UK Retailer Sells 3.5 Inch Platform Shoes… For Little Girls

by Verena von Pfetten | 3:45 pm, April 19th, 2010

Last week, British department store Primark pulled a line of padded bikinis from their stores. Today, The Guardian reports that retailer New Look is currently selling a pair of 3.5 inch platform heels for eight-year-old girls. (Those are them in the photo.)

We’ve given Suri Cruise a pass on her one to two-inch heels — which Katie Holmes defends as being “ballroom dancing shoes for kids” — but 3.5 inches is just insane. I can barely hobble around in heels that high — and it can’t be healthy on an eight-year-old’s growing feet.

Mumsnet.com has started a campaign called “Let Girls Be Girls”, which aims to end the premature sexualisation of children by having retailers pull so-called inappropriate products from their shelves.

While it’s crazy that someone has designed a pair of sky-high heels for children, and even crazier that a retailer would think them a worthwhile buy, it’s up to the parents to, well, not buy them. Unless there are eight-year-olds running around with debit cards, nobody’s child is getting prematurely sexualised without the parents knowing about it.

That sounds dirtier than we meant it to. Sorry.

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