Please tell me you’re kidding!
How could a mega-company the size of J. C. Penney do something so ridiculous?
They recently promoted a t-shirt for young girls that read, “I’m too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me” — with colorful rainbows and flowers to make it even more appealing for girls (see picture to left).
This shirt should be rated “R” for “ridiculous”!
We have worked long and hard to get where we are today by encouraging young girls and women to fulfill their full potential. We’ve fought to be recognized for our brains, expertise, skills and abilities more than our looks. Women have become world athletes, CEOs, CFOs, artists, scholars, doctors, presidents of major companies, world leaders, technology experts, major consultants, scientists, engineers, educators, and more. They have accomplished so much with their knowledge, education, skills, and expertise.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with being pretty – and all young girls are beautiful in their own way. But encouraging young girls to think that being pretty means that academics don’t matter is ludicrous. Sending the message that we should leave the academics and scholarly roles to boys is insane. It is the absolute WRONG message to send girls or boys. Not only is the message wrong, it is degrading to the person who wears such a shirt.
And who buys this shirt for their daughter? We know that young girls don’t have the money or a driver’s license to do their own shopping. And they don’t choose their clothes alone. Their parents see them leave the house for school. What parent thinks this is okay?
A clothing line that promotes this message is ridiculous. I was appalled when I actually saw one of these shirts. But as I was preparing to write this article, I found that J. C. Penney had pulled the shirt from their inventory with the following statement:
“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’m sure there are many of these shirts already in the closets of little girls somewhere, but hopefully they are smart enough to destroy them and not spread the wrong message. As parents and grandparents, it’s important that we are vigilant about these types of subtle messages that create and instill a lack of self-confidence in young girls, and lower their drive, ambition and motivation to work hard.
I’m glad J. C. Penney pulled this merchandise from their shelves – but I have to wonder who within their organization thought it was okay to put it on the shelves to begin with.
Maybe they should remove that person from J. C. Penney too.
