So I’ve been hearing lately about the controversy with Abercrombie & Fitch about their t-shirts for women. I know that A&F tends to market its clothing primarily to those who are middle school through college. Since I wasn’t terribly familiar with their clothing I decided to check out their website and investigate for myself.
I did find some women’s shirts on their website with slogans that are degrading to women. These slogans include such gems as “Do I Make You Look Fat?” “Available For Parties” and “Blondes Are Adored, Brunettes Are Ignored.” In all fairness I did find one empowering shirt that said “Explain To Me Again Why I Need A Boyfriend.”
I decided to check out the men’s shirts too and was even more shocked by these. The men’s shirts included slogans like “I Need (a girl with a) Good Head (on her shoulders),” “Plays Well With D Cups,” “You Blow I’ll Pop,” and “Bitches Love Me” with a picture of a dog.
I was really afraid to check out the Abercrombie Kids website for fear of what I’d find. While none of the four boys shirts were really controversial, I did find some inappropriate girls’ shirts like “I’m The Life Of The Party” and “I [Heart] Senior Boys.” However there were more girls’ shirts than women’s shirts that were empowering such as “I’m Picture Perfect,” “Beauty And Brains,” and “Want To Know What I Really Think?”
So what’s my opinion on all of this? I think that one of the main reasons we still do not have true equality in this country is because of the images portrayed by corporations and the media. True equality can only be achieved if all human beings – men and women, those who are gay and those who are straight, people of all colors and religions, and even the thin and the obese – are treated and portrayed equally. It’s a pretty simple concept, but since “controversy sells” and “any press is good press” I don’t see this happening anytime soon.
You’ll notice I didn’t include links to any of the shirts above because I don’t want to endorse them. My reasoning? - The majority of these shirts promote the idea of women as objects. Do you think we can bring a class-action lawsuit against A&F for defamation of character?
2 comments:
alright alright... as i am consistently introduced as the jack ass, allow me to earn my reputation. (although i got this from a stand up comedian bill burr)
if a house is on fire and a man goes running out without even trying to save his girlfriend, he's an asshole. if she runs out well...
listen consider the idea that you can't have equality. people want to feel superior to other people. some of them want to be shocking.
the retailers are putting a fine point on what people are already thinking. it doesn't have to do with gener roles, it has to do with elitism, image and sex just happen to be media whereby americans demonstrate their humanity.
we are a dynamic and contradictory species, with social mores to match. ignorant people will have ignorant thoughts. don't fault the capitolist for exploiting it.
I understand what you are saying, and I agree with you on many of your points. Yes, we as a people are probably never going to achieve true equality. However I feel it is irresponsible for a company to be promoting these destructive notions of women as objects to pre-teen and teenage children whose self-image and thoughts are still being developed.
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