Monday 14 January 2008

Little Losers ... not so funny

Megan @ Imaginif wrote this post about a line of t-shirts being sold in Jay Jays trading on the back of the Little Miss and Mr Men characters, popular children’s books, by Roger Hargreaves.

Except these t-shirts have the names Miss Wasted, Mr Drunk, Mr Well Hung and more. Even the original MR men have been changed now to be more PC.

I know some teens would see these as harmless and funny, as would some adults, but seriously are these labels and behaviours what we want to encourage of our youth. I know there are much bigger issues out there in child protection and safety. It all has to start some where. Who wants their son to be known as Mr P.imp or Ass.hole?

It is lowering the bar even more in terms of acceptable behaviour and clothing. I still hate my teen wearing his pants half way down and boxers showing out the top.

I shudder when I see young tweens in adult and provocative clothing. I remember as a teen being harassed about my budding breasts through my t-shirts by joking adults (actually friends of relatives) - I had nothing to put even in a training bra and I was made to feel dirty by their comments (on several occasions) . I made sure I covered up always in a jacket, even in summer, for a while outside of home.

Yes, some might say it is our freedom to dress as we please and the social 'morality' police have no right to comment but it all comes back to a community responsibility to guide our teens in the right direction. These shirts no do nothing except send the wrong message
that dumb our kids down and encourage illegal and abusive behaviour!
I would be quite embarrassed actually for my son too - imagining what people might think of him.

Megan says if you heard someone saying such negative things to your child -you would be creating a furore.

In this country we can voice our opinion and I encourage those who find these t shirts offensive to send their complaint to Jay Jay's too. More details @ Imaginif.

10 comments :

Anonymous said...

Very well said Trish. Thank you for joining the loud parent voice that is calling for Jay Jays to remove the derogatory messages about teenage culture.

I'll go and add your post to the list we've got going over in the Imaginif Safety Talk forum too.

Anonymous said...

I agree whole heartedly. They are terrible.
I would never let my girls wear them in a thousand years.

frog ponds rock... said...

Thanks for this post Trish.. and double thanks, because Megan's was one of the bookmarks that Amy had deleted..
I will try and write a post about this tomorrow.. I will be complaining to Jay Jays as well..
cheers Kim.

Cathy said...

There's a whole generation that thinks it's "cool" to call people derogatory names - it's a little disturbing and sad.

Tripletblessed said...

I couldn't agree more. I can't believe how many companies there are designing clothes that are made to look cheap and make our children look cheap. It is completely unacceptable.
On another note thanks for following along my journey!

Robyn Jones said...

Thank you so much for posting this...It is good to see someone who is still willing to stand up for morals...I hate to see stuff like this sold. It is unacceptable...and I would NEVER allow my girls to wear such garbage. I will definately be posting a complaint at their site. What makes me sad though, is that in order for these companies to produce this crap, SOMEONE out there allows their kids to buy this stuff....I am seeing younger and younger children dressing like Britany Spears and wearing make-up and derogatory t-s like these...then we get mad at our kids for acting the part....

Thanks again Trish!

Momisodes said...

I agree as well. I am not a fan of these T-shirts.. great post and well written :)

Kellan said...

I don't agree with these types of t-shirts at all!! It's crazy - the stuff our kids have to deal with and us parents have to deal with.

Hey - thanks for coming over and leaving the well wishes - I am fine - only need to remember about that bra thing the next time I ever have to call 911. Hope to see you tomorrow. Kellan

Anonymous said...

I don't like those things either. Ditto some of the inappropriate stuff I saw in Cotton on Kids the other day.

Anonymous said...

Thnks for visiting The abundance highway and for the thoguhtful commnt

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