Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below 
Student 'girlcott' protests Abercrombie t-shirts
BY JIMMY GREENFIELD
RedEye
November 2, 2005
With a few words on their T-shirts, Abercrombie & Fitch lets young women send a message: "Who needs a brain when you have these?", "I had a nightmare that I was a brunette" and "Available for parties".
A group of female high school students have a message for A&F: Stop degrading us.
The Allegheny County (Pa.) Girls have started a boycott--or girlcott, as they're calling it--of the retailer. The campaign, conceived three weeks ago during the group's monthly meeting, went national Tuesday morning on NBC's "Today" show.
"We're telling [girls] to think about the fact that they're being degraded," Emma Blackman-Mathis, the 16-year-old co-chair of the group, told RedEye on Tuesday. "We're all going to come together in this one effort to fight this message that we're getting from pop culture."
Abercrombie has been a lightning rod for criticism. In 2003, a catalog containing photos of topless women and bare-bottomed men provoked so much outrage that the company pulled the publication.
Last year, after the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team failed to win a gold medal, the company sold T-shirts with the phrase "L is for loser" next to a picture of a gymnast on the rings. Those shirts were pulled from the racks after USA Gymastics called for a boycott.
While Abercrombie backed down in those cases, it show no signs of doing so this time.
"Our clothing appeals to a wide variety of customers. These particular T-shirts have been very popular among adult women to whom they are marketed," a company spokesman said in a statement.
News of the girlcott hadn't reached Tawana Clark, 20, who was applying for a job at the Abercrombie & Fitch store in Water Tower Place on Tuesday. But she doesn't think the protest will work.
"I think it's only older people that have a problem with it," she said. "Teenagers don't have a problem with it."
Clark sees the shirts as funny, not offensive.
"It's not to be taken seriously," she said.
If this isn't stupid enough, this idiot is even worse?
Indiana State Senator Steve Rauschenberger says he plans to introduce a resolution in the state Senate this week, calling on trendy retailer Abercrombie and Fitch to stop selling a line of racy t-shirts.
The Republican, who is a GOP candidate for governor, says the $24.50 t-shirts are "offensive" and "degrading." He says if the Senate resolution doesn't stop Abercrombie from selling its shirts - he'll lead a boycott of the stores.
The 49-year-old state Senator says he doesn't pretend to be the bellwether of what's cool but he believes the t-shirts disrespect women.
Some teenage girls across the country also are calling for a boycott of Abercrombie. The women and girls say the shirts are degrading, but Abercrombie says plenty of women are buying them.
BY JIMMY GREENFIELD
RedEye
November 2, 2005
With a few words on their T-shirts, Abercrombie & Fitch lets young women send a message: "Who needs a brain when you have these?", "I had a nightmare that I was a brunette" and "Available for parties".
A group of female high school students have a message for A&F: Stop degrading us.
The Allegheny County (Pa.) Girls have started a boycott--or girlcott, as they're calling it--of the retailer. The campaign, conceived three weeks ago during the group's monthly meeting, went national Tuesday morning on NBC's "Today" show.
"We're telling [girls] to think about the fact that they're being degraded," Emma Blackman-Mathis, the 16-year-old co-chair of the group, told RedEye on Tuesday. "We're all going to come together in this one effort to fight this message that we're getting from pop culture."
Abercrombie has been a lightning rod for criticism. In 2003, a catalog containing photos of topless women and bare-bottomed men provoked so much outrage that the company pulled the publication.
Last year, after the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team failed to win a gold medal, the company sold T-shirts with the phrase "L is for loser" next to a picture of a gymnast on the rings. Those shirts were pulled from the racks after USA Gymastics called for a boycott.
While Abercrombie backed down in those cases, it show no signs of doing so this time.
"Our clothing appeals to a wide variety of customers. These particular T-shirts have been very popular among adult women to whom they are marketed," a company spokesman said in a statement.
News of the girlcott hadn't reached Tawana Clark, 20, who was applying for a job at the Abercrombie & Fitch store in Water Tower Place on Tuesday. But she doesn't think the protest will work.
"I think it's only older people that have a problem with it," she said. "Teenagers don't have a problem with it."
Clark sees the shirts as funny, not offensive.
"It's not to be taken seriously," she said.
If this isn't stupid enough, this idiot is even worse?
Indiana State Senator Steve Rauschenberger says he plans to introduce a resolution in the state Senate this week, calling on trendy retailer Abercrombie and Fitch to stop selling a line of racy t-shirts.
The Republican, who is a GOP candidate for governor, says the $24.50 t-shirts are "offensive" and "degrading." He says if the Senate resolution doesn't stop Abercrombie from selling its shirts - he'll lead a boycott of the stores.
The 49-year-old state Senator says he doesn't pretend to be the bellwether of what's cool but he believes the t-shirts disrespect women.
Some teenage girls across the country also are calling for a boycott of Abercrombie. The women and girls say the shirts are degrading, but Abercrombie says plenty of women are buying them.
