When we finally do have a female president, I’m guessing she won’t have worn a T-shirt as a preteen that says “Property of Boys’ Locker Room.”
Or “Born to Flirt” or “I’m So Hot.”
The first of those slogans drew such a primal reaction from Joe Kelly, president of the national non-profit advocacy group Dads and Daughters, that he and other members of the organization mounted a grass-roots campaign against it. Within a week, they had the company apologizing and pulling the shirt off the market.
A statement from Dads and Daughters explained that the company, Self Esteem Clothing (really), said the shirt was a misunderstanding. “We are discontinuing this item and will not ship it to any retailers,” Self Esteem said. “We will be more careful going forward.”
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Kelly appreciated the company’s quick response and tendered a public thank-you.
Personally, Kelly is in the clear. His 24-year-old twin daughters are beyond the point where he has to worry about what clothes they are putting on today, but the Duluth, Minn., writer thinks there is enough of a marketing morass out there that parents should be having a few more fits about some of the verbiage being worn on girls’ chests or other body parts.
“Girls get hammered with this message that they are a sexual object,” Kelly said. “It’s make-believe stuff. That stuff is bad for boys too, because a boy who grows up thinking the size of a girl’s cleavage is more important than the size of her heart is headed for disaster. It’s a lie; that’s the bottom line.”
Of course, we have developed a society where women say they install plastic breasts because it makes them feel better, apparently having internalized the message that it is indeed cleavage, not character, that matters. Or at least that’s what they must think guys think.
Cleavage may look good in a bikini, but character fits very nicely into a relationship. That’s not to say they are mutually exclusive, but more than one guy wonders why someone would take the chance on being cut open twice for the sake of passing glances. And if a guy is lured by enhanced breasts, is that really the kind of guy a woman wants to snuggle up with?
But back to the shirts. Though the “Locker Room” was extreme, I’m not so sure some of the other slogans out there would look so good on my daughter, if I’d ever had one. The morally conscious Wal-Mart offers the “Flirt” and “Hot” versions, in addition to these beauties: “Temperamental: 90% Temper 10% Mental”; “Support Wildlife–Throw a Party”; and “What Are You Waiting For?” obviously an invitation of some sort.
Over at Target, the girls’ clothing seemed a bit more tame, with upwardly mobile cheerleading and princess themes, but one male shirt rack brought together clothing with the ideas of cars, motorcycles, parties, speed and beer–not a healthy combo.
Now, I don’t mean to pick on these two major retailers. Their wares are probably among the more tame out there. I visited them simply because they are so mainstream. Thus, so is their clothing.
Clothing with words on it happens to be the trend, and the market is responding to what it believes demand to be. But would it be so outrageous to demand shirts that say “Born to Rule” instead of “Born to Party” or “Support Wildlife” as in really supporting wildlife?
Would it be so wrong to give kids something to live up to instead of to live down?
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