Boycotting of Cotton-On stores for selling offensive baby clothes
The Cotton-On stores throughout Australia have continued to sell baby clothes with inappropriate slogans on them. I won’t quote any of them here because they are too offensive. Consumer activists such as Julie Gale, the founding Director of Kids Free 2B Kids, as well as many members of the general community have registered complaints against this company. In response, the Cotton On management agreed they had “crossed the line”, and promised to get rid of the offensive tee shirts. So far they have not done so.
The sexual humour reflected in the slogans is vulgar and simply does not belong on children’s clothing. Such sexualisation of children and young people is rampant in our commercialised society, and has a very serious and destructive impact on their wellbeing. Such innuendo also reinforces the habitual degraded perception of the adults who enjoy it. It is surprising to me that a company that says it exists to help communities around the globe, protect the environment, and support workers’ rights, is not more fully aware of and responsible about the known harm of the sexualisation of children.
I fully support the current initiative to boycott this company until they comply with community standards, and withdraw the indecent clothing from the market, and I call on the major shopping centres not to permit such merchandise. Cotton On also trades as Cotton On Kids, Cotton On Baby, and Rubi.