Graphic T-Shirts Degrading Women
JON
PIERIK
January 24, 2010
Two of the T-shirt
designs. Photo: Craig Sillitoe
T-SHIRT slogans
condoning rape and featuring semi-naked and gagged women have outraged
anti-exploitation advocates.
An Australian
website, run out of
The tops have been
designed for men and, surprisingly, women.
Menswear company
Roger David has also been embroiled in the furore through two of its
controversial T-shirt labels.
One T-shirt, by Los
Angeles-based company Blood Is the New Black, shows a woman who appears gagged
and roughed up. The other, by US brand Chaser LA, has two semi-naked women with
a strip across their eyes.
The graphic T-shirts
have angered women's groups, while a Facebook group called ''Roger David: NOT
ok to promote violence against women!'' already has more than 800 members.
Women's advocate and
co-founder of the anti-exploitation group Collective Shout, Melinda Tankard
Reist, says the T-shirts must be outlawed.
''[They are] mocking
the serious crime of rape,'' she said. ''I don't think there has been any
consideration of the message it sends sexual assault survivors.''
The image used by
Chaser LA was largely copied from a controversial 1974 album cover by British
rock band Roxy Music.
''They're taking
messages you would normally find in pornography or the sex industry and
mainstreaming them in what was once considered conservative menswear stores,''
Ms Tankard Reist said. ''Is this how Roger David likes its women? Is this how
it thinks women should be portrayed?''
Roger David didn't
return calls but an insider said its T-shirts had been selling ''reasonably
well''.
Chrystina Woody, a
spokeswoman for Blood Is the New Black, suggested the T-shirts, as art, would
spark debate. ''Art is meant to inspire and educate, and the meaning and
interpretation is left in the hands of the viewer,'' she said via email.
A spokeswoman for the
LA-based T-shirt website said the company was not responsible for material
designers provided, as long as it met the requirements of the site's user
agreement.
But according to the
site's user content clause, designers are not allowed to use images deemed
''abusive, vulgar, harassing, pornographic, indecent and socially and morally
objectionable''.
Director of Kids Free
2B Kids Julie Gale said clothing degrading women was a growing concern, and
that many of these images were now on the shelves of mainstream stores.
''A lot of young
females are starting to sexualise themselves in the way they present themselves
and young men are reading them a certain way,'' she said.