Koala protection trumps safety of women and girls

Last year, we wrote again to a number of super funds invested in sex shop Honey Birdette's landlord shopping centres. We first raised our concerns with them in 2019, and called on them to divest from companies which hosted Honey Birdette's harmful, objectifying, porn-themed ads in their family-friendly shopping centres - read more here.

*Trigger warning* Child sexual abuse

Recently we launched a campaign to get SHEIN to dump g-strings for toddlers and 'squishy' penis toys. SHEIN quietly removed the products from their website. Now we are asking SHEIN to clean up their site and remove all harmful sexy 'schoolgirl' outfits.

I'm 59. My school friends and I were constantly sexually harassed and groped on public transport whilst dressed in school uniform from around 12 yrs old. It was so frequent we saw it as part of being female. It was deeply humiliating and scary - too scary to make a loud fuss

— Adult Human HAG (@AdultHumanFem57) July 20, 2023

After just 5 days of campaigning by our supporters, online shopping giant SHEIN has removed a range of g-strings for girls and a miniature penis shaped ‘squishy’ toy.

MTR quoted in the New York Post alongside other commentators concerned about pornified themes in Netflix’s animated interactive children’s series ‘Battle Kitty’ – for children 7+

Take action! Tell Balenciaga to remove bondage themed ads featuring children

Despite broadcasting objectifying and pornified representations of women, reinforcing sexist and harmful stereotypes about women and sexuality, and accusations of bullying and harassing young female staff, sex store Honey Birdette’s go-to refrain is that they are “empowering women”.

This claim is at odds with reality. Read on as we unpack the various ways that Honey Birdette disempowers women and girls.