Lingerie Company Called Out For ‘Body Shaming’ Young Girls

At 12-years-old, the extent to which your body conforms to society's standards of beauty should be the last thing on your mind. So a French company has been rightly called out for selling a children's bra designed to smooth out and "erase imperfections". Florence Braud took to Twitter last week to share her annoyance upon spotting the bra, made by lingerie brand Dim, for sale in Bretagne, France.

Translated into English, her tweet read: “‘Erase imperfections’ and ‘smooth out the shape’, says a bra in 70A [the smallest bra size in France] in a kids section… #We’reReallyNotDoneWithThisShit.” The bra's label says it is “Ideal as a first bra with removable filling!” and that it “hides small imperfections”. Speaking to Buzzfeed News, Braud said she had gone shopping with her daughter after a girl in her daughter's class made fun of her for not wearing one, and that she took issue with the word "imperfections". “It saddened me to see that, so soon, she was already suffering the threats [of] femininity,” she said, before deeming it an “injunction of femininity”. Responding to Braud's tweet, many others shared their dismay at the message the lingerie brand is sending to young girls.

“Hello @DIMparis. So according to you, 12-year-old girls have “imperfections” that should be smoothed out?,” read one woman's tweet, translated into English.

Another accused Dim of "body shaming" young girls. “Go erase your own imperfections elsewhere, @DIMparis. This tells everything about yourself and your body shaming, but nothing about us.”

Another woman shared her disappointment by saying: "I’m so upset by this. You don’t even have breasts YET but you ALREADY have problems/things to hide…” Responding to the criticism, Dim told Buzzfeed that it wasn't referring to bodily "imperfections", but "clothing and non-physiological imperfections". A spokesperson for the lingerie brand said: “When we said imperfections, we meant clothing and non-physiological imperfections. This is to erase imperfections materials — folds, overlays, etc. — to make the product smooth and harmonious under clothing.” Another of the company's bras, marketed to children, contains foam pads, which it describes as "a basic essential "for all young girls looking for comfort and style". How wearing a bra could make any child feel more comfortable, we don't know.