We've seen things like this before. But it's always shocking to see new t-shirts released with sexually explicit phrases on them. And some of these new Hollister ones take the cake:
Who wouldn't want to wear a sexually explicit message over their breasts?
I find all of these t-shirts offensive ("Girls just wanna have sun" is not as bad as the others though, but still...). Sexually explicit messages on t-shirts are just another way to further objectify women, and young women and teenagers at that.
According to Jezebel, Hollister calls these shirts "hot and funny."
I don't really see what's funny about "Legal-ish", "I [Heart] The Woody", and "The twins are quite a handful". Using a phrase like "Legal-ish" encourages the sexualization of teenagers through corporate male fantasies.
Hollister is marketed towards young teenagers. I do not think it is appropriate to market these sexually explicit shirts to teenagers. I think it's fine for teens to express their sexuality, but not through "corporate male fantasies." Because that's what these shirts are. They are not about teens expressing their sexuality in a responsible way. They are about corporations promoting the over sexualization of teenagers for their own purposes.
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Thursday, August 20, 2009
Hollister Continues Sexualization of Teens
Posted by Laura at 1:59 PM
Labels: advertising, sexuality, teens
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2 comments:
My boyfriend was looking over my shoulder as I read this post (he's a junior high teacher) and he said, horrified, "Oh my god. My students are going to be wearing those." And he's right. It isn't good, these shirts, and what they advertize.
I wrote to Hollister and told them I found the shirts disgusting and inappropriate for your target demographic. I told them it is dangerous to play with the language of statutory rape.
Here is Hollister's response:
"Thanks for emailing us at Hollister about our humor tees.
Our intention with our marketing is to be fun and casual-we're sorry you didn't see it this way."
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