I am reading so many negative and angered comments from parents and girls alike regarding what I would call “the stupid T-shirt trend”!
The ones below are just an example of parent’s comments left on the Facebook page of one of the shop in question:
So despite many parents’ dismay, it looks like some marketers are working really hard to make sure that girls wear the right labelling attire, brilliant! So that anywhere they go the message will be loud and clear about their dumbness? No thank you! 🙁
I was talking with a girl the other day who seems to proudly display her “drama queen” shirt: I asked her “what is it to be proud about being a drama queen?”, she quickly dismissed me by saying “oh, it’s just a T-shirt!”, but I suspect that there are many young girls out there who would not be offended in the slightest to be referred to a “drama queen” or “gold digger” these days: the pervasive media culture surrounding them makes them think that somehow these are normal girls’ attributes (along with being shopping/fashion/make-up fanatic).
The trouble with this type of marketing is that it is a lazy, unimaginative way to push girls into a corner.
Fortunately, they are plenty of ethical businesses fighting back this trend and new companies producing clever and witty T-shirts are popping up all the time: so let’s make sure to give these girls an alternative and I am confident it will be soon out of trend to wear “I am a princess” shirts!
I made a few visual slides regarding this point, I would love to see them circulating far & wide on the web. I’ll post them today, your job is to pass them around! 🙂
Those bad shirts are absolutely cringe-worthy and I wouldn’t even let my nieces or children of a friend wear them around me! I absolutely do not understand how it’s acceptable – imagine items of clothing with equivalent racial stereotype comments on them! It would be absolutely unheard of and atrocious as some of these should be considered.
I can’t help but feel much of the blame still rests with the parents though, for buying this garbage. We already know the big companies are heartless and only stock what they think will sell, but the fact their best marketing minds thought this would make them the most money is a real worry.
To end on a positive note, your “good marketing” images have opened my eyes to some of the witty and much more thoughtful clothing out there. Now to convince kids that it’s cool…
A few of my favourite shirt slogans that redefine girly include:
“When I grow up, I’m going to sing, dance and do calculus”
“Self-rescuing princess”; and
“I know I play like a girl. Try to keep up.”
Anyone have others?
I’m kind of upset right now. I’ve been actually in the shops this morning and I was trying to find some upbeat ‘girl’ shirts after reading your post last night and I couldn’t honestly find ONE! I found some of the most offensive BS. Even the guy shirts were making girls look bad, like an object. Words like WAGS, BITCH, CUTIE, PRINCESS, HOT, BABE all over the shelfs. How have I really not noticed how bad things really got so far? I think as a society – and especially as parents- we need to wake up and start rewarding businesses that send the right messageS to young girls and women! Don’t stop doing what you do 😉
To me it’s about teaching the young children in your life the value of a strong ego. Of a healthy self worth and self respect. And lets not forget a good example. Children watch how their parents treat each other and will look to emulate that. Since we are talking about young girls here; girls watch and see how their father treats their mother. And will expect the same from other guys. If they expect high standards, they will act accordingly. If they expect low standards, then a ‘footballars wife’ t-shirt will seem fun.