Girlcott Urban Outfitters' Racist, Sexist, Degrading Products

by Sarah Menkedick · 2010-06-16 09:01:00 UTC
Topics:

Feminist activist Shelby Knox has launched a girlcott of Urban Outfitters, saying the company is producing sexist and degrading clothing.  Knox cites two T-shirts in particular, one that reads "Eat Less" (a healthy slogan in a country in which 65% of women between the ages of 25 and 45 suffer from an eating disorder) and another that says, "Fathers, it's up to you to protect your daughter's virginity!"

If you don't find the pro-ana shirt or the girls-you're-dad's-property slogan offensive, there's still plenty about the company to despise. Urban Outfitters' President Richard Hayne gives bundles of money to the Republican Party and to anti-gay, Prop 8-defender Senator Richard Santorum. UO has printed t-shirts featuring a Palestinian boy with an AK-47 and the word "victimized," which, regardless of your position in regards to Israel, is an example of the blatant commodification and cheapening of a deeply tragic conflict. Years earlier, the company made T-shirts reading "Everybody Loves A Jewish Girl" surrounded by dollar signs and shopping bags.

If that doesn't do it for you, consider the classy "Ghettopoly," which is a sort of Monopoly based on "ghetto" stereotypes and features properties like Smitty's XXX Peep Show and Tyron's Gun Shop, figures of "Malcum X" (intentionally misspelled), and game cards that read "you got yo whole neighborhood addicted to crack. Collect $50." Black clergymen have boycotted the game, unfortunately to no effect.

If that's not your racial stereotype of choice, Urban Outfitters comes to the rescue with a "Chinese Man" Halloween costume. No? How about a tee with "Poverty Sucks" scrawled in gold glitter? Charming, no? And if all that doesn't do it for you, there's always good ol' fashioned union-busting, which UO resorted to at a Swedish store.

The company is, in a word, loathsome. How many girlcotts will it take to prevent it from making more blatantly sexist, racist, classist, prejudiced products? Let's make this one stick — add your voice to the girlcott on Facebook (already at over 700 members), and sign this petition to tell Urban Outfitters to pull its latest line of insulting t-shirts.

Sarah Menkedick is a freelance writer currently based in Oaxaca, Mexico. She has spent the last five years teaching, writing and traveling on five continents. She regularly writes about women's rights.

RELATED PETITION

Tell Urban Outfitters To Pull Sexist T-Shirts!
SIGN PETITION
341 People
PREVIOUS STORY:
The U.S. Checks Itself in 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report
NEXT STORY:
Fox News' Trotta Still Doesn't Get It: I Want Her Rape Apologism Off the Air

COMMENTS (27)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.