girls as young as seven (clearly a great idea, since the thongs for ten-year-olds went over so well).
The bikini tops which were originally advertised as “push-up” on the Abercrombie & Fitch website are now just described as “striped bikini,” but the padding is still there. The sad thing is, I can imagine seven-year-old girls getting excited about padded bikinis (since our society teaches us from a very young age that certain body types are enviable, and “pushed up breasts” tend to fall into that category). Abercrombie & Fitch certainly isn’t helping this problem with their padded bikini nightmare.
American Apparel is coming under criticism for its leadership (which has not exactly been leading by example). Don Charney, the founder, chief executive, and some would say uber-creep of American Apparel, was just sued for supposedly having a sex slave. Yep, that’s right. A sex-slave. In recent years, American Apparel has been condemned for soft-core porn-like advertising (am I sensing a theme here?) and Charney himself has already been sued several times for sexual harassment.
The woman suing, Irene Morales, accused Charney of sexual harassment, a hostile workplace environment, and gender discrimination. She also called Charney a “sexual predator.” According to Morales, she was imprisoned in Charney’s home shortly after beginning to work for him at age seventeen, and was forced to engage in sex acts.
So, now that we’ve established that Abercrombie & Fitch and American Apparel may be sleazy in their marketing and products, and could be damaging to girls and women, what do we do? Do we shrug and figure that most stores we buy from are probably engaged in some sort of behavior we’d rather not hear about and just avoid the padded bikinis and racist T-shirts? Or, do we decide to forgo the overpriced, too-tight, stretchy, American Apparel mini-skirt because the guy who’s selling it may have enslaved a girl our age.
Believe it or not (non-teenage girls reading this), it isn’t the easiest decision to try to girlcott popular stores, especially when all our friends are shopping there. Some of my favorite clothes are from American Apparel, and I still remember how excited I was when I got an Abercrombie & Fitch sweater for my birthday in sixth grade.
I can’t help but wonder what my small action of girlcotting would actually accomplish. I know groups, such as the Women and Girls association of Pennsylvania have used girlcotting to get sexist products pulled from the market, but does the girlcott even have a long term impact? I mean, sure, the Abercrombie & Fitch girlcott of 2005 caused the store to discontinue its line of T-shirts, but here they are again with padded bikinis for seven-year-olds!
I can live without clothes from either of these places and I would do so in a heartbeat, if I thought it would make a real difference. Whether or not a girlcott would be effective, I might feel kind of creeped out wearing the clothes anyway. But, with all the possibility for failure and repeat offenses on the part of the company, is it worth standing alone as all my friends shop at American Apparel, because I’m hoping to change the attitude of one of the many companies out there that doesn’t respect women?
When I first heard about Abercrombie & Fitch and American Apparel, I opened up a word document and titled this blog, “A&F and AA Have Done it Again! Do I hear a Girlcott?”, but as I started to write, I realized that the writer of that blog, while I sometimes wish it was me, just isn’t. The world we live in forces socially conscious girls to make tough decisions and sometimes hollering girlcott is easier said than done.
As a teacher of young girls who may be the target market for this I am a little confused. Yes I agree that padding a bikini top to look more mature is a more than a bit creepy, on the other hand what if a young girl is going through early puberty or is over weight? Just last week we had our first warm day, it started out freezing in the morning, and really warm by the time our after school program began. I took the boys and girls out to the play ground in their winter coats. In less than ten minutes the boys and girls were down to their tshirts. Some girls were really wearing what I would describe as undershirts, or camisoles? I had the awkward task of telling the girls to put their sweaters and sweat shirts back on. They complained it wasn’t fair that the boys could go with only t shirts. There is always an uncomfortable conversation with a girl who asked me why I hadn’t taken more pictures of her at summer camp, it was impossible for me to tell her that every photo of her in her one piece swim suit made it seem like the suit was spray painted on her. I once had to break the embarrassing news to a group of girls at a dress rehearsal for our annual talent show that their costumes were transparent in the bright stage lights. Their mothers were mortified, and admitted they saw it too.
Good article. I have a 13 year old daughter, and I am honestly shocked at some of the clothes her girl friends/acquaintances wear. Or rather, I am shocked that their parents buy or let these girls buy/wear these clothes – skimpy bikinis, low cut dresses, too short and tight skirts and shorts, belly-baring tops, etc. And marketing thongs to preteens is just disgusting! What parent would actually buy those for her/his daughter?!
[...] of padded bikini tops that are being targeted to girls as young as 8 years old. This has created an uproar but Abercrombie has failed to comment. All of this solely for the purpose of [...]
It would be great to attempt to boycott such distributors; however, my opinion, I think they should carry clothing that is attractive on all sized people. Society needs to stop portraying people who are under nourished as being healthy..etc etc. at any age! Yes, I would..but I would boycott it because my son loves their clothing. I must say, in all fairness, he has some shirts that are seven years old that still fit and look terrific.
This brings up a great question: do we take action when it won’t make a big impact? But I think the real question to ask yourself is one about your own personal integrity. Do you want to support these huge corporations and the terrible messages they send to young girls and the terrible way they treat workers? Does it really matter if your choice is making a huge impact on another, or is it enough for you to know that you personally are making a good choice? People tell me that being a vegetarian isn’t making that big of an impact. But that’s a very personal decision for me to make and it makes a big impact on my own life. However, if I wanted to make a bigger impact I would. The problem with society today is that most of these terrible things aren’t publicized enough so a lot of people simply aren’t aware that this stuff is going on. Put up posters around your school. Put an announcement about this in the daily announcements. Write an article for the school newspaper. Write an article for your local paper! Little things pile up and pile up and pile up and then make a big difference. Change isn’t going to happen overnight or without a lot of hard work. I believe that if there were 50 more organizations like the one in Pennsylvania fighting these companies a lot more publicity would be brought to the issue and more people would join the “girlcott”. I think a girlcott can be effective. It just needs more attention.
Thanks for the article! It made me think about a lot of stuff I don’t normally think about. Write more about it and spread the word girl!
Great post! For myself, even if no one else partakes in the girlcott, at least I have peace-of-mind knowing that I am not supporting such discrimination or contributing to a culture which is hostile to females.(And in the case of American Apparel, that I’m not contributing to someone’s sexual exploitation).
Apathy is a huge problem people struggle with. I think schooling help breeds it. Zoe Weil writes well on that topic (apathy regarding activism, not so much school).
It is hard to boycott when friends and family are not supportive, but you never know the impression you are making – which may last, and be someone’s inspiration in a major way now or later. What helps me is to root out the needs I need to meet (whether it’s owning clothes I like, or getting along with friends, or feeding my family) while passing by the boycotted item or company (if possible). The world is full, too full, of stuff to buy.
Thanks for this piece!