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Store Pulls 'Lolita' Bed for Young Girls

Reuters
Posted: 2008-02-01 18:33:11
Filed Under: World News
LONDON (Feb. 1) - A chain of retail stores in Britain has withdrawn the sale of beds named "Lolita" and designed for 6-year-old girls after furious parents pointed out that the name was synonymous with sexually active pre-teens.

Woolworths said staff who administer the Web site selling the beds were not aware of the connection.

In "Lolita," a 1955 novel by Vladimir Nabokov, the narrator becomes sexually involved with his 12-year-old stepdaughter -- but Woolworths staff had not heard of the classic novel or two subsequent films based on it.

Hence they saw nothing wrong with advertising the Lolita Midsleeper Combi, a whitewashed wooden bed with pull-out desk and cupboard intended for girls aged about 6 until a concerned mother raised the alarm on a parenting Web site.

"What seems to have happened is the staff who run the Web site had never heard of Lolita , and to be honest no one else here had either," a spokesman told British newspapers.

"We had to look it up on (online encyclopedia) Wikipedia. But we certainly know who she is now."

Woolworths said the product had now been dropped.

"Now this has been brought to our attention, the product has been removed from sale with immediate effect," the chain said.

"We will be talking to the supplier with regard to how the branding came about."

Reporting by Peter Apps, editing by Paul Casciato

Copyright 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2008-02-01 16:39:07
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Recent Comments

1 - 10 of 338
338 comments

dsbldmrcn 09:59:04 AM Feb 03 2008

HEY; GREAT BRITAIN, DO you WANT the CURE? As soon as the United States has Medical Insurance for ALL, then YOU will get the CURE?

smithjack01 10:36:42 PM Feb 02 2008

I guess the French are still not talking to the Brits, lol. After all, Nabakov's
book is littered with French phrases that you would think by now had trickled
over into England after all of these years. Comon, England, don't take the
"I know nothing" Socratic stance.

Jack

cheercurlz 08:48:31 PM Feb 02 2008

Just to play Devil's Advocate: " Lolita " is a very common Hispanic name. Isn't it reaching a bit to assume it has anything to do with the novel? Good grief, I don't think Nabokov held a patent on the name "Lolita." Geez .... when I was a little girl, I had a friend in school named Lolita-Marie. I doubt her parents had anything devious in mind when they named her.

I agree 100% that manufacturers and fashion designers do not allow children to dress like children anymore. It's impossible to find kids' clothes that don't look completely hoochie ..... but isn't this bed thing stretching it a bit? Maybe I'm missing something.

fracdogsafety 07:59:00 PM Feb 02 2008

lmao

owensfolks 01:15:38 PM Feb 02 2008

They renamed it the Jon Benet bed.

celizapoofy 12:29:59 PM Feb 02 2008

GIVE ME A BREAK! "Oh my God! My child's sleeping product was named after something in which I can relate to that was inconcievable! This must mean that if My child sleeps in this bed, she will become a prostitute at a young age or try to seduce my husband!"

WHAT...THE...HELL...is wrong with people today. Hey, they should probably remove those pillows, too...God forbid they get a little dirty...OH NO! Now your child is sleeping on dirtypillows! : P

new44moon 12:03:04 PM Feb 02 2008

Believe you me, people, the store pulled these beds from the active sales floor, but you can bet your bottom dollar (or should I say bottom pound since this happened in the U.K.) that they will move the exact same beds back onto the sales floor under a different name. They pulled the beds to give the executives on Madison Ave. time to come up with another provocative name that's more socially acceptable.

new44moon 11:51:43 AM Feb 02 2008

I guess those staffers at Woolworth's never heard Marilyn Monroe sing "My Heart Belongs to Daddy".

new44moon 11:48:53 AM Feb 02 2008

oldkey902 11:31:01 AM Feb 02 2008

Report This! kwiktokill4178: All the schools have computers nowdays,must be the most popular class, none of the kids seem to know anything else. Most of the kids in this town can't even make out a check other than the date, box amount and signature. Some never fill in the date. Thats about the toughest job they have ever done !!! Guess we all should feel sorry for them.

new44moon's reply: I thought you had to be at least 18 to have a checking account and write checks. Are you so old that you refer to young adults as kids?

breathofsighs1 11:44:27 AM Feb 02 2008

cheryl07070...exactly!

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