Mumsnet’s “Let girls be girls” campaign

Mumsnet launched its “Let girls be girls” campaign earlier this year and the initiative is rolling on and gaining ground with retailers continuing to sign on in agreement and some yet to sign up. The campaign voices a protest against “the premature sexualisation of children” and encourages retailers “to commit not to sell products which play upon, emphasise or exploit [children’s] sexuality”.

The campaign has received a great deal of positive media attention and many mums around the country have taken the chance to voice their concerns about the growing number of retail items that encourage girls to value their sexuality above all else. Parents are worried that items including high-heels, bras and bikinis for 6-year-olds, and playboy branded stationary, will inadvertently rob girls of their innocence and have a long term negative effect on their physical and mental well-being.

The retailers that have signed on in agreement will be held responsible by parents for the products catalogued in stores. If broad consensus (according to Mumsnet subscribers) dictates that a product does indeed sexualise children, the retailer in question will be approached and the issue, hopefully, resolved.

Retailers cannot be held entirely responsible for the mini-adults that are more frequently populating the streets, parents also bear the brunt of the responsibility; they, after all, do not need to buy the products on the market. However, the more available these products are, the more acceptable they become.

The Mumsnet campaign encourages the community to work together with retailers to save the ideal of childhood and thus resume accountability on both fronts. To find out more about this campaign and to see which retailers have signed on, visit Mumsnet.com.