- NEW YORK (Sapa-AP) -- The
T-shirts and pyjamas are meant to be funny, with cartoon captions like
"Boys Are Stupid - Throw Rocks At Them". But some protesters,
encouraged by a fathers'-rights talk show host, are not amused and have
pressured three retail chains into dropping the merchandise.
-
- The products in question - an array of girls' clothes
and accessories - are manufactured or licensed by David & Goliath,
a T-shirt company based in Clearwater, Florida.
-
- Its chief designer, Todd Goldman, has created a series
of cartoonish graphics used on the merchandise with what he intended to
be humorously anti-boy themes. "Boys Are Smelly - Throw Garbage Cans
At Them," says one. "The Stupid Factory - Where Boys Are Made,"
says another.
-
- "I have a very quirky, sarcastic sense of humour,"
Goldman said in an interview. "Most people just love the cartoons.
If a few people don't like them, they don't have to buy them."
-
- The graphics have been in use more than two years, but
only recently came to the attention of Glenn Sacks, a commentator who hosts
His Side, a weekly radio show aired in Los Angeles and Seattle that is
sympathetic to the fathers' rights movement and often at odds with feminists.
-
- At Sacks's urging, listeners and supporters have contacted
targeted retailers by email and other means, urging them to stop selling
the David & Goliath products. At least three retailers, international
chain Claire's Stores, Seattle-based Bon-Macy's and California-based Tilly's,
say they will no longer carry the contested items.
-
- Claire's Stores, which operates more than 2 800 stores
in North America, Europe and Japan, determined after an internal review
that its branches were carrying only a few items - including cosmetic bags
and lip balm - with the Boys Are Stupid graphics.
-
- "We've cancelled all pending orders that bear any
of the slogans that people found offensive," company spokesperson
Marisa Jacobs said.
-
- Bon-Macy's spokesperson Kimberly Reason said about a
dozen products ranging from boxer shorts to baseball caps were pulled from
the chain's stores in five western states because they displayed one of
three captions: "Boys Are Stupid", "Boys Are Smelly",
and "Boys Have Cooties".
-
- Tilly's, which operates 32 stores in Southern California,
responded immediately to the complaints by withdrawing all Boys Are Stupid
items and cancelling pending orders, senior vice president Sam Mendelsohn
said.
-
- "I agree with what the people said," Mendelsohn
said. "It was a problem and we were not aware of it."
-
- Sacks, in a telephone interview, said reaction to the
protest campaign had been largely positive, although some people have suggested
he was overreacting.
-
- "I'm sorry if I sound like a humourless zealot,
but I just don't see the humour in it," Sacks said. "My 11-year-old
son, whatever the joke is, he just doesn't understand it, either."
-
- He contended that many marketers, while wary of offending
women and minorities, "have developed a moral blind spot toward disparaging
males".
-
- Sacks argues that the Boys Are Stupid products promote
anti-male violence; some of his supporters have challenged groups that
combat domestic violence against women to endorse their campaign.
-
- His complaints make sense to Joe Kelly, president of
a Duluth, Minnesota-based organisation called Dads and Daughters that often
opposes marketing pitches it views as detrimental to girls.
-
- "There's a stupid notion that being pro-girl is
being anti-boy - it just isn't so," Kelly said. "I can see where
parents and kids of both genders would be offended."
-
- Goldman thinks the idea that he's promoting violence
is ridiculous. "If you look at the violence in rap songs, in video
games - that's what they should be concentrating on, not a cartoon T-shirt,"
he said.
-
- Like many targets of consumer protests, Goldman said
the controversy about his products has boosted sales, especially over the
Internet.
-
- "It's the best advertisement I can ask for,"
he said. "We're one of the hottest junior lines out there."
-
- ©2004. All rights strictly reserved.
-
- http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=
- 22&art_id=qw1075435024798B223&set_id=1
-
-
- Comment
From Steve Evets
2-1-4
-
- Jeff - It seems like Sacks (the radio commentator) and
Goldman were working together on this one. How popular would the line
of clothing have been if nothing was mentioned on the radio? Impressionable
girls will buy this stuff and the message, wether harmelss or not, will
be burned into their minds. Most girls are already influenced or brainwashed
by popular magazines, television sitcoms, rap music videos. Conscience
develops in the pre-teen and teenage years and therefore it'll probably
be easy for girls to have a poor attitude towards boys. In that mindset,
it will be easier to sell them novelties with which they think they identify.
There may be new "anti-boy" products later on that will appeal
to them such as books, movies, music, magazines, clubs to join. Basically,
create a culture and sell products to the people adopting that culture
so they can identify themselves as the type of person they think they are.
In turn, other impressionable teen girls will think, ok, these girls might
know something I don't and join the club.
-
- That's my take on it . . Steve
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