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I’m too pretty to come up with a title for this post. I wonder if my brother’s busy.

Caperton

Unimportant update: Turns out my brother was actually busy recovering from back surgery, which slipped my mind only for a second, I swear. Regardless, he was game to do my homework for me, thank God.

I believe the children are our future, let them blah blah whatever

Screw some homework, amiright? (Actually, yeah, screw some homework. I’m all for education, but I hated homework.) Our girls have better things to do, like listening to Justin Bieber and being pretty. That’s what J.C. Penney thinks, anyway.

I’m too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me

Who has time for homework when there’s a new Justin Bieber album out? She’ll love this tee that’s just as cute and sassy as she is.

No, it actually says that. Not even “I’m too busy to do homework,” but too pretty, because prettiness is a barrier to homework-doing ability. Thank God there’s a guy around to take care of that. A fine message for our girls, sure to inspire them on their way into a lovely, dim adulthood.

Thankfully J.C. Penney was quick to pull the shirt and issue an apology:

J.C. Penney is committed to being America’s destination for great style and great value for the whole family. We agree that the “Too pretty” t-shirt does not deliver an appropriate message, and we have immediately discontinued its sale. Our merchandise is intended to appeal to a broad customer base, not to offend them. We would like to apologize to our customers and are taking action to ensure that we continue to uphold the integrity of our merchandise that they have come to expect.

I really, really hate to reject an apology when it’s sincerely given, but… sorry, JCP. Merchandise comes to your stores via your buyers, which means that at some point, someone on your staff said, “You know what would appeal to girls 7-16? A t-shirt about girls being too pretty to be smart and having to rely on boys instead.” And then every employee who touched it between wholesaler and Web site said, “Yeah, that works.” Your merchandise is not intended to offend your customer base, but you have at least one buyer–a children’s buyer–who thinks that that message is “cute” and “sassy” and not offensive. Thank God–for the sake of society–parents seem to disagree, such that the shirt had been marked down 41 percent by the time it was pulled.

Here’s an action you can take to “uphold the integrity of [your] merchandise” (Abercrombie, Hollister, you might want to read along): educate your buyers. If you have a message in mind that you find appropriate, make sure they know. It doesn’t even have to be explicitly pro-smart chick (although that would be nice), as long as it isn’t the oh-so-empowering “Daddy’s Expensive Little Princess.” With all of the media messages hitting ever-younger girls with the message that the most important thing in life is to be pretty and nonthreatening, it’s hard enough convincing a six-year-old that it’s possible to be smart as well as pretty–or, even better, just smart. Make sure you understand that, and once you do, make sure your children’s buyers understand it too. Give parents a break. It’s not your job to raise the world’s kids, but the least you could do is help instead of hinder.

29 thoughts on I’m too pretty to come up with a title for this post. I wonder if my brother’s busy.

  4. I agree that this is appalling. We definitely have to deal with the media and other companies sensationalizing sex these days. I wonder what they will do with all of those horrific shirts now.

  5. This is disgusting on so many levels… As the mama of a wonderfully smart 4 year old who will be starting kindergarten in a week and who is a panic spiral as the DAY approaches, I have to hope and pray that not only will my/her family/friends support her as a smart (and yes, undeniably pretty, but what the hell does THAT matter) little person, but that the parents of the OTHER kids will do the same with their progeny.

    I’d hate for my daughter to have her first independent in-school reading experience to be one of those tshirts on a little girl across the classroom…

  6. I have to say this is why I got Moxie girlz instead of Barbies for my daughter and her friends. http://www.moxiegirlz.com/?section=moxiehomepage
    Not the best, but one of the dolls comes with a shirt that says “I love math” and the dolls want to be film directors, songwriters, like sports and music etc. I mean if you have to get dress up dolls these don’t suck (they do however have the perfect hair and the anime big eyes).

  7. Why reject the apology? They admitted their error (without any weasely “we’re sorry people were offended”), pulled the shirts, and are apparently taking action to make sure the buyers etc. involved don’t do something so stupid again. Other than the event never happening in the first place, what more are we looking for?

  8. Merchandise comes to your stores via your buyers, which means that at some point, someone on your staff said, “You know what would appeal to girls 7-16? A t-shirt about girls being too pretty to be smart and having to rely on boys instead.” And then every employee who touched it between wholesaler and Web site said, “Yeah, that works.” Your merchandise is not intended to offend your customer base

    Not true, was only online. Chances are it got added to online inventory via another vendor product. Its not like a team of people thinking muahahahah how can we make women look stupid today.

  9. Damn…I’m too pretty to work today, but I don’t have a brother. Anyone have one they want to loan out?

  10. eff this bullshit, should just be honest and put “will trade sex for livelihood” on t-shirts for girls. Sh!t like this makes me wonder WTF people are thinking as in WHO bought the shirt before it was pulled? The same moms, who no doubt in all earnestness, offer their daughters up to tiny tot beauty pageants. Women who are themselves totally convinced that their worth derives from their appearance. SIGH

  11. If you made a shirt like that, feMOMhist, I might actually wear it. It would at least lay bare what most consumers nowadays take for granted — that sex is really a commodity (with virginity fetching the highest price… in red states with purity pledges anyway. The rest of us can focus on girls’ other qualities, like maybe their brains). :-p

  12. Vail:
    I have to say this is why I got Moxie girlz instead of Barbies for my daughter and her friends.http://www.moxiegirlz.com/?section=moxiehomepage
    Not the best, but one of the dolls comes with a shirt that says “I love math” and the dolls want to be film directors, songwriters, like sports and music etc.I mean if you have to get dress up dolls these don’t suck (they do however have the perfect hair and the anime big eyes).

    I am bothered that the Asian doll gets the ‘I am smart’ package while the white one gets the ‘I am tough’…but I do rather like these dolls otherwise. They have an RC car you can color (*total geek here*)!

  13. No kidding, Elaine! My first thought was “girl, you trust your brother to do your homework? -_- Odds are he’s not even planning on doing his own homework.”

  14. Kristen J.:
    Damn…I’m too pretty to work today, but I don’t have a brother.Anyone have one they want to loan out?

    My brother doesn’t have a JD, but he does have a winkie. You can borrow him! My understanding is that this shouldn’t be a problem.

  15. Those t-shirts are ridiculous, for sure. And I completely agree that it wouldn’t kill them to help instead of hinder, even though parenting isn’t their job, still, why approve of something that is doing no one any favors?

    I am a bit curious as to why you decided to dismiss the apology though. Was there something you were expecting them to say that they didn’t? Not trying to pick and pry, just genuinely curious. Maybe I am too much of a forgiving person…thoughts?

  16. What a… really terrible message to be exposing girls to. How about, “Just add SCIENCE!” or – you know what, pretty much anything not from the mainstream stores that actually gives girls some POWER instead of forcing gender stereotypes on them. We’ve really had enough of that BS.

  17. The reason the initial statement didn’t impress me was that it basically read like Corporate Statement Mad Libs–out of four sentences, one actually mentioned the offending product, one was a marketing pitch, and the other two were generic, boilerplate apology copy. It’s pretty much the same statement they gave back when they sold the juniors t-shirts that said “Had a great time last night, whoever he was” and “You don’t know my name, but your girlfriend does”; and when they sold “back-to-school” t-shirts with beer logos on them.

    I feel a lot better, though, since the Village Voice managed to talk to J.C. Penney’s corporate communications manager. She personalized it and was able to point to some of JCP’s priorities and the support they give to schools as an example of exactly how out of line this shirt was. It can suck to be a corporate spokesperson, but it’s such an important job in a situation like this.

  20. John: Its not like a team of people thinking muahahahah how can we make women look stupid today.

    Intent, it’s fucking magic.

    No, sorry, I’m being flip. But assuming at least one person in the chain of decision-making could read English, the message of the shirt was fairly clear. So no, chances are no one was setting out to spread toxic messages — well, the design house, but they may not have thought through the meme — but nor was anyone on the lookout for them. Most likely no one said “this is a toxic message and we should promote it,” but nor did anyone say “this is a toxic message and we shouldn’t promote it.”

  21. konkonsn: I am bothered that the Asian doll gets the ‘I am smart’ package while the white one gets the ‘I am tough’…but I do rather like these dolls otherwise.They have an RC car you can color (*total geek here*)!

    Yeah I wasn’t happy about that either. I think she was even playing the violin and wearing glasses on that box too.

  22. de Pizan:
    I’m glad they pulled that one, but they’re still selling this unfortunate shirt: http://tinyurl.com/3b2esfa.

    I really do have to wonder about the damage being done with these “message tees”. I find myself saying, “WHAT were they thinking when they came up with that crap”. But, then, we live in a society where there are mothers who buy gift certificates for their little girl’s future breast augmentation. So, why should it surprise me to see sexist slogans on tees?

    http://www.opposingviews.com/i/human-barbie-sarah-burge-buys-daughter-7-boob-job

  23. It’s a variation on “It’s better to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission.” It’s more profitable for them to to screw up and apologize later than to police themselves from the beginning.

    …to talk to J.C. Penney’s corporate communications manager. She personalized it and was able to point to some of JCP’s priorities and the support they give to…

    Hmph, they sent a woman out to apologize to women. You can be sure she was trained to personalize it – it was on her resume, and would have been part of her interview.

    When the shit really blows up for a company, who comes out to do the talking? The CEO, someone in charge, a decision maker. Because we don’t trust spokesmen – people who are hired to act and say certain things. Would you trust me if I had a publicist following me around, a professional apologizer? You can be sure she would look and sound sincere – the best out of all the applicants, more honest sounding than the last two publicists I fired.

    Okay, I’m not really that cynical. In my own job I sometimes deal with our Corporate Comms, and I respect them for their ability to take my geek speak and translate it to the world, and for their ability to handle their own situations in their own scope, just like I do. But I don’t forget that talking to the press is a job, with a job description, and like me their job is to make money for the company. And I don’t forget that a company (or government or organization) can do evil even when every employee is good and doing good things.

  24. John apparently is pretty sure that the fashion industry doesn’t deliberately stoke women and girls’ insecurities in order to sell them more crap. John has apparently never seen a fashion magazine. sure, they might not think about how to make women look stupid, per se, but do they want women and girls to think that their worth comes in their attractiveness so they buy more shit? If you don’t think so, it ain’t the women that are looking stupid in this conversation.

    Nevermind that John has manufactured a strawman here. Is the shirt is about making women look stupid, or is it about making women look manipulative, among other things? I don’t believe it was said that not needing to do your own homework synonymous with stupid, at least not by anyone but John.

  25. samanthab: sure, they might not think about how to make women look stupid, per se, but do they want women and girls to think that their worth comes in their attractiveness so they buy more shit? If you don’t think so, it ain’t the women that are looking stupid in this conversation.

    That’s something I should have realized but didn’t think of; where I said probably I should have said possibly.

    I stand by the part where it really doesn’t matter if anyone at JCP meant to say anything problematic, but I shouldn’t have come off quite so confident they didn’t.

  26. One time my friend and I went through the t-shirt section at Value Village (giant thrift store in canada) taking pictures of the t-shirts we found with disturbing messages… some of the ones we found we were like “WTF.. people WEAR these?”. These weren’t even kids shirts, also the shirts for grown women.

    I don’t know if these pics will link properly but here’s a couple of the ones we found:

    Seriously.. what the fuck? Who wears this?

    … because you can’t be smart AND pretty

    Pretty sure this was promotional at one point, but taken out of context…

    … not all of them were bad though

  27. In my family, my brother was the one who never, ever, ever did his homework. He was content to get Bs in classes where he would have gotten As if he’d just done his homework.

    It also reminds me of a former teacher of mine who has admitted on several occasions that she wrote all her husband’s papers in college. Yupppp. It’s us girlyfolk who are educationally lazy.

    (And then men whinge that too many women are going to college and that the poor men are being oppressed by all that girly homework that they don’t want to do.)

  28. Bonn:
    In my family, my brother was the one who never, ever, ever did his homework.He was content to get Bs in classes where he would have gotten As if he’d just done his homework.

    And that has nothing to do with the school, it’s all about him and you? As my fourth child enters middle school… I’m still depressed about the whole thing. I try to tell them it will be different after highschool, but they don’t see it. One will never go on to college, two will because it’s expected, and one fits right in perfectly.

    (And then men whinge that too many women are going to college and that the poor men are being oppressed by all that girly homework that they don’t want to do.)

    You would celebrate a 50% success rate for our K-12 schools?

  29. Bonn:
    (And then men whinge that too many women are going to college and that the poor men are being oppressed by all that girly homework that they don’t want to do.)

    Yes, because fearing that too few of our sons are making it to college is exactly the same as saying that too many women are going to college. Our stupid male minds can’t possibly be suggesting that more men and more women could simultaneously be attending college.

    And fears about over diagnosing(ADHD), over medicating(because of the supposed ADHD), and ultimately over disciplining (via suspensions that show up on transcripts) can probably be accurately described as “we think homework is girly.”

    At least it’s nice to see that gross insensitivity is not exclusively a male trait.

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