Kmart Australia has pulled a children's bride costume off from its shelves after a mother launched a campaign referring to it as "beyond inappropriate", Fox News reports.
The $6 costume, which consisted of a white wedding gown and veil headband for kids between the ages of 4 and 6, was removed from sale on Tuesday afternoon just two days after an individual known only as Shannon B started the petition on Change.org, branding the outfit "offensive".
These little girls won Halloween with these amazing 'Hocus Pocus' costumes:"Kmart Australia regrets the decision to range the bride costume," a Kmart spokesperson told 7 News. "It was not intended to cause offence and we sincerely apologize. We have made the decision to withdraw this product."
The description for the petition, which had 200 signatures, reads:
"A child bride costume currently exists on Kmart shelves in children’s sizes. Tell Kmart this is beyond inappropriate and offensive and that they have a social responsibility to pull this item off their shelves immediately. Please help me get this message to Kmart by signing this petition.
Each year, 12 million children (girls as young as 6 years old - the same size as this “costume”) are sold or married off by their family without their consent. That’s one million child marriages per month! That equates to 23 children every minute or 1 child every 2 minutes. If this continues, 150 million more children will be married by the year 2030. Child marriage means child abuse and torture in its worst forms - paedophilia, child rape, child slavery, child sex trafficking. Kmart -Take this child bride costume off your shelves."
A number of those who signed the petition, however, only did so that they could voice their own opinions on Shannon's 'dramatic' response to what was essentially just a costume intended for play, they said in the comments.
"Shannon, this kind of crap is what makes people hate others," one person wrote.
"It’s just a costume for goodness sake. My daughter has asked multiple times for a ‘dress like mommy had’. It is a dress-up nothing more … you’re ruining it for everyone. Get over yourself,' wrote another while a third wrote: "Dude seriously, get a life. It’s a costume."
