Unfortunately, the "back to school shopping" season also perennially brings with it clear and hard to mistake images of a young-Americanhood which many find to be more offensive than idyllic. This week the retail chain Urban Outfitters, which opened a franchise in Louisville this fall on Bardstown Road to a mixed reception, has been in the hot seat for images appearing in their online catalogue of a young girl, possibly underage, sporting a T-Shirt from the company's fall inventory with the phrase "I drink, You're cute" emblazoned in large, blurry text across the front. The message here is an obvious acknowledgement of lowered sexual inhibitions brought about by excessive consumption of alcohol. Of course this T-Shirt isn't the first to raise eyebrows among potential buyers in such a way, last fall J.C. Penny found themselves in similar trouble over a shirt, marketed to an even younger demographic than Urban Outfitters appeals to with a shirt which read, "I'm too pretty to do my homework, so my brother has to do it for me." Again and again disempowering slogans appear, apparently labeling young women (literally) as being enrolled in school not to obtain an education, but to be attractive and even subordinate to their male peers.
As you might have imagined, the teenage consumer archetype isn't the only group susceptible to this type of gender-biased marketing. As older (and younger) American women are indoctrinated to believe that their late teens is a kind of gold age, apparel in other markets begins to resemble and follow the trends set by youth fashion. Nike was recently scrutinized for it's "Gold Digging" T-Shirt marketed during this summer's Olympic games in London, available ONLY in women's sizes.
"I'm intoxicated therefore, I'll probably sleep with you." "My brother is smarter than me because being 'pretty,' and being smart are mutually exclusive." "I'll trade romantic favors for riches and status."
What's most interesting to me about these particular products is the way in which the messages they convey relate one gender, that of American girls and women, to another: American males. Of course there are other examples of controversial clothing marketed to girls reinforcing the idea that they can't succeed academically, but not all so directly involve boys as a contrast.
The good news, perhaps, is that each of these shirts mentioned have received such objections from consumers that retailers have been forced to pull them off of shelves.
