NSW Government Whip Greg Donnelly, MLC, has called on Christmas shoppers to refuse to spend money at the clothing store Cotton On. Cotton On continues to stock sexualised clothing for babies and toddlers, despite an undertaking some months ago to withdraw the offensive items. Read Mr Donnelly’s press statement. Read his adjournment speech.
December 7th, 2009
Now in its second printing!
December 7th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Is Cotton On run by dirty old men? What is wrong with these people?
I haven’t walked in to a Cotton On store since Julie Gale exposed them a few years ago and I don’t plan to shop there ever again.
December 7th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
It’s not just a tshirt, its not just a slogan, this mentality is part of a bigger picture that’s degrading integrity.
December 8th, 2009 at 4:00 am
It is sad to think that a company which claims to be ‘Taking the World by Storm’ (website) which has a PDF document on ‘Code of Conduct’ can still dishonour a promise made regarding the withdrawal of sexualized slogans on children’s merchandise. Of course their code of conduct has nothing in regards to assisting with lessening the negative impact of society on children and its own corporate responsibility toward that. Maybe it should?
Will they honour their promise? Maybe the dollar is far too strong for them?? Surely not??! SURELY!!!??
December 8th, 2009 at 9:07 am
The early sexualisation/exploitation of our young is creating a new generation of anxious, impressionable children who are extremely vulnerable to suggestion.
There is no reason for such tees, except to make money out of our children regardless of its cost.
The whole point of adulthood is to protect our children – why do we value our children so poorly?
A society which feeds off its young needs to take a good hard look at itself.
December 10th, 2009 at 8:50 am
Thanks for letting us know but this is the first place I have seen this. We need to get the word out.
Even when I google this your blog reference does not come up.
As an expectant mother this is hideous.
Surely there is a government body who can demand the removal of this clothing?
Even my husband has shopped at this store for our young daughters in the past and my relatives gave me clothing with slogans on it when my 16 month old son was born. But there will be no more. Incidently my son never wore the shirt that was not rude but just a bit ordinary.
December 17th, 2009 at 6:10 am
I hate that complaints against these slogans is considered to be indicative of humourless personalities who take things too seriously.
People who dismiss concerns on these grounds fail to realise the alarming societal trend towards complete sexualisation of childhood.
We don’t want to end up with even more extremely sexualised children asking ourselves how we got there.
Failing to stand up against things like sexualised children’s clothing is how we will get there.
December 19th, 2009 at 12:59 am
I used to work for Cotton On Kids. They’re idiots. They employee young teenage girls, ask them to wear pancake makeup, treat them like dirt, pay minimum wage (often neglecting to pay appropriate hours, demanding unrealistic and unreasonable overtime). Having met quite a few people “high ranking” in the company Melinda L, I can assure you that they ARE run by dirty old men, who employee blonde barbie-dolls in human form to do their dirty work.
They have been selling those tops for years. I was employed there from October 2007 to July 2008. Worst nearly-year of my life. I won’t shop there anymore. I used to try and put the dirty babies tops underneath the more-appropriate ones. My regional manager would fairly consistently reorganise my doings.
However, I’d like to say – please don’t ask the shop girls what’s going on with these tops. They have no idea. The company didn’t tell us anything – it’s run like a little cellular terrorist group. We get told what to do by a fax each morning. We didn’t get an explanation, and it’s so hard to actually get onto a human voice in that company I never bothered.
DON’T BUY COTTON ON. They are exploitative, rude, nasty and like to exploit little children.