Hardly angelic behavior, Victoria’s Secret was recently outed in a report by Bloomberg News that alleged the company has been using malnourished, underaged West African children to pick the cotton being used in some of its undergarments. Reporter Cam Simpson documents the story of a 13-year-old girl working on a farm in Burkina Faso that has been operating under the guise of a fair trade program designed to help women and children. Beaten and verbally abused, the young girl highlighted in the story is found laboring under horrific conditions, all to produce the cotton that will be fashioned into leopard-print hip-hugger panties and lacy fishnet thongs.
And? Welcome to capitalism! At least those poor malnourished labour force have a form of income. Terrible, yes (nobody can deny it) but frilly sexy undergarments at reasonable prices require some children to suffer.