Author: jM
Almost a week ago, JCPenny sparked controversy across the Internet when two shirt designs available on the retailer's website were deemed offensive. The shirts, made for girls age 7-16, were called into question not for their fugly (IMO) designs but for the pretty sexist statement they sent.
One of the shirts read "I'm too pretty to do HOMEWORK, so my brother has to do it for me." The other tee lists "My Best Subjects" as "boys, shopping, music, and dancing", in that order. It wasn't long before the outrage got back to the JCPenney offices, leading them to remove the shirts from the website.
Now, it appears that Forever 21 is cut from the same cloth. Over the weekend, a Redditor spotted this "Allergic to Algebra" shirt that someone had already taken a disliking to:
I couldn't agree more with that Post-It. Look, clothes and other products targeted toward girls with damaging messages like these implying that they somehow have no interests in academic pursuits because of their pesky vaginas, sadly, are not new.
I remember plenty of them growing up and this isn't the last we'll see of them. However, it only took JCPenney a couple of days to address the public outcry and discontinue sales of the shirts. Hopefully, if we keep showing companies that this kind of marketing is both unacceptable and won't go unnoticed, they'll eventually stop and maybe even start selling the idea that "Smart girls are cool."
I remember plenty of them growing up and this isn't the last we'll see of them. However, it only took JCPenney a couple of days to address the public outcry and discontinue sales of the shirts. Hopefully, if we keep showing companies that this kind of marketing is both unacceptable and won't go unnoticed, they'll eventually stop and maybe even start selling the idea that "Smart girls are cool."
Via:
[Jezebel]
[Reddit]
I wouldn't object to this if they had a counterpoint shirt offered as well. I hated math, so this shirt is actually funny to me. But you need to offer both sides of the coin, like "Mathletes are HOT!" or something equally as ridiculous but still encouraging to girls in terms of academic success.
ReplyDeleteThe JC Penney shirts are just bullshit.