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Designer Defends Nipple Tassels on Tot T-Shirt
Filed under: In The News, Weird But True, Fashion
Would you buy this tee for your tot? Credit: Twistedtwee.co.uk
It's not a wardrobe malfunction.
Suzi Warren intentionally put nipple tassels on shirts for infants and preschool girls.
Warren is the owner and designer of Twisted Twee, a London clothing company some people find twisted indeed. The tasseled top has been causing a controversial buzz on the blogosphere.
Twisted Twee also offers clothes for babies and preschoolers that proclaim, "I've done f--k all day" (minus the dashes). Then there are alphabet shirts that announce that B is for Beer, C is for Condom and X is apparently for a pig having sexual relations with a duck.
Warren talked to ParentDish exclusively last night, via email, from her vacation in Spain, to explain her design:
"The Nipple Tassel t-shirt was designed as a response to my own distaste at seeing mini versions of sexy clothes on young children," she wrote. "Five-year-olds wearing slashed mini skirts and boob tubes, little thumb-sucking Britneys.
"There is nothing very sexy about a baggy, lap neck, long sleeved t- shirt for a 6-month-old. So by embellishing this style of garment with printed nipple tassels, the result is not that the baby becomes sexualized by the tassels, but that the tassels are made benign and silly by the baby. In fact the more inert, innocent and unaware the infant is, the more ludicrous the contrast becomes."
Tasseled tots might fall under what University of Iowa journalism professor Meenakshi Gigi Durham calls "The Lolita Effect" in her book of the same name, which examines the pressure on increasingly younger girls to be presented as objects of sexual desire.
Durham said a survey last year by Girlguiding, a British Girl Scout organization, concluded that girls as young as 10 feel intense pressure to conform to social pressure to look and behave seductively.
We asked Warren to respond:
"I totally agree with critics who feel that young girls are put under
enormous pressure by the media, the fashion industry and the content
of many TV programs, to be aware of their appearance, and then
dissatisfied with it," she added. "The trap set to ensnare girls into a life-time
of preoccupation with their looks is a subtle one.
"My garments are not part of this trap because they are about a subtle as a blinking brick and are aimed at parents of children too young to read or speak.
"If you are wondering who would be heartless enough to put their tiny
daughters in Nipple Tassel t-shirts, it is often their grandparents
who think the design 'cheerful.' Or the parents of boys who think the
whole gender bender things a bit of a hoot.
"Most of Twisted Twee's t-shirt designs are a response to some baffling
thing or other our daughter Betty has done, and celebrate the
befuddlement of parenthood and the idiocy of life. We call the things
we make pieces of Object D'aft. That is what the Nipple Tassel t-shirt
is. A bit of lunacy."
Okay, our final question to Warren: Say I bought one for my six-month-old baby, and I had a 10-year-old child as well. What message do you think it would send to that older child?
"I guess my answer would simply be if you have doubts about it, don't buy it," she wrote. "Your daughter is probably smart enough, self confident enough and relaxed enough to share the irony, but maybe she'd hate it and become very angry about it and that's probably not a bad thing either. Dressing a baby probably shouldn't be laden with social significance."
Now that she explained it, would you buy this t-shirt for your daughter?
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ReaderComments (Page 4 of 7)
8-18-2009 @ 4:09PM
marwil said...Well, maybe we should all be keeping our eyes wide open. First this is disgusting. Keep sexual objects away from children, as well as suggestive of children. Does any of these pervs understand there are grown men out there that rape babies and destroy them for life???? Some little girls will never experience the joys of motherhood because some monster felt it his place to take another persons life and use it as if Satan Controlled his entire inner being and he is such a weak ass that he couldn't control himself. Those men need to be hung in the city square by their genitalia till they die. There are too many men who want to steel the innocence of a child and have no right to touch that part of a childs life. Besides this point, this is just more blatent disrespect, then want to ask what is wrong with the world today. People used to exercise restraint and good judgement. Another thing we may want to think about. There is a muslim movement about, sound crazy? Just look around, consider they marry their :"CHILDREN" as young as nine years old. There are also other sick bastards that sell children as young as five and three years old in these horrid places that do not belong on earth, and yes sex trading does exist. It really is all about what you are supporting. I get the idea of the originator, b ut some things are just poor taste., And this is one of those things. You really need to consider the sick pigs that support stealing innocense of a child. This does not belong around children. Period.
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8-18-2009 @ 4:18PM
mandabeth said...when did everyone forget their sense of humor and start complaining about everything?
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8-18-2009 @ 4:45PM
seth said...look, this is crazy. i see the irony in the shirts. would i buy one for my child probably not, but i can see the irony in it. It's not like the tassles swing and spin, it is just printed images of tassles. Those of you on here insulting this woman and anyone who likes the shirts are probably the same wastes of space that dress your daughters like $2.00 hookers and don't teach them that sitting with their legs spread is not lady like. i was in wal-mart the other day and saw a girl that couldn't have been more than 7 wearing a skirt that just barely cleared her butt cheeks. if she had bent over then she would have shown everything to all of wal-mart. it's parents like these that are the problems..not ones that see the humor in a shirt like this
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8-18-2009 @ 4:25PM
be_my_conspiracy2006 said..."How much for the little girl? How much for the women?"-Blues Brothers
You guys are f--ked in the head. There are too many prudes on this Earth. Out of all the senseless murders happening right now,why can't any of them take you? It's a shirt. If you don't like it,don't f--kin' buy it. Seems pretty simple to me. And as for the first amendment,this story is out of the U.K. retards.
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8-18-2009 @ 4:28PM
bridget said...YEAH BUT WHAT ABOUT THE PERVS OUT THERE WOULDT PUTTING YOUR CHILD IN ITEMS LIKE THIS BE MORE TEMPTING FOR THEM TO PICK YOUR CHILD UP???OF COURSE IT WOULD!!!
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8-18-2009 @ 4:26PM
Tony M said...This is inviting death and heartbreak; it might look cute however, there is nothing to stop a toddler from putting the tassels in her mouth and choking to death. Smarten up parents; would your parents have bought you a Tee shirt such as this? I think not.
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8-18-2009 @ 4:36PM
Scarlett said...Seriously? What's funny is that this shirt only effects the very few that buy it... and what's even funnier is that it's made more popular by the new frame of mind is that everyone is apparently supposed to have the same opinion on everything thereby negating the use of even having one in the first place. I recall saying that I would not put my child in one... if I saw one, I'd laugh and go about MY business. What's funny is that this conversation could twist and turn into a very skewed and very opinionated bashing of right, wrong, and principle--i.e., appalled and gape-mouthed biddies who keep parents afraid to even reprimand their kids in public for misbehaving would be twice as appalled if that unreprimanded child dashed out into a street and got hit by a car. No one can do anything without worrying about someone else's opinion and that causes more problems than it will ever solve. Instill YOUR values in YOUR kids and mind YOUR business and one by one, things like this will matter less and less b/c it just wont be an issue because people have put their focus where it belongs and not up everyone else's rear.
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8-19-2009 @ 12:37AM
WGASA Paul said...This is what happens to the brain . . . on DRUGS!
So, very, very cool if your child is the joke of the
neighborhood! The result of EVERYONE going to
college and the NEW College standard being a
Ph.D or Masters . . . think this 'designer' should
have some contact with his/her client base.
MOST OF US LOVE and SEEK TO PROTECT
OUR CHILDREN and GRANS . . . this is SICK!
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8-18-2009 @ 4:37PM
rachel said...Why dont designers just make t- shirts plain?!? Or put bugs and trucks on boys shirts and flowers and bunnies on girls?? (just examples) I mean come on people!! THEY ARE LITTLE KIDS NOT MINI SEX TOYS
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8-18-2009 @ 4:40PM
kathy murphy said...This designer should be shackled.Only an idiot would put this on a child.
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8-18-2009 @ 4:42PM
ernie766 said...I don't think they will be getting much business anyway unless they upgrade their website. It is complete crap....super slow. You can't even look at anything.
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8-18-2009 @ 4:48PM
Amanda said...OH HELL NO!!!! Are they serious? What pedophile came up with this idea for a toddler's shirt? I'm 21 years old and I would never wear something like that. This is completely disgusting. The only thing missing is thongs for toddlers. If someone bought my daughter something like this, they would get punched in the face.
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8-18-2009 @ 5:05PM
sig said...HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
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8-18-2009 @ 5:14PM
Hayley said...This is disgusting and no matter how hard the woman tries to defend her design or play it off as a joke on society, she should be ashamed of herself for making clothing like this for toddlers. What's worse is that people may actually buy this crap! This is almost as bad as people putting their toddlers in halter tops or tube tops. Some people should just NOT have kids!
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8-18-2009 @ 5:28PM
LiarPantsonFire said...That B**ch sure can lie when she is confronted by adults who actually care about their kids.What a S***load of psychoblab her "explanation" was!
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8-18-2009 @ 10:17PM
Alexandra said...What was this designer thinking, when he came up with this ridiculous design for little kids ?? Under no circumstances would I buy a shirt like that for my child !!!!
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8-18-2009 @ 5:38PM
Texas River Rat said...I'm constantly amazed by parents who believe they can dress their little daughters as hookers and then act surprised when they become sexually active when they're eleven or twelve years old. Where are these peoples' heads? It's not just moms of girls either. I see sweet little boys dressed like thugs or skaters. When he's twelve and they call you from juvie, try not to act shocked, okay?
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8-18-2009 @ 5:39PM
Doozie480 said...This is tottaly disgusting, and i am a mother, and would not buy this shirt for my toddler! This shirt, specifically attracts pedophiles, Any mother who would buy this shirt for a lil child is really immature, and irresponsible!!!!! This designer is CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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8-18-2009 @ 5:40PM
Sharon said...Oh wait - you mean she does the exact same thing that she find reprehensible in others? I think they're all pathetic and any parent who puts their child in any of her clothing deserves what they get. If they want to parade their child as a miniature exotic dancer, then don't question why when they become grandparents in their early 30's.
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8-18-2009 @ 5:47PM
rubs said...jean-this shirt is far from kiddie porn. it's long sleeves! the only thing "offensive" on it is the tassels. and like it says in the article it's meant to make a statement. (not saying that i would ever buy this shirt)but if there was this shirt w/ jeans or a tube top w/ a mini skirt as my only options to clothe my child, i'd choose this shirt. at least the child would be covered up-and they might even have fun playing w/ the tassels.
Also for all of you who are saying that clothes like this are the reason why there are pedophiles are quite silly. there have been pedophiles for hundreds and thousands of years. some people are just sick and what a child is wearing doesn't necessarily make a difference. of course, i don't think that children should be wearing "adult" clothing (some "adult" clothing shouldn't be worn by anyone) but the fact remains that many pedophiles are attracted to the innocence of children and what they are wearing won't have any bearing on their feelings.
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