A shopper at an Augusta Kmart was shocked, shocked to see a children’s t-shirt featuring “two panels of stick figures, with a male figure pushing a female figure out of a box.” The shirt is captioned “Problem Solved.” Shoppers offended by the shirt have been complaining to the manager.
“I thought that shirt was very offensive, and I’m sure people who made that shirt thought it was cute,” District Attorney Evert Fowle said Friday. “But when you prosecute 728 domestic violence cases a year, it’s not cute.”
The shirt was removed briefly after a customer protested, but later returned to shelves. As it stands now, the final word from Kmart corporate is that the t-shirt will continue to be sold.
“We respect the opinions of our customers,” [Kmart] said in a statement issued from corporate headquarters. “However, we believe these attitude Ts are meant to be light-hearted in nature.”
We think the shirt is in poor taste, and we are the taste-makers when it comes to potentially offensive t-shirts sold in big box stores… in case you were wondering. —MEGHANN MARCO
Store takes heat for selling ‘Problem Solved’ T-shirt [Kennebec Journal]
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Well, Solo, if you HAD read the comments, you’d see several posts (including mine) that point out that K-Mart has the right to carry whatever they want. Even though I personally find the shirt offensive, I’m not trying to “impose my tastes on others,” as you say.
So K-Mart has the right to carry these shirts, and you have the right to buy one for your kid. But I have the right to think you’re an asshole for doing so.
YoshidaSauce says:
This ridiculous outrage is just another example of overtly conservative people finding something to wave their sticks at.
whoa, whoa, whoa there big shooter… don’t go laying this little debacle on the doorstep of the conservatives. Most of my conservative friends are definitely NOT the type to b*tch about something like this. If you’ll look back, most, if not all, of the “PC” garbage originated with the left-leaning folks. Not trying to start a war, here, just making a point.
To junkmail:
Point taken and I apologize if my post came off as an attack on conservatives. In fact, I wasn’t referring to conservatives in general, hence my use of the word “overtly” which may just have been a case of poor word choice for me since it didn’t clearly reflect what context I was attempting to use it in. I think I should’ve removed the “t” and used the word “overly” instead to describe people who will react to anything that doesn’t follow the strictest rules of decorum in their sheltered worlds.
It seems like the primary difference between those who are offended and those who think those who are offended should lighten up, is that one is seeing the meta and the other is seeing the micro. Yeah, that tee shirt is unlikely to be the direct cause of a rise in shoving violence by men against women. Same with Tom and Jerry, GI Joe, etc. etc. Each thing, standing alone, doesn’t have any kind of effect. The meta point is that alllll these things, taken together, foster a society in which violence is an acceptable solution.
Demanding this tee shirt be removed from stores is like pulling one thorn off a bramble bush–it’s inefficient because the effort required isn’t worth the negligible effect.
I don’t see anything wrong, however, with simply pointing out that “hey, there’s yet another thing contributing to our culture of violence.”
But maybe I’m just a hippie/commie/lefty.
I am still trying to figure out how a CARICATURE of a FICTIONAL situation has pressed so many buttons. Do I need to post the definitions of caricature and fiction?
I refuse to even sarcastically agree that a stick figure pushing another stick figure will have detrimental effects on our children and our adult society. Do images really have that much control over our free choice?
C’mon people. I try not to rant about stupid issues such as this T-SHIRT (“the t-shirts of the early 2000′s are what brought on the gender wars of 2050) but I cant help it. Most everyone knows right from wrong and if somebody chooses domestic violence it is not because of a stupid picture that mysteriously influenced them to do evil. The devil did not make them do it. Minus the few sociopaths (who cannot distinguish right from wrong) in our society, anyone who does wrong does it because they CHOSE to. Jesus people. Get a fucking grip on reality. PLEASE I BEG YOU BEFORE WE ALL GOTO HELL IN A HANDBASKET!! OMG WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIEE!!!1111!!111oneoneone
Okay, I feel better now. I’m over it.
Oh, please. There was a shirt that says, “Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them.” Same kind of art. I went on Glenn Sack’s men’s movement radio show (in my columnist capacity) and said the same thing I’ll say here: What a silly waste of time. There are shirts out there that say stuff like “Women are only good for sucking the chrome off a trailer hitch.” If you’re wearing one, it’s unlikely I’ll date you, but I’m not going to stand outside the t-shirt store throwing a hissy fit. You don’t like the shirt, don’t buy it.
Holden Caulfield, above, is one of the few with a grip on common sense.
YoshidaSauce
No offense taken.
And I agree with your clarification.
I don’t believe that a specific item of clothing will make anybody do anything, regardless of age. I think it all may have to do with whatever particular environment that the child grows up in. If his parents are abusive towards each other, or him, then he will probably grow up to depict his violent tendencies upon other people.
If this child is violent to begin with, then this shirt certainly will not exascerbate the situation.
If this child is not a violent person, then this shirt certainly will not create violent behavior.
Either which way, this shirt is nothing more than stupid as hell.
“How is this not a problem? It’s sexist. It’s perpetuating a negative stereotype of women. It’s suggesting that the way men deal with women who “annoy” them is either through violence (literally) or by (metaphorically) not treating them with respect.”
Point by point:
“How is this not a problem?” – Puts the onus on people who are not offended by this shirt to prove the nonexistence of something. It’s like me asking someone to prove Bigfoot doesn’t exist.
“It’s sexist. It’s perpetuating a negative stereotype of women.” – One could argue that it is indeed sexist because it perpetuates a negative stereotype of men as always resorting to violence.
“It’s suggesting that the way men deal with women who “annoy” them is either through violence (literally) or by (metaphorically) not treating them with respect” – See point above. You could construe this as an attack on men just as easily.
I’m not saying the shirt is funny (I don’t believe it is), and I wouldn’t buy it for my son. But instead of flipping out and denouncing Wal-Mart, I continually exercise my parental responsibility and make sure my children understand that violence is never right (against men or women), and that everybody should be treated with respect.
In general, I think people are way too willing to foist off the job of parenting on others because “I’m too busy”, or “I can’t always be with my kids”. In the end, if you rely on other people’s behavior or taste as a critical component in raising your kids, you’re bound to be disappointed.
(And valkin, I’m not picking on you or making assumptions about you. I’m commenting on the thinking often, but not always behind statements like those.)
Smoking Pope –
Like OnoSideBoard posted above, it’s little things like the message on this shirt that add up and contribute to the consciousness of our society and the perpetuation of stereotypes. It’s a crappy message, however small and insignifcant.
I can agree that the shirt can also be viewed as sexist towards men, but not with your second point. The literal and metaphorical message of this shirt is violence and the “shutting up” of women.
Since you’re stating that you’re commenting on the thinking behind statements like mine, Let me state that you’ve interpreted what’s behind my statements incorrectly.
I didn’t flip out over the shirt. I’m not even offended by it. I didn’t say to take it off the shelf or that a parent shouldn’t exercise his/her responsibilities to guide and educate their child about violence and stereotypes and how to interact with others. I think it supports and perpetuates negative stereotypes that go unspoken, unnoticed and disregarded.
It’s all about awareness. These are messages about how to deal with others, especially those of the opposite sex, of which we are constantly being bombarded with and are consequently dealing with when interacting with one another.
@Valkin – As I said, I wasn’t commenting on you, and wasn’t surprised to read that you weren’t offended by it (the shirt). But in my experience, many people who echo the same sentiments have very different opinions than yours (which are reasonable in my opinion).
Anyway, I do get the bigger picture point. But my point is that it’s impossible to find and “correct” every potential negative influence that’s out there. A much better way of protecting our kids (again, doesn’t necessarily mean I’m talking about you here) is to take an active role in their lives, teach them right from wrong, prepare them for exposure to things we don’t agree with, etc. It’s much more effective, and has the added bonus of not imposing your point of view on people who don’t agree with it.
And yeah, I’d agree with you in that the most common interpretation of the shirt is in line with the literal content. My point on that was you could take it the other way too. What’s offensive has a lot to do with the person who’s offended.
Smoking Pope, I totally agree with your point on protecting kids.
Please take this off the shelves…..what are we telling people? It is correct to treat women/girls this way? It is not acceptable…
If I saw this printed on paper, or published on the intertubes, I wouldn’t blink an eye. I’m generally not easilly offended. However, putting them on kids’ tees for sale is incredibly poor taste, in my opinion.
How will I act on my opinion? By not buying the tee. (I’d say ‘by not shopping at K-Mart’ but that’s something I already do… I was never a fan and there aren’t any handy besides.)
K-Mart has a right to sell that shirt, and I have a right to be offended by it.
Kmart has the right to sell the shirt, but society as a whole does NOT have to except any form, joking or not, of domestic violence. We have been very lienient about it on T.V. shows, cartoons, tee shirts, bumper stickers etc. There are alot of people going through domestic violence. Why is it ok to try to have power over someone else? To trespass onto someone elses propery, their body, it is a crime! Why do we want to promote any sort of crime on a tee shirt? What if it was a man and a baby on that shirt? Would that get attention? But, because its a woman its ok? Something to think about huh? And in Wyoming, hopefully we can start a “Men against Domestic Violence” campaign. We, as a society need to put an end to domestic violence, and standing up to the people that promote it is a good start.
This is a funny thread. All these moral people complaining about violence. Have you looked at this country lately? Homeless people, record numbers in prison etc etc….Like this T-Shirt is going to add anything more to it. If you or your kids do bad stuff because of cartoons, you need help! I wish all of these soccer moms with useless lives would worry about something important like selling their SUV (grocery carrier) and global warming!