Published by the Department of Education in London.
3977565Letting Children be Children — Theme 22011Reg Bailey
THEME 2
Clothing, Products and Services for Children
"Designers and providers need to be challenged to consider what they are doing to children. ex is an easy sell."
Parent, Call for Evidence response
Overview
Sexualised and gender-stereotyped clothing, products and services for children are the biggest areas of concern for parents and many non-commercial organisations contributing to the Review, with interest fanned by a sometimes prurient press.
The issues are rarely clear-cut, with a fine balance on a number of points – taste, preference, choice, affordability, fashion and gender preferences.
Retailers are aware of the issues and sensitivities and are responding.They need to be explicitly and systematically family friendly, from design and buying through to display and marketing.
WHAT WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE
That retailers do not sell or market inappropriate clothing, products or services for children.
RECOMMENDATION
6
Developing a retail code of good practice on retailing to children. Retailers, alongside their trade associations, should develop and comply with a voluntary code of good practice for all aspects of retailing to children.The British Retail Consortium (BRC) should continue its work in this area as a matter of urgency and encourage non—BRC members to sign up to its code. ACTION: Retailers and retail associations, including the BRC
Introduction
1.
As set out in Theme 1, we all (adults and children, parents and non—parents) live in a world that has become increasingly sexualised. Sexual images form a wallpaper to our lives, all—pervasive but hardly noticed.This background affects adults as well as children and is
everywhere in society.
2.
Since the commercial world is not immune from, and indeed often invests in, the notion that 'sex sells', it is perhaps not surprising to find research evidence that parents, including those who took part in the qualitative research for this Review and our Call for Evidence, see a reflection of this sexualisation in some children's clothes, toys and games and other services for children.
3.
Among the parents who voiced concerns about the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood when they responded to our Call for Evidence, the sexualisation of clothes and products for children was a big concern.We recognise this is a highly subjective issue, intimately bound up with notions such as good and bad taste, personal preferences and the ability to exercise choice, the enjoyment by parents and children of fashion, and the expression of innate or learned gender differences.We also recognise that children's clothes, products and services are bought mainly by parents, and that what some parents find appropriate, others find distasteful or even offensive.
4.
Manufacturers and retailers therefore have to tread a difficult path in deciding where the line of public taste and approval lies. But retailers cannot be passive reflectors in children's products of adult fashion, or simply adopt an attitude of 'if customers don't like something they won't buy it'.They want to build the trust of customers so that they can maintain a long—lasting relationship with them. Retailers are aware of parents’ concerns and do respond to them but what we heard from retailers suggests they could be more systematic in their approach.As with other business sectors, retailers need to be helping to build a family—friendly public space throughout their business practices, from the design and sourcing of goods through displays and marketing and in the way they listen and respond to customer feedback.
5.
The concerns that parents expressed about the sexualisation of products for children when they responded to our Call for Evidence fall into two broad areas.
6.
The first area of concern was about products that are seen to depend on, or to promote, the idea that children at quite a young age are more sexually mature than their chronological age suggests. That maturity might be physical, emotional or psychological, and the child may be aware or unaware of it. Girls’ clothes and accessories are the most frequently cited examples: bras (padded or not), bikinis, short skirts, high—heeled shoes, garments with suggestive slogans, or the use of fabrics and designs that have connotations of adult sexuality.
7.
The second area of concern was about the use of gender stereotypes. The commercial world is seen to offer only very narrow concepts of what it means to be a boy or a girl and what kind of accessories boys and girls need in order to fulfil those gender roles. This is demonstrated through colour (pink, for girls, blue or camouflage for boys), clothes ranges (ultra—feminine clothes for girls, sportswear for boys), and toys and games (dolls, cuddly animals, make—up kits, fashion accessories for girls; cars, action figures, guns for boys).
8.
To inform this debate, it is important to understand the normal physical and sexual development of children and young people, which we explore below.
9.
We also examine the role of retailers in bringing products to market and their handling of sexualised and gendered products. We acknowledge the view of Professor Buckingham and his colleagues in their assessment that:
"Marketers clearly do not create gender role differences: the question is whether they respond to these differences in ways that, on balance, reinforce them."
DCSF/DCMS, 2009
Child development and sexual maturity
10.
The parents who contributed to the Review clearly wanted their own children to have the space and time to grow and develop mentally, physically and emotionally as individuals, learning how to navigate the world at their own pace and in their own unique way. We found a commonly—held view among respondents that sexualisation accelerates that process in a way that parents do not like, and that some parents worry could be harmful.
"It's gonna make her grow up too fast, walking around thinking she's a little teenager. She ain't, she's a little girl and I want her to dress like a little girl."
"There's a concern about them knowing too much at their age. You want to protect their innocence."
"She wants to wear make—up and short skirts because she wants to look like [a celebrity] but it's too much. It's not innocent — well it is, but it might look provoking to the wrong people."
Parents, Review qualitative research
"I think it [sexualisation] has a massive influence on how they grow up... It's quite disturbing."
Parent, Call for Evidence response
11.
These are certainly not new concerns on the part of parents and it is important to view this aspect of the debate in a wider social and historical context. The report of the independent assessment led by Professor Buckingham offers a comprehensive analysis of this wider context, and particularly highlights the role that nostalgia plays in parental and societal views of childhood:
"There is a very dominant strain of nostalgia here — a looking back to a 'golden age' when childhood and family life were apparently harmonious, stable and well adjusted. But it is often far from clear when that time was, or the social groups to whom this description applies; and the basis on which historical comparisons are being made is frequently unclear. Historical studies of childhood certainly give good grounds for questioning whether such a 'golden age' has ever existed."
DCSF/DCMS, 2009
12.
Since most attention is paid to the sexualisation of clothes for girls, it is important to be especially aware of girls’ physical development. Girls are, on average, reaching puberty at an earlier age now than ever before. In the UK, girls can now expect to reach puberty, defined as the development of breast buds, around their tenth birthday, and, on average, girls have developed more evident breasts by 11.6 years of age.That means that today these developmental stages are reached a year to 18 months sooner than at any time over the past 60 years (Rubin et al, 2009).
13.
We need to see concerns about the premature sexualisation of children through inappropriate clothing and other products against this backdrop. Professor David Buckingham, in a book to be published in 2011, considers the issue of whether, as well as society being increasingly sexualised, this lowering of the age at which children reach physical and sexual maturity provides a biological driver towards them seeing their
potential as sexual beings at a younger age (Phoenix, 2011).
Sexualised products
14.
Parents responding to our Call for Evidence told us that they felt that retailers could do more to offer age—appropriate ranges of clothes. They said that they preferred children's clothes to be clearly age—appropriate and not simply scaled—down versions of adult fashion. Figure 6 shows findings from the omnibus survey about views on clothes for children.
Figure 6: Views on clothing styles for children
*55 per cent of parents surveyed thought that adult style clothes for children in shops encourage children to act older than they are.
45 per cent of parents surveyed thought that adult—style clothes for children put pressure on children to conform to a particular body shape and size.
48 per cent of the children surveyed agreed with the statement 'It's difficult to find clothes in the shops that I like and that my parents would allow me to wear'.
Source:TNS Omnibus Survey, 2011
15.
Objections by parents in the Call for Evidence to the scaling down of adult styles often related to elements of design with close associations to adult sexuality, such as short skirts, shoes with heels, the use of suggestive slogans, ‘adult’ or sex industry branding, black lace, diamanté, animal prints and low necklines.We can see how such design details could be found inappropriate.All the retailers we spoke to during the course of the Review were aware of such sensitivities and usually very deliberately steered away from including such details in their own ranges.
16.
Throughout the Review, by far the most contentious issue where clothing is concerned has been the availability of bras and bikini—style swimwear for under 16s. This issue has been taken up by the media, and there have been a number of newspaper articles in recent months criticising such products (for example Lazzeri and Spanton, 2011; Hamilton, 2010). In some cases, it is aspects of design that have been criticised, but sometimes the issue of design has been conflated with a question around whether such products should exist at all. These stories often sensationalise the issue, fanning a prurient interest in cases where a sexual dimension can be put into a headline.
"In many high street shops clothes for young girls are merely mini versions of adult clothes. Almost everything is pink and glittery or has inappropriate slogans such as 'WAG in the making', 'Gorgeous', 'Princess' etc.
"I find it strange when children's clothes are so 'grown—up' and in many shops I could buy items for my daughter that I could wear myself!"
Parents, Call for Evidence response
17.
We would prefer to see a more measured approach. Common sense tells us that under 16s are bound to need swimwear and bras at some stage during their childhood.As the Department for Education's Children and Youth Board sensibly commented in their response to our Call for Evidence:
"The Board felt that bikinis for children wasn't the problem, but that bikinis have become sexualised by the media, e. g. models posing in newspapers in bikinis."
Department for Education's Children and Youth Board
18.
We, therefore, have some sympathy with manufacturers and retailers of such clothing items as they are often in a difficult situation: they want to supply the perfectly normal and reasonable demand of parents and young people for such products, but in so doing risk often unreasonable criticism.
19.
During the Review, we spent a lot of time talking with retailers about the sale of bras and swimwear for children, and were reassured that businesses are generally applying common sense when designing and selling these items.
CASE STUDY: THE DESIGN AND RETAIL OF FIRST AND TRAINER BRAS
Children develop at different ages and rates. In the UK, girls can now expect to reach puberty around their tenth birthday, and there are some who will need a first bra before then.
Shops selling first and trainer bras may locate these either in the childrenswear section or in the lingerie section, depending on factors such as shop size and layout and customer preference. First and trainer bras can be labelled in two ways — either according to age or using the chest and cup sizing used for adult bras.
The design of first and trainer bras is usually quite plain, for example bras are often white or in plain cotton fabrics, perhaps lightly decorated. First and trainer bras may well have lightly moulded foam cups. Newspaper coverage has sometimes described this as 'padding' but it is not designed to enhance the wearer's bust: customer feedback shows that young wearers feel more comfortable with a bra that offers support and modesty.
Source: Clothing retailers who contributed to our Call for Evidence
20.
The retailers of children's clothes we spoke to all have some form of checking process in place to 'edit out' suggestions of sexualisation from children's clothing. Some companies have written guidelines for buyers, others provide induction and training in company values. All the companies we spoke to depend, to a greater or lesser extent, on the fact that many of their designers, buyers and managers are themselves parents who bring their own 'family values' to bear in design and retailing judgements, and all claimed to pay relentless attention to the feedback they get from customers.
CASE STUDY: GEORGE DESIGN — PARROT T-SHIRT
"George at Asda created an original design for a girls t—shirt with a parrot theme.This initially featured a drawing of a parrot and the wording of the familiar phrase 'who's a pretty girl?' However, in the internal George process of reviewing designs it was decided that the wording could perhaps be misconstrued by some people. To ensure that the product was completely appropriate, the product was redesigned. The final product for customers features the drawing of a parrot but not the wording.This is example of how George uses its internal design and feedback process, from colleagues and customer focus groups, to refine products so that they are just right for the wearer."
Source: George at Asda
CASE STUDY: STYLE OF PHOTOGRAPHY
"Following feedback from our customers that the girl models used in our promotional photography looked too grown up and sophisticated, we reviewed and made changes to our internal guidelines for the styling and photography of our childrenswear. These changes included reducing the age of the girl models from 12 years old to 10 years old; moving away from posed studio shots to more fun, lifestyle shots in a natural environment and changing what could be perceived as grown up 'sultry' expressions to happy smiling children."
Source: High street retailer contributing to the Review
21.
As a result, we found that the retailers contributing to the Review are careful to avoid stocking children's garments with suggestive slogans. If an adult fashion trend was seen as sexualised, such as the use of sheer materials or lace, when the trend was translated into children's clothes it is often done through designs that nod towards the adult fashion rather than by simply scaling down the clothes into children's sizes. For example, one retailer translated the adult fashion for lace leggings into opaque leggings with a lacy pattern printed on to them for their children's range. Some respondents to the Call for Evidence thought that retailers had responded in this way because of previous negative publicity.
22.
We have been surprised, however, by how few retailers seem to have formal, structured processes in place for checking or challenging their own design and purchasing decisions or for capturing the views of parents in a systematic way. The majority rely on the taste and experience of their buyers and managers and invoke a company ethos of knowing that they need to focus on what their customers want. We would, however, like to see a more thorough and transparent ‘best practice’ approach to this issue, which retailers can publicly adopt. We believe that this would not only help businesses to avoid selling inappropriate items but also would demonstrate that businesses take parents’ concerns seriously and were taking steps to address them.
Shop window and in-store displays
23.
Some parents have raised concerns about sexualised imagery in window displays, such as displays of lingerie and explicitly sexualised clothing, the use of mannequins posed in sexually suggestive ways, or sexualised photography or images used as the backdrop to a window display. Parents have also been concerned about the display of children's goods alongside adult goods. Most often this concerns girls’ underwear or swimwear (Buckingham,Willett, Bragg and Russell, 2010). Here there is an implied sexualisation by association: if the garment is 'sexy' for an adult then the similar garments nearby must be being marketed as sexy for children.
24.
The retailers we spoke to, without exception, have a policy for locating childrenswear in wholly separate areas from womenswear. In some instances the policy would put the two sections on separate floors of the building if that is possible. Many companies provide store managers with pictures of ideal displays and floor layouts that they can adapt to local circumstances.
"The problem is that when you are 'out and about' with kids, things aren't neatly compartmentalised — so clothes shops, music shops, games shops etc sell things aimed at say 9–12 year olds alongside adult products."
Parents, Call for Evidence response
25.
However, retailers accepted that, given the vagaries of building design and the human judgement involved, they could not guarantee this on every occasion.There are also policy differences between retailers on what customers find most helpful when looking for first bras: some take the view that bras, regardless of the age of the wearer, should always be displayed in the womenswear section, while others place first bras for younger girls in childrenswear and first bras for slightly built teenagers in womenswear.
Gender stereotyping
26.
Some parents contributing to the Review expressed concern at the highly gendered nature of products other than clothes for girls and boys. There is often an overlap between the toys of a highly gendered nature and, especially for girls, a sexualised content (for example, certain fashion dolls). Girls' products are predominantly pink, while there is a broader palate of colour for boys' clothes and toys. We have heard concern from some parents about the sale of make—up kits for young children, although it is not clear whether the concern stems from worries about sexualisation or gender stereotyping from an early age.
27.
In fact, the previous assessment of the impact of the commercial world on children (DCSF/DCMS, 2009) found no strong evidence that gender stereotyping in marketing or products influences children's behaviour significantly, relative to other factors. That report also noted that concerns regarding gender stereotyping in the marketing and design of products for young children beg the question of whether gender stereotypes formed in early age are lasting, and in fact whether they might be developmentally necessary at that particular stage. The assessment goes on to highlight sociological research that suggests that the relationship between gender and consumer culture is more complex, and less easily understood in terms of simple ‘cause and effect’.
28.
The Review heard from retailers that the market for children's toys is a global one and that there is not a wide range of products for retailers to choose between.They suggested that they had little alternative other than to stock what will sell well, and that, indeed, customers looked for clear signals as to whether an item was intended for a boy or a girl. The Review heard consistently that retailers stocked pink items because they knew there was demand for them, and that if other colours were popular they would stock items in those colours too. But we also note that the ‘pink for girls’ approach can have a positive side (see Case Study).
CASE STUDY: PRODUCT PACKAGING
"In 2006, we used to sell our 'Bath Bomb' product in blue packaging, thinking that would give it a unisex appeal, and so increase our market potential. We were selling at a rate of 15,000 sets per annum.The product is legally defined as a 'chemical experimentation set' but, unfortunately, 'science' still appeals to boys more than girls. Once we changed to predominantly pink packaging and marketed it as a craft activity, we were shocked to see consistent sales of 80,000 to 120,000 sets per annum ever since! Experience has taught us that the success or otherwise of a toy depends largely on the pack design communicating quickly to the consumer whether a toy is best suited to boys or to girls."
Source: Bob Paton, Interplay UK, Toy Manufacturer
29.
There is a popularly held view that girls and boys play with stereotypical toys because they learn to see this as appropriate for their sex. This is contested territory: others argue there is greater evidence now of there being innate gender differences so that a desire to play with one kind of toy over another is at least as much about biological drivers as with socialisation and has to do with a normal, healthy development of gender identity (Buckingham, Willett, Bragg and Russell, 2010). What is not in doubt is that the commercial world provides plenty of reinforcement of gender stereotypes and is likely to do so for as long as there is customer demand.
What is already happening
30.
As well as talking to individual companies in the course of this Review we also spoke to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), a leading trade association for the retail sector. BRC members account for around three quarters of the UK retail market by sales. The BRC has shown a welcome appreciation of the concerns of parents and of how responsible retailers could respond.
31.
The BRC is now working with its members to produce a set of good practice guidelines on the responsible retailing of children's clothes. We consider this to be a significant move in the right direction and a clear example of how industry can respond positively and voluntarily to public feeling, and we would like to see this published as soon as possible.
32.
Whilst these guidelines have been created by and for BRC members we would like to see other retailers, including well known high street fashion chains, make a similar commitment.
RECOMMENDATION
5.
Developing a retail code of good practice on retailing to children. Retailers, alongside their trade associations, should develop and comply with a voluntary code of good practice for all aspects of retailing to children.The British Retail Consortium (BRC) should continue its work in this area as a matter of urgency and encourage non—BRC members to sign up to its code. ACTION: Retailers and retail associations, including the BRC
