"Posing nude for Playboy can put a target on your back"

SHEIN’s range of Playboy mag cover merch is a time capsule of Playboy’s decades of exploitation and abuse of women’s bodies for profit – including those who have died as a result of men’s violence, drug overdose and suicide.

AI aids advertisers sexualising children

We spotted this Honey Birdette ad on Instagram.

We were concerned. (Apart from the model's bizarre and unnatural body proportions; the odd elongation and placement of the left arm; and the gargantuan left hand - which many social media users noted and criticised.)

SHEIN's Playboy merch a time capsule of abuse of women and girls

Chinese e-commerce giant and serial corporate sexploitation offender SHEIN is selling global porn brand Playboy. SHEIN acquired an extensive range of Playboy merch following its buyout of collapsed UK fast fashion retailer Missguided – a long time Playboy collaborator.

Grassroots campaigning movement Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation has released its annual ‘Crossed Off’ list.

First launched 15 years ago, the blacklist is a curated line-up of company offenders who have objectified women and sexualised girls to sell products and services through the year.
 
This list serves as a guide for consumers who wish to spend their Christmas shopping dollar ethically. 

Every year in the lead up to Christmas we release our Crossed Off list – an annual blacklist of business offenders who objectify women and sexualise girls in their advertising, products and services – and call on our supporters to boycott these unethical companies.

This is our 15th Crossed off blacklist to help guide you in your shopping choices.

This year’s list includes a number of repeat offenders as well as new additions we thought you should know about.

The lineup includes Melbourne-based t.shirt company Teepublic (owned by Articore) for trading in violence against women, global e.commerce giant Shein for sexualising children in products and advertising, and repeat offender - with 80 advertising ethics code violations to its name, Honey Birdette.

Once again we’re asking supporters to send these companies a message that we don’t tolerate business practices which cause real harm to women and girls. If they don’t understand Corporate Social Responsibility, perhaps losing money might help them see its importance.

Looking for ethical alternatives? Check out our CSR Pledge Partners – companies which refuse to profit from objectifying portrayals of women and girls. Please reward them for doing the right thing!

Just two weeks after we announced a victory against Temu after they pulled child sex abuse dolls from sale, we’ve discovered child sex abuse dolls, disembodied replica child heads and legs sold by online retailer Shein.

We've previously called out Shein for objectifying women and sexualising girls in their advertising and through flogging sexualised toys and see-through gstrings for toddler girls and fetishising schoolgirls with 'sexy schoolgirl' costumes. Given their track record, maybe we shouldn't be surprised that now the company is selling replica little girls and body parts for men's sexual use?

We approached the company’s Global Head of Strategic Communications, Peter Pernot-Day, with our concerns, but were ignored.

Child sex abuse dolls normalise and encourage men’s sexual use and abuse of children. These products are illegal and constitute child sexual abuse material.

Take Action

Tell Shein to remove these listings from sale and commit to never selling them again.

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“There are many parents who know exactly what's going on and they willfully turn a blind eye."

Last week, our very own campaigner Lyn Swanson Kennedy was featured on an episode of ABC’s Four Corners, Kidfluencers.

(Four Corners: Keana Naughton)

Earlier this week a supporter sent us a screenshot of a sponsored post on Facebook where giant e-commerce platform SHEIN was pushing thigh-high fishnet stockings for infants. "This is a massive red flag for me" she said. 

We discussed it as a team and our Movement Director, Melinda Tankard Reist said "This major online e-commerce platform thinks it’s ok to sexualise even babies by flogging thigh-high black fishnet stockings. Shein has linked babies with an item of clothing commonly associated with the sex trade. We have documented other examples of Shien’s exploitation and adultification of children including padded bras and see-through costumes. The company must be called out for pedo whistling."

So we decided to share the image on Facebook, Instagram, X(Twitter) and LinkedIn calling on all our supporters to contact SHEIN and demand they remove the item from their site. 

Clearly this campaign struck a chord with many as we had hundreds of comments on our social media platforms. 

"I have grave concerns about the mind of the person who thought these a good idea - I think they need help of some sort."

"What the actual! That’s disgusting"

"Appalling"

"Yuck!! 🤮 This is all kinds of wrong. Actually makes me feel physically sick."

"Words fail at this sickness"

"SHEIN this is not a good look….."

"Shame on you SHEIN"

"SHEIN this is disgusting. I will be spreading this info to everyone I know so that your company is boycotted."

"I wrote a book about pornification of reality and this is the worst thing I've ever seen."

"This is not the first time. SHEIN have a history of sexualising girls. We must call this out!"

Don't give these companies your XMAS dollar this year!

*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