Sexy Disney Things for Little Girls, Size 4
Posted by Madeline Holler at 9:30 AM on August 14, 2008
There's outrage in the U.K. over a pair of underpants marketed by Disney. One pair of the cotton undies, sold in packs of four, plays on a central theme of the movie "High School Musical" — a swimming pool. But the double-entendre is too much for one British grandma to bear.
The offending underpants passage?
"Dive In!"
Yeah, that's kind of creepy wording for a little girl to be wearing on her crotch, especially since them come as small as size 4 (up to 12).
Disney responded to customer complaints about the undies, saying it was an oversight and that "Dive In!" would not appear on any future movie products. From the Daily Mail:
A Disney spokeswoman said: 'We are very sorry to hear that a customer is unhappy with one of our High School Musical products and apologise for any offence caused.
'Unfortunately a genuine oversight was made and the text on this product was used outside the context of the swimming pool. This product will not be part of any forthcoming collections.'
What do you think? Intolerable prudishness on behalf of consumers or sexualisation of young girls?
Photo: Daily Mail
I’d say it was just a stupid accident. Sort of like the vibrating Harry Potter broomsticks, it’s the sort of accidental double entendre that requires an adult’s dirty mind to ’sexualise’ it. It’s not like a child would feel sexy wearing undies with ‘dive in’ printed on them. ‘Dive in’ is about swimming for them, and nothing else.
Having said that, we live in a sick weird world and I wouldn’t buy my daughter undies with that on them. And that’s what it all boils down to. Don’t bother being outraged at Disney’s stupididy. JUST. DON’T. BUY. THE. PRODUCT. Big merchandisers can’t sexualise our children (even inadvertantly) without our complicity.
i agree with sarah. this is completly contextualised a different way from the adult mind.