About 20 years ago I used to shop at a store that catered to old men who liked camping and fishing. I bought many a flannel shirt there. I still have and wear three of them, albeit they are held together with safety pins now. I love those shirts.
But then something happened. The store changed hands and instead of wonderful, thick flannels they began to cater to the younger crowd and instead of promoting fishing they now promote catching something different…namely, STD’s.
I remember one Christmas, purchasing a few items for my boys, and then continuing on with my shopping. I walked through Woodfield Mall for hours carrying a shopping bag sporting their logo. I didn’t realize it, but it also sported a picture of a young man (he looked all of 16) in bed with TWO young girls (they looked all of 15). It wasn’t until I got home that I saw what was on that shopping bag. Needless to say, that was the last time I set foot in the store, and the last time my kids ever wore anything from there.
Well, they’re at it again. Not that they ever stopped. This is their new line of T-shirts. Does anyone else find this objectification of women disconcerting to say the least?
But, hey…just give ‘em some birth control and the option of an abortion and what’s the big deal anyway?
I don’t know who wears this stuff. The women’s shirts are even worse, IMO. I get spam from A&F and check it out every once in a while, when the the subject seems somewhat intriguing. This gem was from about a week ago:
http://tinyurl.com/ouocp4
Shame, because their ‘underwear’ tank tops are the best I’ve found for the price. They hold their shape after multiple washings but are stretchy and comfy, and come in cute colors. Oh well. I can’t ethically support the company. Especially because they have that lame moose on all their stuff now.
Seriously, right?
Who is buying this stuff???? Who is WEARING it????
MK
You caught me. I wear my “Show the Twins” and “Hand Full” t-shirts to Church every week. Well, not EVERY week…Only on special occasions when I need to dress up….
NOT!
Sorry, I’m in a silly mood. I can’t say I’ve seen anyone wearing that stuff. I’d have thought that the advertising campaigns they’ve had would have killed their business years ago.
And what about you guys? My word verifications of suppler and demonstra-….Exactly what is it suggesting?
STUUUUUUU….are you messin’ with the captcha again!
Trust me, if I could mess with the captcha text I would do better than that….
Here is some interesting ones from the recaptcha website…. and these are real. #2 is my favorite, followed closely by the last one.
http://blog.recaptcha.net/2008/12/funny-recaptchas.html
Didn’t anyone tell you guys that the new edgy is being mean and un-pc? Oh and the mean, un-pc stuff is almost always directed at women, by men.
Check this out-
http://www.zazzle.com/does_this_shirt_make_me_look_like_a_rapist-235662161241638520
I pray to God I get into an elevator with that person so I can look them in the eyes and say, “I don’t know, does this jacket make me look like a cannibal?”
How about something uplifting, since these shirts depressed the heck out of me today: stories about kids starting school yesterday! My favorite subject.
Some cute stories: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/school-year-starts-for-one-million-students/
For Mr. Alexandra’s part, he says that thus far his freshman class seems remarkably free of idiocy, though of course there’s still time to change that opinion. Most of his senior students chose to focus on scenery/set design for their final year. His students spend their freshman year spending their “shop hours” in all four departments, one at a time: scenery, lighting/sound, wardrobe, and props. In their sophomore year they drop one department, whichever they want; in their junior year they drop another department and do a semester intensive each in two chosen areas of concentration; and then in their senior year they can either split it by semester between two departments again, or focus on one all year long.
My theory is that this is the first class who has aged fully through the welding program he began — before him, the students worked only with wood as far as carpentry goes, but welding is super-important and Mr. Alexandra is good at it, so he got approval to teach that as well. Women often TEND to be better at welding than men, very generally speaking, because it takes a ton of patience and a really watchful eye, yet doesn’t require a whole lot of brute strength. Most girls, in their senior year, have traditionally and voluntarily split themselves between wardrobe and props, with some going to lighting/sound and only a few going to scenery each year, since as seniors the students compete against each other for leadership positions, and girls going up against boys in scenery jobs often find themselves “on the bench.” But I think that a lot of the girls, the first class to make it to their fourth year of welding, have been surprised at how much they like it and how good they are at it, so they’re choosing to focus on scenery instead. Pretty cool stuff.
It means he’ll be over-run with kids during shop hours, and it spells out bad news for the wardrobe teacher, who relies on the skill of the senior-army to staff his shop. But it’s pretty cool! I can’t wait to see what they do.
I love back-to-school.
More stories of females having their dignity pimped out at their own detriment. Outrageous and infuriating but nothing surprises me much anymore.
PIP,
I have listened to the CD’s you sent me. We have very different taste in music…lol.
John liked more songs than I did.
BUT
There was one song that I cannot get out of my head. I LOVED it. Unfortunately when I looked up who sings it, it is a woman that is fiercely on the “other team” and it just broke my heart. Sarah Mclachlan makes me feel the same way. Such a beautiful voice, such a corrupted soul.
Anyway, the song is “David” by Nellie McKay. Now how do I get it out of my head?????
If you wanna see people wearing this stuff, then COME ON DOWN! To the great midwest! Indianapolis and the surrounding area’s is surrounded by this BS. Don’t ya know that kids are aloud to ‘Expwesssss themswelfs’ even when they have no clue what that means! It’s really sick.
MK –
eh hemm……. What ever happened to me getting a copy of your Irish music!!!!????? Hmmmm?????????
Do you have it downloaded onto your computer? If you do – maybe Stu knows how you can email it to me……..?
Oh – one more thought –
Aren’t you glad the feminist movement got so involved in the sexual revolution????? Gee, and they “act” surprised when people sexualize woman like this when their whole “agenda” now a days is all about having as much sex as you want with as many people as you want and to Hell with the consequences.
I mean, seriously – are you really that surprised that it has come to this? You can’t tell women to be whores and then expect the world to see women as Nuns. It just doesn’t work that way.
Val and Pip,
Do you want the “corny” stuff we listened to on the way to the Leprechaun Fest or the CD that Pip used for the background to the video…? Pip has them downloaded to her computer. I haven’t got a clue how to do that. Pip, any ideas? Can you make a copy off of your computer and send it to Val?
Both actually………
“You can’t tell women to be whores and then expect the world to see women as Nuns. It just doesn’t work that way.”
I don’t want to be a whore or a nun, and I do not behave like either. That’s the point. I am not a whore — regardless of whether I have sex or not, inside or outside of marriage — and I do not deserve to be treated by men or by other women as though I am. I am a human being and that is sufficient; I should not have to behave like a nun to be exempt from being treated like a whore.
This attitude like, “If you would just not have sex, no one would call you a whore!” is part of the problem that creates a market for t-shirts like this, because it posits that any woman who doesn’t behave like a nun, well, what did she expect, to walk down the street and NOT have t-shirts scream offensive phrases at her? YES, actually, that is what I expect. That is what I, and every other man and woman, deserve.
LOL MK, really? I really did think that you would enjoy those songs!
Nellie McKay is great I’m glad you like her! If I read you wrong I probably read MP wrong, so sorry
The best way I know to send songs and big files like movies is through sendspace.com, they upload stuff up to 300 MB for free..
Pip,
MP likes hers. I have weird taste in music. It has to either rip your heart out, be soft and moody, Irish, or pure fun. Indigo Girls, Tracy Chapman, James Taylor, Gillian Welch, The Chieftans, Anything But The Girl, Bette Midler, The BoDeans…Anything more intense than Fleetwood Mac and I break out in hives…lol.
Can you make those CD’s happen for Val?
@MK: You like Tracy Chapman? AWESOME. I like her too. And Bette Midler. “The Rose” is the only song I can play on the piano.
One of these days I’ll sing you a song on your facebook page like I did for Bobby. It will happen.
Rae,
One of the reasons I think I love you so much, is that you are a nut I cannot crack! Tracy Chapman…who’d have thunk…and who’da thunk you’d sing on facebook! You’re always surprisin’ me!
@MK: I like lots of weird music. Based on your affection for the BoDeans (who I listened to in your car when we were driving Elizabeth back to her place after din-din)- I think you may like, “The Builders and the Butchers”. They’re kind of bluegrassy/folk, and I rather like them (and I’m not a big folk/bluegrass fan).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk6TBFWy3Ao
mmmmmm…..no. Way to intense. No fun. I see why you’d think so tho. I feel about that, the way you probably felt about the BoDeans.
But I do love that you guys are trying cuz quite frankly, I get tired of the same old stuff. I love to sing along too, so I like a catchy chorus…
Here’s a couple of examples…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEstpk1ucnU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex7mzeywBso
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQnl4TX5wOE
and this is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE SONGS IN THE WORLD…it’ll probably put you to sleep…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-z7M3FZv4E&feature=related
After the march with Jill that year, we went to an Irish bar…there was a band that played this song and I cried like a baby. I kept trying to explain to Jill how much this song meant to me, but she thought I was nuts. Didn’t like it at all. Said, “yeah, okay, it’s nice”. While I was havin’ my heart ripped out…go figure. To each his own.
I like my food really, really simple. If there’s too many flavors I won’t eat it. No condiments. No layers. Tacos (sans the lettuce and tomato) are about as complicated as I go…I’m the same way with music. One instrument played really well, two voices harmonizing…I hate clashing sounds, and electric music.
So if you’ve got any other suggestions I’ll give them a try…I’m open, just picky.
It actually hurts me when I listen to music that I don’t like. Are any of you guys like that?
“Are any of you guys like that?”
Yes. This is why I’m always ranting about Mr. Alexandra and the effing TV-as-background-noise. Or, my fave topic to go off about: people who have crappy headphones and you can hear their music on the subway. RAGE.
The wrong music is a tragedy, IMO. This includes songs that I like, but that are ‘wrong’ at any given moment. I have a pretty extensive music collection but I am really picky about what I’ll listen to at any given moment, on any given day.
I also get cravings for certain songs, almost like food cravings, where suddenly it’s in my head and I just can’t settle until I hear it. It’s almost like a physical need to hear the timbre and the chord progression, etc; I feel restless, or like I’m deficient in a specific nutrient, almost, like how sometimes I crave things high in iron or whatever. When I was a kid I shocked (and disturbed) my camp counselor by saying, when asked, that I would sooner give up my sense of touch than my sense of hearing. Now that I’m an adult…well, I’m not sure which I’d choose, but it’d be a very close match.
PS some of the music I sent you was not because I thought you would enjoy it, but just because it was part of me to share with you! ie the Matt & Kim song, I just thought it was the ‘right’ music to accompany the story I sent you. I like that song but I was pretty sure you wouldn’t.
I thought you would like the last song, though, and the first ones I sent you out of the blue, back before you knew me.
Which brings us full circle to the songs that PIP sent me…I have a CRAVING to hear that “David” song over and over and over until I get my fill! Curse you PIP. And the song “Ride On”…it really does reach down so deep, that I can only “afford” to hear it occasionally.
I rarely get to hear “live music” anymore, as it often involves alcohol, which I have abused in the past, so I stay out of bars as a rule. But when I do hear it, meaning when I hear live music that I love, I have a total breakdown. It is such an emotional experience for me. I wasn’t kidding when I said I was crying at that bar with Jill. Small doses is all I can handle these days…