I considered myself a bright young thing long before Victoria's Secret called me one.
The retailer didn't actually call me one, but it markets a line of clothing called "Bright Young Things" geared towards teens.
It's colorful, cute, fun, funny (with words like "wild" written on the front and back). Sounds innocent enough, right? Wrong. Recently, a company executive made a couple of comments about the line appealing to teens who want to be more grown up, and some parents went, well, wild. (Maybe they're wearing the underwear. LOL.)
Moms and dads wrote letters and blogs, outraged that Victoria's Secret is marketing "sexy" to young girls. I'm not sure I'm buying this, literally, for a couple of reasons.
First, I don't buy my own clothes or underwear. Sure, I have some money, from jobs and birthday gifts, but I can safely say I'm not going to spend it on underwear. So, if anybody is buying it, that would be my parents -- and they aren't going to do it. It's a parent's right and job to just say "no" if they think something is just not appropriate for their kids.
Secondly, I don't want it anyway. Whether my underwear is cute, colorful or funny, it's not going to make me more cute, colorful or funny. It's not my clothes, it's me. Victoria's Secret can try to tell to me (if that's even what they're really doing) that some new underwear will help make me more this or that, but I already have a pretty good idea of who I am, and who I want to be, and I know underwear isn't going to change that.
And lastly, it's a free country. A wonderful one. With our free market system, we are able to buy what we want, how much we want and when we want it. (As teens, we are not quite that free yet, because our parents try to guide us to make responsible choices.) I'm sure our Founding Fathers were not thinking of underwear when they declared Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness for all of us, but they were thinking of protecting our basic personal freedom, from the bottom up.
Peace Love Profits,
Blake