A young woman I see on the bus sometimes wears a t-shirt – either homemade or faux-homemade, I can’t tell – which says “I love my cunt,” with “love” indicated with a heart symbol. I think that’s a brilliant shirt.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, my bet is that Abercrombie & Fitch won’t be marketing shirts with that slogan. Amanda <\/a>is criticizing the new Abercrombie & Fitch line of t-shirts, marketed at teens, which promote hiply ironic sexism.<\/p>\n Some of the mottos on these shirts:<\/p>\n I’ve seen some fruitless arguing over “is it funny or is it offensive?” I’ve never understood that debate – there’s no reason things can’t be both.<\/p>\n For myself, some of the shirts could be redeemed by context – that is, if the right person wore ’em with the right spirit of irony – but most of ’em are just crap. (I myself would be happy to wear the “do I make you look fat” shirt, if only it came in size XXXXXL). And I hate that they’re produced by a major corporation, because the very fact that a huge mega-seller like A&C is convinced that they can make a profit selling these proves that the shirts have nothing to do with individuality.<\/p>\n Are shirts like this such a big deal, in a world of so many really horrible tragedies? No, but it kinda sucks whenever rebellion is mass-marketed to kids by cynics who have the most to lose if real rebellion ever takes place. That it’s effectively endorsing sexism – in a aren’t-we-all-past-worrying-about-it way – merely increases the suckitude.<\/p>\n Happily, as Twisty <\/a>and Demagogue <\/a>both point out, some teen girls have seen past the fake corporate irony and are organizing a “girlcott” of Abercrombie & Fitch. From the Chicago Tribune<\/em> story<\/a>:<\/p>\n Heather Arnett, adviser for the girls’ group, said it doesn’t matter if Abercrombie gets free advertising. They’re already a giant as far as she’s concerned. What matters is empowering young women, she said, who in turn serve as examples to other young women.<\/p>\n “A week ago, Katie Couric knew who Abercrombie & Fitch was, but she didn’t know who Emma Blackman-Mathis was,” Arnett said. “A bunch of teenage girls are being interviewed by national media about what they think. And that is the news.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Now that <\/em>is cool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A young woman I see on the bus sometimes wears a t-shirt – either homemade or faux-homemade, I can’t tell – which says “I love my cunt,” with “love” indicated with a heart symbol. I think that’s a brilliant shirt. … Continue reading \n