Lingerie for Girls: Too Sexy Too Soon?

There’s a new French “loungerie” (lounge wear and lingerie) line called Jours Après Lunes. There wouldn’t be anything surprising about this, but this lingerie line has a collection for babies and for girls ages 4 to 12. The collection for babies is your standard baby wear, but the lingerie line for 4-to 12-year-olds has caused some debate as to whether the looks are cute or disturbingly sexual.

Fashionista.com blogged about the line and included images of girls modeling the lingerie. The clothing itself is largely not inappropriate; it’s not any more revealing than a little girl’s bathing suit, for example. The underwear that seems to be truly lingerie—which includes a pink and black-striped matching bra-and-pantie set—seems to be worn by an older girl anyway, one who would be nearing the age where she needed to be wearing a bra.

The thing that seems significantly more sexual is the way these girls are framed with dramatic teased hair, mature strands of pearls and poses that, while they are not overtly sexual, could definitely be read as such. And sure, it’s important to realize that this is very, very French—they are certainly more accepting of sex and nudity than we Americans are—but is the sexualization of children OK? It’s easy to see in these photos why a controversy has arisen.

So is the lingerie itself crossing the line? Probably not. After all, it isn’t as though the girls are in lace covered push-up bras. When posed to look cute and childish, these outfits would seem cute and childish. However, if the photos themselves aren’t crossing the line, they’re coming pretty close.