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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 6 of 7)
8-18-2009 @ 7:12PM
sudnsam said...What happened to dressing your daughters with pretty little resses with matching bows in their hair... OH THATs RIGHT, the porno industries use that as a costume now....
I have been trying to buy some summer clothers (shorts) for my 13 year old daughter. I have searched high and low for for shorts that are not the size of a tube top,or skirts that are longer than peubic hair. What the hell,,, That's why I voted for uniforms... Oh wait they wear those in pornos too... I'm liking more and more the amish style...
Reply
8-18-2009 @ 7:07PM
Brandi P said...Parents go to parks with babies sporting nothing but diapers. that being said. what is wrong with a fully clothed baby with the implication of nipple tassles? Most adults who would ever wear a nipple tassle would do so in a similar humourous fashion so what is so wrong here people? I hate seeing just HOW ignorant and close minded people are. YOU are all the reason I wouldn't want to bare kids in this world. Not a designer with a nipple tassle baby shirt...
Reply
8-18-2009 @ 7:18PM
kriza said...thank you. it's funny reading through all of the comments of pissed off women getting huffy over something so small. for all of you mothers out there thinking something like THIS will ruin your child... you really have a lot to learn.
8-18-2009 @ 7:20PM
Chris said...I am very happy you will not have children. At least we know you can make some good choices!
8-18-2009 @ 7:13PM
Chris said...It just gets worse all the time. What happened to the sane people in this world?
Reply
8-18-2009 @ 7:14PM
janette williams said...Lisa
I'm with you on the Juicy brand on your butt.When I first saw a girl walking in the mall with her family I thought OMG how can her father let her wear this mess.It is awful.
Reply
8-18-2009 @ 7:16PM
Randy said...This is a stupid thing to get upset over, I mean how can anyone get upset over something so stupid with all the things going on in the world that are far more important !
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8-18-2009 @ 7:21PM
Brandi P said...lol. sounds like you are all the real perverts, so lost in your own "what ifs" that you think that your daughters and sons are living in a world where pedophiles run rampant. They do- Their own parents are pedophiles. Why would you think about a helpless 13 year olds PUBIC HAIR when buying shorts? THATS THE MOST ASSANINE THING EVER. Not the fact that a little girl wears shorts that show some skin OH MY GOD! and what the hell do you wear? I suppose you wear cardigans with built in turtle necks in neutral colors with long baggy jeans so you don't show curves and maybe while your at it you make sure all the pedophiles with those mouth fetishes cant see your mouth so they don't get turned on and you cover your face to? My, your husband must find you sexy. Your probably some of those people who simply procreated...right? Had sex just to produce offspring? For the record- like riding a roller coaster or eating a piece of cake SEX happens to be naturally pleasing and since its 2009 most people have accepted that. Its simply WRONG to hide who we are and be so god damned prudish. There is NOTHING wrong with skin, NOTHING wrong with our birthday suits and the only people I would worry about my children being around is the people like you who think about such awful things when they are so young. I was walking around outside when I was 10 and 11 without a shirt on because WHO CARES WHO SEES MY SKIN. I might as well have been a boy then, I didnt have boobs...I had nipples the same as any man, boy, or child. Your the only ones who are wrong.
Reply
8-20-2009 @ 9:34AM
humorme said...Just a question. Do you see a difference between showing a little skin (i.e. skirt above the knee) and showing a little SKIN (i.e. showing you forgot your panties)? Of course there is a difference. Showing some curves is great, show that you have boobs. Just don't show where the curves lead and don't show the boobs. Give the guys something to work toward for pete's sake. If they see Everything, they've seen everything and there is no goal.
8-18-2009 @ 7:36PM
ANGEL said...AT LEAST IT DOSENT SAY 2MUCH PRINCESS 4 1 PRINCE OR NEED 2 KISS ALOT OF TOADS 2 FIND THE RIGHT FROG AMEN
Reply
8-18-2009 @ 7:30PM
Oprah said...I can see the liberals havin they kids wear it cause wouldn't want to seem conservative at the cost of makin they kid look fn stupid...oh well look at the Obamas......
Reply
8-18-2009 @ 7:38PM
Kim said...Suzi Warren is very inappropriate. Does anyone really buy this smut for their children? Not this mom.
Reply
8-18-2009 @ 8:06PM
Heather said...dis sh--t be funny. responses are so predictable
Reply
8-21-2009 @ 4:44AM
6ame said...It's very typical that it's a woman who has designed these atrocious T-shirts for young girls, it goes hand in hand with the fact that women abuse children more than men do, and the reason for this is evident in this story, when women abuse children, or mistreat them, it's seen as a good thing (only in the eyes of other women).
Desperately trying to sexualise young girls, or have them wearing swear words on their clothes, is a form of abuse.
All the women who are head over heels in love with these disgusting T-shirts, and who view the designer as a Goddess among women, would be up in arms if it was a perverted man, instead of an obviously perverted woman that had designed them, their hypocrisy stinks to the high heavens.
The more women continually get away with all their negative actions, even when they're directed at children, the worse it's going to get.
This is what happens when most women view their children as dolls that can be dressed up, instead of living, breathing human beings, it is vile and disgusting, in fact, to be honest, I'm surprised so much trust is put in women when it comes to children, they continually show they have no morals and cannot be trusted to raise them properly without indoctrinating them with hate for men, and themselves.
It's high time women grew up and stopped behaving in such an immature manner.
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8-18-2009 @ 7:50PM
irr said...To use the words sexy, and six month old, in the same sentence is sickening to begin with... Why do small children need to know about breasts as more than a way to feed a baby? Sorry, but putting tassels on anyone's nipples, regardless of age, does not de-sexualize them, quite the contrary. This is a disgusting example of "anything for a buck". I implore other parents and granparents to refuse to allow this to happen to our children. Do not buy this, it is not cute!
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8-18-2009 @ 7:51PM
dd said...This is NOT funny or cute or even obnoxious, It IS however a definate ploy by the designer to help the child predators out there to scope out the children whose parents obviously dont give a damn!
SICK AND WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reply
8-18-2009 @ 7:58PM
Brandi P said...Your ignorant. thats it, no more needs to be said.
8-18-2009 @ 7:59PM
Rick said...Scarlett, the word you're looking for here is prudish, not prudent. And what is a premaritally mothering mom. You can't be taken seriously if you talk gibberish.
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8-18-2009 @ 8:12PM
Ray said...Forget about any sexual messages that tassel shirt would convey to any infant or pre-schooler.They wouldn't feed anything sexual at those ages anyway. What should concern parents is the safety issue. The tassels are a choking hazard should they come off the shirt.
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8-18-2009 @ 8:13PM
heidi mcdonald said...Pinkthen Red made a good point. The person who gets the brunt of it is the child. I would hope the parents do too BUT adults can understand the responce. Perhaps they like the shock thing. Kids should be kids and not
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