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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 7 of 7)
8-18-2009 @ 8:23PM
SLY said...Options are what makes the designer markewt go round, but this is an irresponsible act towards being a positive role model for children. Also, with all the sick minded people in this world, this could bring danger and unneccessary attention to the child wearing it. Wake up!
Reply
8-18-2009 @ 9:02PM
irr said...Seriously, where have you ever seen tassles positioned such as this? There are too many reasons that this is a bad idea...
Reply
8-20-2009 @ 2:44AM
Mistress Lenore said...It might be funny if you put a shirt like this on a baby too young to understand it then took a picture and displayed it in an art museum. It is NOT funny as a garment to be worn in public where older kids will see it and probably not get the joke. I agree that some parents dress their children in sexually provocative or inappropriate outfits, but I doubt this tassel shirt will convince any of them to change.
Reply
8-20-2009 @ 7:01AM
April said...I wouldn't buy this with the intention of putting it on my child and going out in public. I might buy it as a gag baby shower gift for a few friends who I know have a sense of humor. If I had received the shirt as a gift from someone I wouldn't put it on my child (mostly for the simple fact that he's a boy lol), but I would get a giggle.
Reply
8-20-2009 @ 9:34AM
humorme said...babies do like to play with tassells, so it's a two-fer!
Reply
8-23-2009 @ 8:06AM
TLT said...These will be bought by the same women who dress their little girls up like hookers and teach them to dance provocatively to try and win a trophy and money. Then they can grow up and do the same minus the trophy. In the meantime pedophiles will get their jollys watching shows like Toddlers and Tiaras. Is that what it has come down to? Selling your own childs dignity for a trophy, don't forget to bump you butt out honey, then turn and pout then blow the judge a kiss. Good training for the job they will have in the future only it won't be blowing kisses to the judges.
Reply
8-23-2009 @ 7:55AM
Terri said...These will be bought by the same women who dress their little girls up like hookers and teach them to dance provocatively to try and win a trophy and money. Then they can grow up and do the same minus the trophy. In the meantime pedophiles will get their jollys watching shows like Toddlers and Tiaras. Is that what it has come down to? Selling your own childs dignity for a trophy, don't forget to bump you butt out honey, then turn and pout then blow the judge a kiss. Good training for the job they will have in the future only it won't be blowing kisses to the judges.
Reply
8-23-2009 @ 9:09AM
pauline said...Don't this supposed lady know about pedophiles? They certainly don't need anymore enticement to see our children as sexual objects. It isn't funny or a joke. Can't she make her statement without involving innocent children? Sexuality should be held in higher regard by everyone. Anything that sexualizes our children will be used to entice the sexual deviants toward our already preyed upon children. She is not seeing the big picture.
Reply
8-23-2009 @ 9:27AM
pauline said...I don't believe more women sexually abuse children. I do see stories of women going along with sick stuff to please their sicko men.
As women we need to stand against porn in any form. And I am not a bible toting religious fanatic. It is sad to see what a woman will put up with. Is that a quality any woman seeks in a man? Then why accept it or put up with it? Why should we say its okay because he is good in other ways? We women have the power to end this . We have been raised from day one believing a man holds the key to our worth. That is an extremely sad commentary. Just say no, it is not acceptable............
Reply
8-25-2009 @ 4:15PM
Myself said...And people wonder why pedophelia is rampant.
Reply
8-30-2009 @ 9:49AM
Mary said...Parents should take note of this last comment from her and not buy this trash "...Dressing a baby probably shouldn't be laden with social significance." They shouldn't be plastered like a billboard with some designers name either. PEOPLE wake up and teach your children how to stand on their own two feet and be thier own person.
Reply
8-30-2009 @ 3:47PM
Nicole said...I probably wouldn't buy one for my child but I do have to say I have seen a lot of stuff scarier then this for babies and young adults alike.
Reply
9-01-2009 @ 6:31PM
Shelly said...PinkthenRed, I have to agree. I personally am tired of seeing the trashy clothes in the stores for our children to wear. They look like little hooker clothes. Panties are thongs, and little bras that look like something out of a sex catalog. Then you have the clothing that is made up to look sexy. Is that what a little girl should be wearing? Please folks, think. Your little sweet daughter wearing the trashy outfit looks like candy to a child rapist! As a matter of fact, I just read an article where people think the wrappers on candy that blatantly show fruit having sex is just fine for children to have! The blogs were all for it and I find it to be the mindset of the end days! They will call right as if it is bad, and bad as if it is good! That is in the Bible. Sad, people do not teach the children what is really bad anymore.
Reply
9-03-2009 @ 7:32PM
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9-22-2009 @ 12:40AM
aliseb4444 said...its sad that most of you care so deeply about this, if you don't let your kids do anything there gonna do it anyways except you wont kno about it lol you will have the worst teenage years and you wont kno anything about your kids oh and those kidi thongs and inappropriate shirts are not meant for kids those stores cater to many different age groups haha your repressed good luck with your miserable lives
Reply
10-12-2009 @ 10:59AM
Pfunk said...This blog blows the mind. Number 1, and as no defense to the content of the shirt nor anyone who would put their kid in it, but I don't think the shirt nor the idiots who would adorn their children in that garbage would be trying to garner sexual attention to children. While the content is sexual and disgusting, pedophiles do not find children attractive because of what they wear anymore than a rapist might find a grown woman more attractive because she was dressed provocatively. They're just sick. The part of this that blows my mind is not only the content of the shirt, but the self-righteous morons using their children as a sounding board for their personal beliefs or for their amusent. Your kids aren't dolls, so don't dress them to make yourself feel better, dress them for the weather, their comfort, and what they like. I bought my son all these really nice clothes, but he likes the $4 walmart t-shirt with the dog on the front of it that he picked out, so that's what he wears. Better to have him happy than me. Welcome to parenthood, where you're not the most important person in the world.
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10-23-2009 @ 4:34PM
redneckmama0307 said...I understand that we are in a free society and all that, but there is absolutely no way that I would allow my child to wear any of this crap. (And that is exactly what it is-crap.) I do not buy clothes that have words on the butt or shirts that say "hey look at these goods". It is very inappropriate.
I don't think we would be having this problem if people would refuse to buy clothing that has these kinds of insinuations! But, to each their own. I would like to know what other designers think about this!
What's sad is that good parents get their kids taken away because they have pictures of their child/children playing in the bath tub but, I am willing to bet that parents who dress their kids in this kind of clothing wouldn't be in trouble at all! It's a shame to see what this world is coming to.
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