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Woolworths forced to withdraw LOLITA bedroom furniture range for girls
Last updated at 00:52am on 03.02.08An online campaign by a group of mothers has forced Woolworths to withdraw a line of bedroom furniture for girls called 'Lolita'.
The Lolita Midsleeper Combi, a wooden bed with pull-out desk and cupboard designed for girls aged around six, was put on sale on the Woolworths website for £349.99.
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The Lolita bed: Parents complained it was bad taste to name children's furniture after a book about a paedophile
Staff, it appears, had no idea of the sexual connotations of the name. But a mother who was browsing the site did, and put a message on the Raisingkids.co.uk website to complain.
She wrote: "Am I being particularly sensitive, or does anyone else out there think it's bad taste for Woolies to have a kiddy bed range named 'Lolita'?."
A torrent of messages followed echoing her thoughts, some saying they would boycott the store.
A skimpy thong comes as part of the range as does a pen and stationary set (below) with the words Playboy emblazoned across it
Woolworths initially appeared baffled and refused to withdraw the product, saying in addition to the family market it also had to "respond to customer demands and follow current trends".
After a quick investigation they changed their minds.
A spokesman for the company said: "What seems to have happened is the staff who run the website had never heard of Lolita, and to be honest no one else here had either. We had to look it up on Wikipedia. But we certainly know who she is now."
Lolita was a book written by Vladimir Nabokov in 1955 in which 12-year-old Lolita becomes the object of her paedophile step-father's sexual obsession. It was later made into a film directed by Stanley Kubrick.
Catherine Hanly, who edits the Raisingkids.co.uk site, praised the influence the mums had over Woolworths.
She said: "It's also interesting to see how fast a multinational company can move if it's worried about its public image."
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A pole for young girls to practice their pole-dancing routinue is just one of the items in the controversial Lolita range
On-line parent power has been growing in recent years.
In 2006 Tesco stopped selling a pole-dancing kit on its website over accusations it was destroying children's innocence.
And last summer an on-line campaign by Mumsnet resulted in a cinema advert about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann stopped from being screened before the children's film Shrek the Third.
Reader views (6)
I find it quite worrying that Woolworths is using wikipedia as an informative and definitive source of information.
- Steven Patrick M, London, UK, 01/02/2008 14:48
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And there is absolutley no truth in the rumour that the Mums campaign group is now actively campagning to stop the local vicarage from christening children with names like Peter (Sutcliffe), Ian (Brady & Huntley), Mary (Bell) and Myra (Hindley), as these were very very evil people and could end up traumatising the kids bearing their names.
- Haskey, London, 01/02/2008 13:15
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What were Woolworths thinking? Their staff may have claimed not to know of the connotations but I'll bet the person who came up with the brand name did.
A disgrace. How did this ever get past the planning stage.
- Gill, London, uk, 01/02/2008 12:35
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Isn't it a bit pathetic that parents are up in uproar about a name just because it was the name of a character in a fictional book? Maybe we should ban a sofa if it's called Macbeth because the book has incestual rape in it.
It just makes me wonder who the true perves are. The ones who name a furniture range or the ones who make it into something it's not.
- Richard Brophy, Gillingham/England, 01/02/2008 12:28
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I think she is over sensative. My grandmother's aunt was named Lolita--in the 1800s.
- K. Tyson, Mobile, AL USA, 01/02/2008 12:06
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She wrote: "Am I being particularly sensitive, or does anyone else out there think it's bad taste for Woolies to have a kiddy bed range named 'Lolita'?"
Yes you are, you obviously have too much time on your hands.
- Casper Slides, Bath, UK, 01/02/2008 11:52
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