I Define Myself by the Writing on my Chest
Don’t know how many of you recall, but back in November of 2005 there was a “girlcott” of Abercrombie and Fitch due to a number of extremely misogynist shirts they released.
“How mysoginist?” you ask?
…I rest my case.
At the same time, receiving less attention, were companies like Alloy, another company that markets to teenage girls, selling shirts that also re-enforced the “breasts over brains” idea:
While Abercrombie pulled the “Who needs brains…” shirt, never fear. There is now a place you can go to make your own wonderfully degrading merchandise.
CustomizedGirl is a company pointed out to me by the awesome AbstractFuries (who probably knew I was going to go all feminist about this, and I’m sorry if I don’t hit on all of the points she would have because of my feminist rage), and is apparently advertised via Myspace as well as a number of popular magazines. The site is for everyday girls, like you or I, to make our own adorable customized clothing.
Looking through the Community Gallery I quickly discovered several things about most of the designs:
1) they were pretty demeaning to the women wearing them2) they were HIDEOUS3) their creators were terrified of having someone double check their spelling and grammar.
So each section deserves examples.
1) DEMEANING:
Some people decide to use their panty designing skills to be sure people are aware of who’s property they are. Because nothing screams true love like having yourself labeled as his possession.
But some people go above and beyond the call of duty.
But we’re supposed to be talking about shirts here, aren’t we?
Shirts like this…endorsed by celebrities!
And let’s not forget: you’ve got to lure them in with advertising (all of these were featured in ads for the site)!
2) HIDEOUS
I’m not saying you have to be a graphic designer to make good shirts, but at the same time, sometimes all you need to recognize a bad design is a working pair of eyes.
I mean…really, folks. Did you think this was a good idea at the time?
And in the spirit of that last one: this site loves Pete Wentz (bonus points for anyone who buys any of those shirts for Patrick Stump).
3) YOU NEEDS AN EDITOR STAT!
If you’re going to spend that much money on a shirt, you should at least be sure you get everything on it right.
And if you’re doing that on purpose, it worries me to no end.THIS SHIRT IS SPEAKING IN TONGUES!!
Now, to be fair, there are some cute shirts that I might possibly be interested in, but they are overwhelmed by the number of scary-bad-craptastic designs featured on the site.
So here’s my challenge, folks: prove to me that buzznet has people that can use that site’s evil for the forces of good. Design me a shirt that in some way screams “independent, smart, and beautiful” all at the same time and link it in the comments. If there’s enough response, maybe I’ll set up a contest of some sort. I don’t know what the winner will get other than my respect.
And maybe a new car.
