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Clothing retailer Topman comes under fire for selling T-shirts that seem to promote domestic violence
By Magda Mis
LONDON (TrustLaw) – “Nice new girlfriend. What breed is she?”
“I'm sorry, but…you provoked me."
British men's clothing store Topman has removed from its shelves T-shirts bearing these slogans after an outcry from women's rights campaigners, who accused the retailer of promoting misogyny and trivialising domestic violence.
One T-shirt featured a checklist of excuses for an unspecified wrongdoing: “You provoked me”, “I was drunk”, “I was having a bad day”, “I hate you”, “I didn't mean it” and “I couldn't help it”. The other seemed to compare women to dogs.
The controversial T-shirts have triggered fierce debate in Britain. Some see the slogans as harmlessly ironic while others view them as at best offensive to women and at worst downright dangerous.
Topman defended its decision to stock the T-shirts in a statement.
“We have received some negative feedback regarding two of our printed T-shirts,” it said. “Whilst we would like to stress that these T-shirts were meant to be light-hearted and carried no serious meaning, we have made the decision to remove these from store and on-line as soon as possible.
“We would like to apologise to those who may have been offended by these designs.”
The withdrawal followed a campaign by anti-abuse charity Tender, which said they “appeared to make light of excuses made for domestic abuse”.
“These kinds of slogans provide a context where we accept the image of the domestic violence perpetrator as the 'cheeky chap' who can be excused',” Tender said in a statement.
“These messages contribute to the likelihood of violence occurring, the acceptance of it as a social norm and the pressure on victims not to complain. We've seen the results of these attitudes and we simply can't take it as a joke.”
According to Tender, every year in Britain 100 women and 20 men die as a result of domestic abuse.
“…When a mainstream outlet has a funny take on a serious subject, it suggests that the subject no longer needs to be taken seriously,” Tender said.
Ellie Mae O'Hagan, writing in the Guardian Comment is Free blog, took the argument further.
“Misogyny is so archaic, Topman seems to be saying, that we can now print jokes about it on T-shirts sold on every high street in the country. The objectification and dehumanisation of women is such an inescapable part of popular culture that it necessarily plays a part in the daily interactions of men and women.”
Others have added to the chorus of condemnation.
“Has society stooped so low that it accepts messages making light of domestic abuse from its high-street retailers?” wonders Niki May Young, web editor of Civil Society Media, a company that focuses on charities and other civil-society organisations.
But Brendan O'Neill, writing in the Telegraph, presents a different opinion.
“Where once feminists were concerned with liberating women, now they're obsessed with controlling and censoring men, especially young, possibly cocky men, the kind who shop in Topman, who could apparently transmogrify into women-haters simply by donning a dodgy T-shirt,” he wrote.
Marie Horner, who started a group called STopman on Facebook, said: “Promoting the excuses that men use to get away with abusing women is clearly wrong, whether it's on a T-shirt or not.”
Meanwhile, another member of the Facebook group who goes by the name TinkerBella added: “Why has topman let a t-shirt in their shop that is so distasteful, disrespectful… Domestic violence is not a selling point...”
A Topman spokeswoman declined to comment beyond the company’s statement, and TrustLaw was unable to verify how many T-shirts were sold or if they were also distributed outside Britain.
It’s not the first time a high-street clothing chain has triggered outrage with garments deemed by some to send the wrong kind of message.
In March, U.S. retailer Abercrombie & Fitch caused a furore with a line of push-up bikini tops for young girls. Parents and sociologists accused the retailer of encouraging girls to think about themselves in a sexual way, and for sexualising them in the eyes of others.
Abercrombie responded by changing its description of the product, simply calling it a padded, “striped triangle”.
In 2010, a number of British retailers, among them Next and Primark, came under fire for offering products like high heel shoes and padded bikini tops for girls as young as seven.
Then Prime Minister Gordon Brown and opposition leader David Cameron criticised the bikini tops. Primark responded by taking them off the market. The company apologised and offered to donate profits from bikinis already sold to a children's charity.
By Magda Mis
LONDON (TrustLaw) – “Nice new girlfriend. What breed is she?”
“'I’m sorry, but…you provoked me.”
British men’s clothing store Topman has removed from its shelves T-shirts bearing these slogans after an outcry from women's rights campaigners, who accused the retailer of promoting misogyny and trivialising domestic violence.
One T-shirt featured a checklist of excuses for an unspecified wrongdoing: “You provoked me”, “I was drunk”, “I was having a bad day”, “I hate you”, “I didn't mean it” and “I couldn't help it”. The other seemed to compare women to dogs.
The controversial T-shirts have triggered fierce debate in Britain. Some see the slogans as harmlessly ironic while others view them as at best offensive to women and at worst downright dangerous.
Topman defended its decision to stock the T-shirts in a statement.
“We have received some negative feedback regarding two of our printed T-shirts,” it said. “Whilst we would like to stress that these T-shirts were meant to be light-hearted and carried no serious meaning, we have made the decision to remove these from store and on-line as soon as possible.
“We would like to apologise to those who may have been offended by these designs.”
The withdrawal followed a campaign by anti-abuse charity Tender, which said they “appeared to make light of excuses made for domestic abuse”.
“These kinds of slogans provide a context where we accept the image of the domestic violence perpetrator as the 'cheeky chap' who can be excused',” Tender said in a statement.
“These messages contribute to the likelihood of violence occurring, the acceptance of it as a social norm and the pressure on victims not to complain. We've seen the results of these attitudes and we simply can't take it as a joke.”
According to Tender, every year in Britain 100 women and 20 men die as a result of domestic abuse.
“…When a mainstream outlet has a funny take on a serious subject, it suggests that the subject no longer needs to be taken seriously,” Tender said.
Ellie Mae O'Hagan, writing in the Guardian Comment is Free blog, took the argument further.
“Misogyny is so archaic, Topman seems to be saying, that we can now print jokes about it on T-shirts sold on every high street in the country. The objectification and dehumanisation of women is such an inescapable part of popular culture that it necessarily plays a part in the daily interactions of men and women.”
Others have added to the chorus of condemnation.
“Has society stooped so low that it accepts messages making light of domestic abuse from its high-street retailers?” wonders Niki May Young, web editor of Civil Society Media, a company that focuses on charities and other civil-society organisations.
But Brendan O'Neill, writing in the Telegraph, presents a different opinion.
“Where once feminists were concerned with liberating women, now they're obsessed with controlling and censoring men, especially young, possibly cocky men, the kind who shop in Topman, who could apparently transmogrify into women-haters simply by donning a dodgy T-shirt,” he wrote.
Marie Horner, who started a group called STopman on Facebook, said: “Promoting the excuses that men use to get away with abusing women is clearly wrong, whether it's on a T-shirt or not.”
Meanwhile, another member of the Facebook group who goes by the name TinkerBella added: “Why has topman let a t-shirt in their shop that is so distasteful, disrespectful… Domestic violence is not a selling point...”
A Topman spokeswoman declined to comment beyond the company’s statement, and TrustLaw was unable to verify how many T-shirts were sold or if they were also distributed outside Britain.
It’s not the first time a high-street clothing chain has triggered outrage with garments deemed by some to send the wrong kind of message.
In March, U.S. retailer Abercrombie & Fitch caused a furore with a line of push-up bikini tops for young girls. Parents and sociologists accused the retailer of encouraging girls to think about themselves in a sexual way, and for sexualising them in the eyes of others.
Abercrombie responded by changing its description of the product, simply calling it a padded, “striped triangle”.
In 2010, a number of British retailers, among them Next and Primark, came under fire for offering products like high heel shoes and padded bikini tops for girls as young as seven.
Then Prime Minister Gordon Brown and opposition leader David Cameron criticised the bikini tops. Primark responded by taking them off the market. The company apologised and offered to donate profits from bikinis already sold to a children's charity.
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