Abercrummy and Fitch does it again!

T-Shirt slogans degrade young women

If you haven’t heard by now, popular teen clothing retailer, Abercrombie and Fitch, is in the news again. I was just starting to wonder if perhaps, they had learned from their past mistake of pushing the “sex sells” envelope too far and were turning over a new leaf. Apparently, that’s not the case. You would sure think that the slumping sales that resulted after their launch of a line of thong underwear for girls ages 7-14 in 2002 might have been their first hint that sex ceases to sell if you anger your target market’s source of funds—as in Mom and Dad. But they are slow in getting the message. The uproar that resulted among parents nationwide over the thong underwear for little girls and the decline in sales that followed was addressed at the time by company spokesperson, Hampton Carney, who defended the preteen thong underwear by saying, “It’s cute and fun and sweet.” Call me old-fashioned Mr. Carney, but thong underwear screen-printed with suggestive messages like “wink wink” and “eye candy” for elementary school girls is not “cute, fun, and sweet.” Try “warped, twisted, and perverted.” Who are you appealing to anyway, child predators?

Unrepentant, the company refused to learn from its mistakes and in 2003, provoked parents once again with a quarterly catalog featuring “group sex” on the front cover and pages filled with underage-looking nude teens pictured together in positions suggesting group sex. Hmmm, can anyone tell me what “group sex” and selling clothes have to do with each other? I’m still trying to figure that one out. Again, there was a national outrage over the tasteless catalog and quarterly sales of the company plummeted again. Strangely, the catalog was immediately pulled from stores and the company spokesperson said it was “rotated out of stores to make room for a new fragrance.” Let me take a stab at translating for you what most likely took place in that board room when the decision was made to pull the catalog. Someone finally had the guts to utter the obvious: “Uh-oh. We may have gone too far, guys. In our attempts to appeal to the provocative teen culture (which by the way, we helped create), we somehow forgot that the parents are the ones shelling out the big bucks for our pricy clothes. Now, pull those filthy catalogs out of the stores…yesterday!”

And for the most part, they have laid low since that obvious marketing 'uh-oh'. Until now. The current buzz is over degrading slogans on their screen-printed tees for girls. Let me give you a sampler of some of the slogans:

Available for parties

Who needs brains when you have these?

I’d look great on you

Anatomy tutor

Freshman 15 (complete with the signatures of 16 guys names—one signature represents two guys, “Dick and Dirk”)

Interestingly, it’s not just the fuddy-duddy grown-ups who are angry at Abercrombie this time. A group of concerned (and offended) high school girls has started a “girlcott” to express their disgust over the degrading slogans. Good for them. It’s about time girls begin to recognize what true “girl power” is all about. Empowerment does not come from the freedom to view sex as a recreational hobby and advertise it openly on a t-shirt. In fact, I would argue that such a choice renders a young lady powerless, not to mention, a virtual prey to men who are all to happy to answer the slogan’s invitation to view her as nothing more than an object created for their sexual gratification. Yes, true girl power, is about standing up and saying, “Enough is enough! I won’t take it any longer and if you don’t respect me, I will penalize you with my wallet!”

As parents, it is our job to empower our daughters with true girl power. It is also our job to model empowerment by our own example. Now, I realize that many who receive this have chosen not to fight this particular battle with Abercrombie. That is your prerogative. I personally, made a vow to no longer shop at Abercrombie when they pulled their thong underwear stunt. I feel that Abercrombie is selling a lifestyle rather than a clothing line. They have a social responsibility to use their platform to teens in a way that would enrich their lives. Instead, they have thumbed their noses at parents like myself and pushed their warped and tasteless “anything goes” lifestyle agenda down the throats of our children. Fortunately, I have a choice when it comes to shopping at Abercrombie. I don’t have to set foot in their stores and I don’t have to fund their agenda by buying their products. Over the years, I have been ribbed for my radical stance by some of my mom friends, as well as my own children from time to time. “You have to choose your battles…blah, blah, blah.” Yes, I know I can’t fight every battle, but I have decided this one is worth fighting. You may decide differently. I am not addressing this topic for the formal purpose of suggesting a full-blown boycott of Abercrombie and Fitch. My goal is to address the topic and let you, the parent, make an informed decision. Should you decide to turn a blind eye to Abercrombie’s disturbing pattern of degrading our young women and open your wallet when your daughter needs a new pair of jeans, we can still be friends. But, only under one condition: Don’t complain in my hearing about the culture’s damaging influences on our young women. Deal?

NOTE: On Tuesday, November 7th, the following article was posted online by MTV stating Abercrombie has removed a select few of the controversial tees, but not all of them. A small victory in an ever increasing battle.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1513153/20051107/index.jhtml?headlines=true