Abercrombie and Fitch offends with sexual shirts, faces legislation

by Stefania Butler (Subscribe to Stefania Butler's posts) Nov 3rd 2005 3:01PM

Categories: Media

The Chicago Tribune reports that Illinois State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger (R-Elgin) said he will "introduce a resolution on the senate floor later this week asking Abercrombie & Fitch to stop selling a line of controversial T-shirts in Illinois." The shirts sport messages such as "Who needs brains when you have these?," "Available for parties," and "I had a nightmare I was a brunette." Rauschenberger says the shirts are offensive and degrading to women and is rallying to support the cause of a group of Pennsylvania girls he saw on NBC's "Today" show. The group began its "girlcott" earlier this week.

What do Blogging Baby readers think? personally I find these shirts digusting and would be extremely disappointed if I ever caught my girls wearing one. Part of me would feel that I failed as a parent. I am also puzzled as to why Abercrombie and Fitch—knowing that they cater to tweens and teens—would continue to pursue such offensive and alienating marketing strategies. I realize there is no such thing as negative publicity, but can A&F higher-ups and employees feel good about this? And I'm not talking about the catalog. I'm talking about the last round of t-shirts that were so insensitive to Asians which included a line of shirts that read "Two Wongs Can Make It White." (which included a caricature of an Asian person and fed into the "Chinese laundry" stereotype). Comments?

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Comments (19)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jay Allen 12-18-2005 @ 6:40PM

Most girls who would wear these would do so in a tongue-and-cheek manner - as a way of poking a thumb in the eye of American Puritanism, not because they're slutting around town. My friends and I in the 80's used to dress up in "Satanic" insignia a la Motley Crue and WASP. It was because we were rebellious, not because we were Satanists.

What's more disgusting than these shirts is attempting to legislate them out of existence. That's a gross violation of the First Amendment. I will be cackling with glee when court after court strikes down this abortive attempt at totalitarianism.

Stefania Butler 12-18-2005 @ 6:40PM

I am not so sure that most girls would wear them in a "tongue and cheek" manner. I think there is definitely a contingent that would wear them for "other reasons." Not all teens are about "being ironic."

I agree with you, though, that trying to legislate them out of exsistence is something to be concerned about. While I cannot get behind the shirts, I am not about trying to stomp out A&F's (and the shirt-wearers') freedom of speech/expression.

While I would be disappointed if one of my girls ever chose to express herself in this manner, you can be sure that we would have a dialog about the message that it is sending if she chose to wear it.

L 12-18-2005 @ 6:40PM

This seems to me like another case of "look at me!! Look at me!!" Like the kid in the back of the classroom who continually disrupts just to get attention, A & F are just trying to poke at the American Public to get their attention - and their dollars.

Those girls in Pennsylvania have it right. If they succeed in their boycott, it will send a much louder message to A & F than any legislation can. It will hit them in their pocketbook, and if they loose the teenage market, they'll have no market at all.

And then there won't be a problem, will there?

Jason 12-18-2005 @ 6:40PM

I'm reminded of an old song lyric: "Those who know what's best for us/Must rise and save us from ourselves."

Count on the Republicans to pick and choose the Moral Battle of The Day. Impeccable timing, too, what with the Scooter Libby trial and "Scalito"'s hearings looming on the horizon.

HollyRhea 12-18-2005 @ 6:40PM

www.tshirthell.com
There's always a market.

I think if the shirts are so danged offensive, people shouldn't buy them. But regulating it? c'mon.

ajatthebeach 12-18-2005 @ 6:40PM

The legislation will not past constitutional muster. The only hope for curtailment of A & F's contribution to the moral atrophy of America is in consumer choice that reflects support in a pendulum swing to more conservative social values. Our teens may not know better, but their parents should. The "look at me" culture and "hook-up" era has run its course and the PA teens behind girlcott are the edgy (and correct) ones in this scenario.

victor 12-18-2005 @ 6:40PM

i think that the shirts are more for the college set. college girls and guys are always trying to break the ice by being witty or risque'. i would agree that seeing tweens and teens wearing them is a little much but the more they make a big deal about it them more everyone is going to want them.

Ann Adams 12-18-2005 @ 6:40PM

I hope by the time my girls are old enough for one of these shirts, I will have brainwashed them into saying "yuck" or whatever the word of their generation is.

We don't need any more trampling on the 1st Amendment (or any of the others) than we already have. If I don't like something, I don't buy it. It's that simple. Besides, fads come and go quickly. In a few months this will be forgotten.

Missy 12-18-2005 @ 6:40PM

Ditto to what everyone here has said so far baout the 1st amendment.

The only kids wearing A&F are white and suburban. There's the occasional kid who saves and saves money from his or her after school job to buy some of their crap, but mostly, it's white teens whose parents give them money. If you've ever seen one of those A&F catalogs, you'll notice there are absolutely no people of any ethnicity other than caucasian. None. Why no one harps on them for blatant racist marketing, I don't understand. Yeah, you can argue they're catering to a particular audience but it's pretty disgusting.

Kimberly 12-18-2005 @ 6:40PM

The only kids wearing A&F are not just white and suburban. I'm half Asian, I not only wear Abercrombie but I work there. The store I work in is very diverse. Hell, one of our managers is African American. So for you to say that the only kids wearing it are rich, white kids is too much of a generalization. I think the shirts are funny. I agree that some may be inappropriate for High School students but the "higher-ups" will tell you that Abercrombie is made to cater to college students. A&F owned company, Hollister is for the High School students.
And I don't know when the last time you looked at a catalogue was but the Abercrombie models today are very diverse.

Kimberly 12-18-2005 @ 6:40PM

Robert 12-18-2005 @ 6:40PM

Perhaps these girls are watching what their older sisterhood is doing in college. We now have the "Vaginal Monologues", and the "O" day, the celebration of the orgasm, complete with a dilldo museum. Compared to this, these tees are nothing.

Interesting that these come on the heals of these popular tees, "Boys are dumb throw rocks at them" . Sex and violence, hmm.....well at least our children aren't being brainwashed by those right wing Christian wackos.

The PC police really should do there homework before hacking up the English language, they look foolish.

The word boycott is derived from Captain Charles Boycott, an English evicting land agent in Ireland who was subject to social excommunication organized by the Irish Land League in 1880.

According to an account in the book The Fall of Feudalism in Ireland by Michael Davitt, the term was coined by Fr. John O' Malley from County Mayo to 'signify ostracism applied to a landlord or agent like Boycott'.

Boycott, an agent of Lord Erne in County Mayo, was unable to hire anyone to harvest his crops. Eventually 50 Irish Unionists were organized. They were escorted to and from Claremorris (the last part of their journey) by 2,000 British Army troops). This despite the fact that the complete excommunication meant that he was actually in no danger of being harmed.

After the harvest, the boycott was successfully continued and on December 1, 1880 Captain Boycott left his agency and, with his family, retired to England.

Big Poppa Chuck 12-18-2005 @ 6:40PM

A&F didn't come up with these. They've been around for a long time.

Bonnie 12-18-2005 @ 6:40PM

I get a laugh trying to picture the marketing yahoos sitting in a room planning this out. "Wait, listen to this. Our upcoming collection of t-shirts should say...! No, really, it's hysterical."

nate 12-18-2005 @ 6:40PM

while i do agree with the 1st amendment issue, doesnt anyone think its high time something needs to be done about this? A&F has been through this kind of trouble many times; from the racy catalogues, the insensitive t-shirts about Asian's to the infamous racism issue regarding employment. by the way, one shouldnt look hard to justify the racism issue because most of A&F's models and store clerks are of caucasian descent. from time to time they would hire a minority but they dont last...i know because i work at the mall for a company that defines beauty and culture in a much broader spectrum.

Steven Rettig 12-18-2005 @ 6:40PM

David and Goliath have been selling shirts that say "Boys are Stupid! Throw rocks at them!" If you're not riasing a stink about that, why are you doing so now????

Don't believe me?

www.davidandgoliathtees.com

Ann Adams 12-18-2005 @ 6:40PM

Steven - I don't buy those shirts either and, for now, I have veto power over what the kids put on their bodies. I want my girls to know it's wrong to demean other people, even in "fun".

If A&F (who are way out of my financial league) is discriminating in the workplace, it's a separate issue and something should be done.

Otherwise, write letters, make noise, refuse to buy, but no censorship please. It's more dangerous than the message on the shirts.

Steven Rettig 12-18-2005 @ 6:40PM

Who's asking for censorship? If you're so angry about these shirts that demean women, you should be just as angry at theses shirts that promote violence against men.

I have written letters and made calls, along with thousands of men, pulling those damn shirts off shelves everywhere. But most women just said "lighten up, willya?"

Howabout you?

http://www.glennsacks.com/why_i_launched.htm

vicky 12-18-2005 @ 6:40PM

don't complain. i shop at a&f and i read those shirts and i am not white nor blonde. but the shirts do not offend me. i am light skined and most people do think i am white. but if i wasn't i don't think that would stop me. its just a shirt.