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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It really pisses me off that these are CHILDREN’S shirts.
Sometimes, funny is funny. There is very little humor out there that doesn’t offend someone.
This shirt has inspired me to shove annoying women out of windows. Thanks K-Mart!
ew, yeah, most offensive being that this is a shirt for *children*.
but in general, all of those “attitude” t-shirts are awful.
As far as the concern of it being for children, I think the opposite here….I think it is more tollerable being a shirt designed for kids. Little boys and girls pick on each other, annoy each other, and while shoving a girl is not something to be promoted, it is far unusual in grade school play grounds. Nothing really volent. Kinda like brothers and sisters picking on each other.
Now…if this was sold to adult men…then there would be a BIG problem!
As hilarious t-shirts go, I don’t know if this particular knee-slapper is up to Kmart’s usual high standards.
*far from unusual
I agree that they are awful/ugly/stupid, but I am sorry, people get offended way too easily in this country.
*Awaits the verbal flogging*
When my wife’s constant jawing gets to me, I usually push her out of the current comic strip frame, too. It’s all good – she comes back good as new in the next frame.
Sorry guys…sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon, not a justification for domestic violence or terrorism.
Couldn’t they balance it out with a t-shirt where the girl kicks the guy in the crotch?
It’s not a good t-shirt but it’s not a T-Shirt Hell t-shirt.
Maybe I’m particularly sensitive to this matter because I worked for a domestic violence program for several years and saw firsthand the effects of domestic violence, particularly on children. I saw so many kids who thought violence was the only way to solve problems, because that’s all they’d seen.
K-Mart can sell whatever they want (they’ll still suck), but I do find the shirt offensive.
Magister-funny is funny, true, but that shirt ain’t funny. I don’t know how offensive it is, but it sure isn’t funny.
If a T-shirt offends you, you’re definitely too easily offended.
Wasn’t that cartoon originally published in Die Sturmer?
I’ll side with the ‘too many offended peoples’ group on this one. Frankly, it’s gotta be a slow news day. There’s some sort of stupid phrase on a couple dozen shirts in any given retail outlet these days filled with ‘funny’ stuff that has great potential to offend. Why this particualr shirt is any worse than any other’s I’ll never understand.
I wodner if this articile will become Ben’s new ‘nazi t-shirt’ article. He loves him some tshirts gone bad stories.
If Wal-Mart’s handling and follow-up of their Schutzstaffel totenkopf tee is par for the course, expect to see this pathological tee on K-Mart’s shelves for the next 9-12 months, owing to their antiquated inventory control systems…
Is this domestic violence just because it’s a male stick figure pushing a female stick figure out of the frame? What if it were the other way around? How do we know the relationship between these two stick figures. The t-shirt is stupid, but I wouldn’t automatically read domestic violence into it.
I wodner if this articile will become Ben’s new ‘nazi t-shirt’ article.
That storied was followed because of Wal-mart’s inability to get an item removed from store shelves (what if it had been something dangerous to the consumer). Kmart isn’t going to remove the t-shirt.
srah — you may have a point.
Maybe the male stick figure is a KMart manager, and the female stick figure is a pesky customer (maybe me!) complaining about how much KMart sucks.
A the shirt is busy…
B:
What she said. It’s no more domestic violence than the Matrix or Zorro.
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.
Some message to send to kids. But, it’s a free country.
srah -
It’s promoting a negative image either way. I’ve seen the damage little girls can do to little boys, and since boys have it deeply ingrained not to hit girls they don’t fight back. Also, domestic violence is not a women’s-only problem. Anyway, I wouldn’t want my (theoretical) kid to wear the shirt regardless of who was pushing. It’s not funny, and it’s in direct opposition to the number one lesson a lot of parents want their kids to learn: physical violence is not the solution. This shirt says it absolutely is.
Amen, Kerry. Glorifying physical violence as problem-solving strategy is not good.
If a t-shirt depicted a human stick figure kicking a dog stick figure, I imagine public response would have been overwhelmingly negative. I guess K-Mart figures human-on-human violence is ok?
You can also cut the sleeves off and make it a “wife beater”. heh.
Now, that would probably sell well at the K.
I dunno about offensive. I just thought it wasn’t terribly funny. I wouldn’t put it on my kid. But I’m not crazy about attitude messages on kids anyhow.
We don’t actually KNOW she was pushed out of the box.
We see her falling, we see his hand up, but we didn’t actually SEE the action.
I say there is reasonable doubt.
The shirt is offensive, but K-Mart has the right to sell it, and people have the right to buy it.
If that shirt depicted a human stick figure kicking a dog I would still think it was a stupid shirt. But certainly not offensive. And I love animals. People are just too uptight.
I’m pretty non-aggressive. When I was a kid, this little girl used to run around slapping boys in sack and laughing. None of the boys ever did anything. She surprised me one day where I doubled over for a good 15 seconds. She was laughing and I got up and popped her in jaw. She went down like a sack of potatoes. I’m the one who got in trouble but I never got slapped in the boys again. Sometimes violence is the best way to solve problems.
Are you people serious? Maybe we should protest the Garfield movies and strips because they perpetuate “Cat on Dog” violence. And, oh yeah, how about Dilbert? Negative stereotypes ABOUND in that one! And don’t get me started on Hagar the Horrible (violence, violence, violence), Beetle Bailey (imperialistic American war machine), Boondocks, (racism), etc. etc. How about the countless comics that denegrate the father’s role in the family structure, should we protest those too? Get ‘em all!
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Nice. m/
It’s the new wifebeater t-shirt!
Won’t somebody pleeease think of the children?!
LOL….Apparently, this lady has yet to visit a hot topic….
I hope this doesn’t turn into a Nazi shirt debacle agian.
If t-shirts that offended people couldn’t be sold then T-shirt hell would be out of business.
This reminds me a bit of the ESRB issue with video games.
Most kids (maily boys) do not shop for their own clothes. So if a parent has a problem with this shirt, don’t buy it. If their kid buys it on their own, don’t let him wear it.
Let your dollars speak!
This reminds me a bit of the ESRB issue with video games.
I find the video game thing even more confusing because a) the games are way more expensive and b) the console games aren’t exactly portable.
How the heck are 12 year olds buying $40 – $60 dollar games (more for the new consoles), playing them at home, and getting away with it unless their parents are letting them?
I have a shirt depicted a couple at their wedding slicing a cake and under the illustration in big, bold letters are “BIG MISTAKE.” I guess this shirt should be banned too since it’s causing people to second guess getting married. This ridiculous outrage is just another example of overtly conservative people finding something to wave their sticks at.
What the hell is funny about solving a problem with violence? Is that what we want to teach our kids – that if you have a problem with another kid, the way to solve it is by shoving them out of the way? This t-shirt wouldn’t be funny even if both stick figures were the same gender.
uhm… yeah, like kerry and acambras said, too.
Hey Ben, have you considered registering http://www.tshirtpolice.com/ and using a cgi redirect to all these T-shirt articles?
I kid…I kid…because I love!
Hey, why don’t we make Tom & Jerry illegal while we’re at it. Not to go off on a rant here, but it’s because of thin-skinned, insert-my-politics people like you that vintage cartoons have been ruined and discourse on college campuses has been degraded to special-ed level political correctness.
And so what if it’s a kids shirt? Boys and girls fight. Children have also managed to watch cartoons for years and there isn’t an epidemic of anvil-related accidents that I’m aware of.
Oddly, I’m sure if some of you saw a shirt with the genders reversed, you’d be feeling smug about grrrrlll power or some such.
Now, if you don’t mind, I’m gonna go find a dog that looks like Marmaduke and give him a good swift kick for being so damn unfunny.
I’m pretty sure anyone can be offended by anything if they try hard enough.
Violent? It’s not like the stick figure is blowing the other stick figure’s brains out: it’s pushing another stick figure out of an illustrated box. Personally, when I get into quarrels with my significant other, we don’t fight in drawn lines that I could push her out of. Call me evil and sadistic but I find the t-shirt creative, harmless, and humorous.
well, if you actually look at the picture for more than two seconds, the woman jumping in the air is also drawn to look “crazy”… aka stereotypical woman yelling at man, etc. etc.
violence!=funny.
An example of people being overly sensitive:
On my way to work this morning, I heard a news story about a bus driver who wore a Santa hat on the job. Apparently, a kid complained to his parents because he didn’t believe in Santa Claus, and the parents claimed the hat was offensive. After a review by the school board, it was found that the hat no longer had any religious connotation, and it didn’t interfere with the bus driver’s ability to do his job.
Is this any worse than the David and Goliath kid’s t-shirts instructing us that Boys are Stupid, Throw Rocks at Them? I seriously doubt that incidence of rock-related injuries increased due to that shirt, and I don’t think that this Kmart one will increase domestic violence. Let’s all relax a little bit.
Oh my God, not only do we now have t shirts depicting women, but Lordy Lordy we’ve had GI figures for LITTLE KIDS from before I was born, not to mention Transformers, Rambo figures, toy guns, etc. I’m pretty sensitive myself, but some things you just have to blow off. Are those that are upset by this t shirt maddened more of the graphic itself or that the t shirt is sold in a department store? If this were sold in Hot Topic’s, would it give you the same impact? Probably not, which is ironic seeing that there seems to be more children than adults that shop there.
If I see you using a drill to drill a hole in a wall, would it be right for me to get upset because maybe my mom was killed when my dad drilled a hole in her skull? You’d probably tell me to lighten up over that rather than simply stop using the drill yourself.
Wiley Coyote is a terrorist.
Great…lets promote more bullying K-Mart. As a mom of 3 small elementary school-age, (and I must add…extremely impressionable children), I’m appalled that this garment will be available to young bullies. You made my last minute shopping destination a little simpler…..no K-Mart on my list.
I was about to post, but I figured I’d read through anyway just to make sure, and I’m glad I did- bricklayer completely made my point for me, and even got a link to back it up so I didn’t have to search for it.
Thanks!
Posting without reading comments, lazy ass that I am:
If you’re offended by the shirt, by all means, please don’t buy it!
Same with TV. Offended by some show? DO NOT WATCH IT!
Let other people make their own choices. If they want to buy the shirt, good for them. Don’t impose your tastes to others.