Scandal in France over the sale of sexualized dolls on the Shein website
France is threatening to ban the website of the Asian platform, which opens its first permanent physical store in the world in Paris on Wednesday.
ParisThe advertisement has since been removed, but until Tuesday, hyper-realistic dolls resembling young girls were being sold as sex toys on the Chinese fast-fashion platform Shein. While the doll was clothed in the photograph, the product description left no room for doubt: "Ideal doll for lonely men" and "male masturbation toy with erotic body, vagina, and anus." The discovery has sparked outrage in France—where the law prohibits the sale of pedophilic sex toys—and the government has threatened to ban Shein's online platform in France. "Shein has crossed the line. These horrific objects are illegal," said Economy Minister Roland Lescure in an interview on BFMTV. "If this type of behavior is repeated, I will request that access to the Shein platform be banned from the French market," he warned. The sale of the dolls, priced at €186.94, was discovered on Monday by the French government's consumer protection agency, but it is unknown how long they had been available.
The fast-fashion brand has reacted by apologizing and removing all advertisements and sales of products associated with "sex dolls" worldwide and temporarily deactivating the "adult products" category, the Asian giant announced. Shein, which also operates as marketplace And selling products that aren't fashionable, claims that the seller of the sexualized dolls was a third party and that Shein is only "an intermediary." In fact, other Chinese platforms like AliExpress also offer dolls of this type.
Pedophiles who train with the dolls
The platform ofultra-fast fashion He attributes the sale of the pedophilic sex toys to "an internal malfunction" and assures that he will cooperate "100%" with the French authorities. He could even hand over the buyers' data to bring them to justice, as France has requested. pedophiles They train with these dolls. And then they find it boring, and they move on to acting it out. This is the reality – denounced Sarah El Haïry, the French government's High Commissioner for Children. That's why going after those who have bought these dolls in our territory is an obligation to protect children.
France has long been studying measures to limit the growth of the fast-fashion brand, but Shein has chosen to fight back: It has chosen Paris to open its first permanent physical store, a world first.The store opens this Wednesday afternoon and will occupy 1,000 square meters on the sixth floor of the BHV Marais shopping center, usually dedicated to luxury brands and located in the heart of Paris. Shein advertisements have been visible on the building's facade for several days now.
Controversy over the stores
The arrival of Shein, the ultra-cheap clothing retailer, has led some brands to withdraw from BHV. There have also been protests from the French Federation of Women's Ready-to-Wear, which expressed its "disgust" at the arrival in France of a "brand of shame." Its president, Yann Rivoallan, even accused BHV's owner, Frédéric Merlin, of "betraying France." BHV has confirmed that neither the issue of sexualized dolls nor the protests will postpone or cancel the store's opening. "I have decided not to back down from my decision, despite the controversy and pressure," Merlin stated in an Instagram post.
The platform's decision to open stores in France—it will open five more in the coming weeks—represents a shift in business model for a platform that until now has been exclusively online. The episode involving sexualized dolls is yet another chapter in the ongoing conflict between the Asian brand and France, the European country where Shein has the most customers.
