Kids’ Clothes and the Panic

A French fashion label called Jours Après Lunes put out a children’s underwear collection, and the American internet decided it was a pedophile conspiracy. Basic stuff—cotton underwear with designs, the kind of thing that’s been in catalogs for decades—suddenly became evidence that civilization was collapsing.

The outrage came fast. Someone on Buzzfeed said she nearly lost her mind, that anyone buying these should be executed. Fashionista wrung its hands: should four-year-olds really be in bras? (No. But that’s not what this is.) Weeks before, French Vogue had gotten raked over the coals for photographing a ten-year-old named Thylane Blondeau in a way that didn’t read as sufficiently innocent. When asked, the kid’s mom just said at least she was clothed.

The fury had that particular American flavor to it—the kind of moral panic that only really lives online. Same people screaming about grooming at totally normal fashion photography, completely unable to look at a thing and see what it actually is. It’s like the moment a kid appears in an image, something switches in everyone’s brain and they start manufacturing predators.

There was one reasonable voice in the noise. A woman named Brittany said she didn’t understand the outrage. Girls need underwear. She would have loved having decent options as a kid. These are just clothes. That was the only sane comment in a sea of There should be a law! and This is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen!

The label never responded, just took the abuse on Facebook while people performed their outrage to each other. I don’t know exactly what the photos showed, but I know that Americans have developed this reflex where they see an ordinary moment and their brain produces the worst possible story. It’s not protection. It’s the feeling of being awake to something everyone else is missing. It’s the pleasure of being right, and loud.