Mobile Sexualization: Kids Bikes & Sex

[MadrasT]

From a mom who went shopping for her daughter's first bicycle:

Recently, I was shopping with my four year old daughter, comparing prices for her first bicycle. Going on bike rides as a family while growing up is a fond childhood memory of mine, so I was quite excited about Amelia (the Original Pigtail Pal) reaching this milestone. Her grandparents already had a bike waiting for her at their house to use on our visits. My husband and I were looking forward to teaching her to ride this spring so she could razzle dazzle them during our next visit.

My enthusiasm quickly diminished. I was expecting the limited and stereotypical pink/purple/turquoise color choices. I was expecting sparkles and butterflies. I was expecting almost all of the choices to be character branded with my friends from the Disney Princess crew, Hannah Montana, Barbie, etc.

What I wasn’t expecting was that even children’s bicycles have become sexualized. Of all things, the quintessential part of childhood – a first bike – carrying a sexualized message on it. What, might you ask, had me so up in arms? A Huffy bike model, sized 16 inches, displaying the words “Major Flirt” on it. (Recommended for ages: 3-6 years old)

I went home and researched bike selections at the popular big box stores like Target, K-Mart, Walmart, etc. In the price range we were looking for our daughter’s first bike (under $80), these were the model names from numerous manufacturers: So Sweet, Pop Star, Dream Journey, Spring Fling, Hot Stuff, Major Flirt, Daisy Diva, Sea Star, Twirl, Pizazz, Mist, DeeLite, Jasmine, Precious, and Candy.

These are bicycle names for THREE TO SIX year old girls. The names are printed all over the bikes so they can go riding around in public bearing these labels. This is what we are doing to our little girls... turning them into sexualized objects and little coquettes right out of the gate. It makes me ill.



Link: http://pigtailpalsblog.com/2010/04/mobile-sexualization-kids-bikes-sex/#.Usg8DNJDsfV

[NYC_SKP]

1. Recommended. Snail mail address to Huffy at end of article, and email here:

.

[e-mail]

We were not provided an email address for Mr. Thomson. The emailed response was sent from a manager in the marketing department (Robin Moore = [e-mail]). I like the tangible effect dozens and dozens of letters will have. Emails can be quietly sent to an electronic folder and forgotten. A nice fat pile of letters sitting on someone’s desk won’t be as easy to ignore.

[ismnotwasm]

2. Gross

I saw an adorable little girl the other day, 4-5 years of age . Pretty little thing. I looked at her, suppresed my automatic "what a pretty girl" response, and said "you look like a genius"----made her AND her mom happy

[redqueen]

4. Righteous.

[msongs]

3. you can cover the offending words with a bit of spray paint or something else nt

[redqueen]

5. I can just imagine the chorus of rationalizations

from people who see no problem at all with this kind of indoctrination.

[intaglio]

6. Just for comparison I checked on one of the UKs discount bike sellers

Note; $80 is about £50

Halfords Girls bikes £25 - £100

Interesting that.