Abercrombie and Fitch: Tshirts Degrading to Women

[Graeblyn]

Originally posted by Darion
If the parents did not -buy- (or allow the kids to buy) the clothes, we would not even be talking about this. All other arguments fall by the wayside. The bottom line is that parents are getting more and more lazy as time goes by, and their kids are running wild. This is just something else to blame so that it's not their fault.

It certainly does seem like every day a new law is proposed or a new group is formed to "protect the children."

Not every problem your family faces can be solved by new legislation or a new advocacy group. Some things really are a matter of personal irresponsibility on the part of parents.

[Ismenia]

Well my sensastionalism might be lame, but someone has to stand up someday somewhere and say "enough is enough" Just like the women and girls boycotting it. Girls, young women and adult women are bombarded from a very young age with images that are demeaning and degrading. Images that tell us what is beautiful, ie.. sickly thin, big breasts, supermodels. So, you might say.... "oh ignore it, parents need to monitor what their children see." Well that is easier said then done when it is EVERYWHERE you turn. Why do you think millions of women in the United States have such poor self-esteems, eating disorders, butchering their bodies with plastic surgery, because they can't measure up to the standards we are force fed. On the other hand you could say the same for stereotypical male images that we see every day.

I might be idealistic, but I do think "responisble" Industry has some sort of obligation. Just like the cigarette industry is now paying millions of dollars for all of their misdeeds. Sure it might not be physically killing them, but it does psychological damage.

Ok.. I can now step down from my feministist soap box now

[Gesslar]

Originally posted by Ismenia
someone has to stand up someday somewhere and say "enough is enough" Just like the women and girls boycotting it.

Except that is exactly what he said. Don't buy it and don't give your kids the money to buy it. Tell them no. You're the parent. Drive them to a bridge.

[Pyrosama]

I'm actually shocked by all this. I had no idea that these slogans exist. I don't like supporting companies that are motivated with such sleazy tactics, but at the same time I do monitor what my daughter picks out to wear because I AM the one who pays for it.

My daughter just turned 11 years old this summer and she does desire to wear this line of clothing but thank God she wouldn't find those sorts of slogans appealing. The only things she ever picks out are articles of clothing with just the name/logo and no slogans. I have not seen any derrogatory slogans yet, but then again Florida is probably behind the times.

Also, since we always shop together (and I expect this to change within 4 years or so which is the age I started shopping with friends instead of my mother), whenever I see something off-color, no matter what company, I mention my reasons for offense or displeasure to her and she echos the same.

[Graeblyn]

On the way home from work I stopped to pick up milk, and ended up in line behind a middle-aged woman and her apparent daughter, about the age of your daughter, wearing one of these shirts.

It said crack whore in block letters and had a cartoon of a buxom woman mooning me.

[Belaraiya]

Originally posted by Kyla
*prances off in her "Don't call me a cowgirl til you see me ride" tshirt*

The only thing I have to say about this is.... I want that shirt!

*prances off in her "Boys make great pets - every girl should have one" t-shirt*

[Cyrinne]

The most degrading thing of all about A&F is how much all that crap COSTS.

[Yrizaria]

Hmm. I just found this thread and I always thought I was a good mom. *shrug* I just bought my daughter 2 tshirts there. One says "I'm not with stupid anymore" Bahahahah that still cracks me up. The other says "I had a nightmare I was a brunette" Both my daughters are lovely natural blonds. Under this red dye I've been wearing for many many years I AM a brunette. I still thought the shirt was funny.
Obviously I think sleaze is funny.
Obviously my daughters and I have a warped and twisted sense of humor.
I wonder if it's in the blood or if I have corrupted them by my terribly inappropriate and irrelevant sense of humor and outlook on life in general.
Nature or nurture...here we go again.
Hey maybe they make a tshirt for me that says "Unfit mother...too late to take the kids away now! They're already ruined"

[Graeblyn]

Well, neither of those tee-shirts sexualizes the wearer, and neither do either of them advocate hate/violence towards boys, so I don't think they are anything at all like the tee-shirts that people are complaining about.

Also, I seem to recall that your kids are older than the middle school age that the girl wearing the "crack whore" tee shirt I mentioned was.

If I saw an older teen or adult woman wearing a tee shirt like that, it wouldn't bother me at all the way it did seeing a 12-year-old looking girl advertising being a crack whore while out and about with her MOTHER.

[Dalaena]

Yes, there are a lot of lazy parents out there, but to assume that every parent out there is lazy is silly. There are GOOD parents out there as well as lazy ones.

Ismenia is being a GOOD parent by standing up and saying, "I'm NOT buying their lame shit from their lame company anymore." That's how you make a stand in a capitalist society. This doesn't stop the fact that there are lazy parents out there who will let their kids run around in what basically amounts to a raicst t-shirt.

I'm not very sensitive to racial issues. I'm not even very sensitive to feminist issues because for me, femninism is about choice and equal opportunity. However, when a company is repeatedly racist at several levels or repeatedly sexist in several different levels, I'm gonna stop spending my money there. Just because I'm not an activist doesn't mean that I want to support their crap. With issues like racism and sexism, I think we all have to be very careful what we teach our young population as a whole. You can always say, "It's on the parents," but there's all different levels of parenting. You aren't going to change the shitty ones, and the ones who care enough to say something are the ones who get the "shitty parent" speech heaped on them. The problem with allowing people to go too far is simply that there's almost always a backlash. Backlashes are a bad thing.

To put it in gaming terms, a backlash is like overnerfing!