Victoria's Secret appears to be about to launch a line targeted at underage girls labeled "Bright Young Things." This line is reported to include panties printed with "call me" and "feeling lucky?" In the light of the furor over Steubenville, this would seem to be remarkably tone-deaf, even for a company that would seem to pride itself in being "edgy." Young girls are fair game if they have disposable income.
Young girls are just beginning to learn about themselves and their sexuality. They face enough challenges without cynical marketers applying "sex sells" to ad campaigns targeted at them, strictly because thy represent a demographic with access to disposable income or credit. You can see how a cynical person could convince themselves that this was wonderfully hip and ironic, with tremendous financial benefit. But why is it ok to use young girls as pawns? Why is it necessary to suggest that they should define themselves most intimately as someone who's sexually provocative before they've had enough life experience to decide for themselves if that's who they are?
This is blatant exploitation, and deserves to be called out as such. Rape culture is promoted by so many facets of our society. We should not accept our corporations labeling girls as "things" and coercing them to view themselves as willing pawns in that rape culture.
More background:
Business insider report
A good blog post on the topic
I apologize if this has already been diaried. I searched and did not find any references.