Gee, someone wasn’t thinking too clearly when they were designing High School Musical 2 themed panties for Disney. Sold in the UK, one pair of panties in a package of 5 read “Dive In” — a reference to a scene from the popular musical.
From the Daily Mail:
Mrs Ralph, 57, a civil servant, said: ‘I bought the packet of five multi-coloured knickers. Because they are in a packet, you can’t see the writing “Dive In” on them.
‘I was extremely shocked when I saw what was on them and I don’t believe Disney or anyone else is so stupid not to realise the implications of the wording they chose.
‘You let your children watch all these programmes, which are innocent and nice.
‘But the merchandising that runs alongside them is the complete opposite. It’s sexually suggestive, inappropriate and wholeheartedly wrong in some cases.
Disney has issued the following statement:
“Unfortunately, an oversight was made and the text on the underwear was used out context,” Disney said in a statement. “This product will not be part of any forthcoming collections and the remaining product has been removed from shelves.”
That’s probably for the best.
Outrage at High School Musical knickers for young girls emblazoned with the words ‘Dive In’ [Daily Mail]
Disney says no to ‘Musical’ panties [Reuters via Fark]
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This is where I am coming from…quote from your post:
“That’s exactly what I meant. A 9 year old sees “Zac Effron and Vanessa Hudgens dancing”…. a 39-year old sees “sexual invitation”.”
Maybe I should have phrased it “AS a sexual invitation”.
I haven’t seen the movie and have no intention to but I pretty much guessed that they were not 9 years old. My point was that there is a difference between an adult with “dive in” on their panties (which at this point there isn’t) and a kid.
@thelushie:
Innuendo is in the eye of the beholder…
A 9-year old sees “Dive In” on the underwear and associates it with the movie.
A 39-year old sees “Dive In” on the underwear and associates it with a sexual invitation.
Provacateurs, simmer down, and offenderati, stop allowing yourselves to get provoked to the point of being out of line yourselves.
If someone who would take “dive in” in a bad way…… is already that close to a child wearing the underwear……. I honestly think there is already a VERY BIG issue bigger then what is written on them.
@MercuryPDX: Whatever.
@coan_net: What is the bigger issue?
@TomCruisesTesticles:I totaly agree with you man. and you kno what the funny thing is that african americans in my school think they own the word CRACKER now too (in all contexts, in some cases even discribing the food) I half white and half hispanic and I’m not easly offended at terms that my be durrogitory to the fact that i am part mexican. whay cant everyone be like that?
@MercuryPDX: true, had this issue not been brought to my attention i would have not thought twice about the “suggustive panties”. someone elses may have seen it and had it fit(like this over concerned mother in the artical) or got hot. though now that i know its kindof funny espcialy beacuse at first it looked like drive in….lol
Okkkk, creepy parents. Seeing this, on kid’s panties, I had no twisted thoughts, at all.
Those parents need serious psychological help.
@GamblesAC2: *why
@malvones: and needlessly wound-up.
At least Disney had the foresight to not release the eatable version of these. Even though the bubble-gum flavor is said to have been yummy!
We dive at five!
I dont know why a child’s underwear needs to have anything written on it in the first place
@ spryte: I WANT ALICE AND WONDERLAND “EAT ME” PANTIES!!!
Yup, that’s it. I’m stuck on it now. I’m going to be searching all over the internets for them.
@spryte: I cant wait to have kids so that I can let them be desensitized to everything because, belive it or not, that’s part of being a kid. Nothing matters, its parents that are like the police telling them “Come of the roof RIGHT NOW!” or “Take that out of her or I’m calling your dad”
The “Eat me” metaphor is a bad one because under this same theory, taking your kid to see any Pixar or Dreamworks film is a bad idea because thye are filled with enuendo that’s way too inappropriate for kids, but guess what? It goes right over thier head, yes even the head of your 6 year old baby einstein genious and if it doesnt, then you’ve probably already failed as a parent. Sucks to be you (I dont mean you personally, more general).
@Shadowfire: I could so top that, but it would result in an immediate banning from all of the internets. Roz can do that ya know.
How about this, I’ll give you another less harsh one but disemvowel it myself: f t blds it brds
First, why are small children watching a movie about high school kids? The movie was made for teens, why do parents let their young children watch it? Why is Disney marketing items to small children based on a movie with a teenage target audience?
Second, little kids love to have things written on their underwear. Boys like to have Superman, Spiderman or Thomas the Tank Engine, etc., including phrases from those programs. Girls love Tinkerbell, Disney princesses and Barbie on their panties, including phrases from the movies. They are kids, they like that kind of crap. It doesn’t have to say “I’m a whore!” or “Grab my junk!” There’s no reason to stop putting words on kid’s underwear, as long as what is there is age appropriate.
Third, I don’t know where some of you live or your kids go to school, but my 7-year old girl wouldn’t have any idea there could possibly be a suggestion that the phrase “dive in” could have anything to do with her vagina. If your kid would, you might need to rethink your parenting choices, because you have bigger problems than what your kid’s underwear says on it.
Finally, the phrase isn’t on the crotch of the panties, it’s at the top. If it were literally on the crotch, I might have a problem with it, otherwise, I don’t really. I do have a problem with companies/stores marketing thongs to preteens, that’s just wrong.
@RandPaul: I dont know why a child’s underwear needs to have anything written on it in the first place
Monday, Tuesday, etc. For a 4 year old (and her incompetent dad that’s having to dress her all week while mom’s out of town)- Though I’m sure there’s some way to read something awful into those too.
I watched this movie with my 18 year old, 14 year old and 7 year old daughters and 6 of their friends- ALL were equally excited. There is NOTHING innappropriate in this movie- it is a rated G, fun movie that can be enjoyed by all ages, and our group included one as young as 5. I don’t think Disney marketed it specifically to teens, and you don’t have to be a teen to enjoy it.@HFC:
Behind the scenes:
1. Evil flying monkey with a tie thinks, “we need a full clothing line to squeeze more money from this franchise.”
2. Evil flying monkey with an unbuttoned collar puts song names or chorus lines on everything. He does so as stylishly as an evil flying monkey wearing a, “see me? I’m a stereotypical creative type,” shirt can. Obviously, using an Apple.
3. Evil flying money with a checklist says, “Same phrase as on everything else. Pass.” Secretly, he wants to go back to the good old days of harassing munchkins.
4. Evil flying monkey with a tie orders munchkin-sweatshop-made boatloads (literally, I’m sure) of them.
5. Mrs. Ralph sees it, projects her thoughts onto them, and thinks it’s bad. For PR reasons, they pull them. They say, “oops; that won’t happen again.” They really don’t care.
6. Evil flying monkey with unbuttoned collar, and the one with the checklist, both wonder how on Earth they’re supposed to think of these things before they hit shelves. When they see them, it’s colored cloth with a logo. When they think of girls wearing them, they realize they have no task away from home that needs doing the next time one of their wives agrees to host a sleepover.
During an afternoon delousing, they decide that Evil flying monkey with unbuttoned collar needs some work done on his truck (wasn’t it better when they just flew where they needed to, carrying sacks?), and evil flying monkey with a checklist needs needs help choosing new home theater equipment (OK, they never could had that, before). They also talk nostalgically of when they were led by a real wicked witch, with green skin and a pointy hat. Masculine excuses taken care of, they manage to design, then approve, another product just like this by this time next year. Mrs. Ralph’s thoughts never cross their minds.
9. Not buying Disney branded clothes, anymore, Mrs. Ralph never sees the new one. We don’t read about it. The public never catches on to Disney paying a vet for their clothing design team’s health care plan.
10. Eisner has a bucket poured out on him, and melts (*sigh* I can dream, can’t I?)
This speaks to me of prudishness on Mrs. Ralph’s part. I’d have seen this and just walked on by. Given that the simplest way across Walmart is by the girls underwear (also by the DVDs, CDs, video games, and HD TVs), and the whole section is saturated with Disney, I may have.
Oh, crap. I admitted I go to Walmart.
@spryte: this is some tag line from a Disney franchise, with obvious “innocent” context. The response would be different if it were, say, the Rolling Stones logo.
@Wormfather is Wormfather: yeah, I didn’t even think of that. Go watch Pee Wee’s show. I saw a few episodes when they had on Adult Swim for awhile. After about ten minutes of the first one, I no longer wondered why it was on Adult Swim.
What if they said “stop!” and had a picture of a stop sign?
Does she honestly think that would stop someone?
Syour daughters to school with no panties at all… nothing wrong with that unless your mind is in the gutter eh.
To think that the decision makers at Disney who authorized the design didn’t realize there could be another context to the wording is ignorance.
But as long as mothers refuse to believe they are turning their daughters into ….. and try to justify everything, consumer purchases will just keep these products on the shelf.
Go to an jr high graduation and you can plainly see that young girls dressed like street hookers often have mothers dressed there the same.
“When correctly viewed,
Everything is lewd.
I could tell you things about Peter Pan,
And the Wizard of Oz? There’s a dirty old man…”
“Smut”, Tom Lehrer
@smonkey:
Actually this might work. If she is mute can she say no. And if not, then can it be a date rape?
But if she has panties with a stop sign or NO, does this count as saying no?
And if so, can a woman who speaks then go back and say it was rape because her panties said no?
Strawman, maybe appeal to emotion?
I’m sure they could have. Anyone could have. But, could not it also be that we could see ourselves making similar oversights (it is being presented to them with many other products with similar things on them, and the reviewer will be familiar with the content they refer to, providing context), and as such, aren’t willing to demonize the guys at Disney in this way? They still deserve to be demonized as a whole, of course.
Hard to pin this one down. “As long as…” makes me lean to false cause, maybe with a pinch of judgmental speech. But, then, there’s more, because it’s a false cause to a consequence is falsely bundled in with the article’s subject. Hmmm.
Plain old red herring (it is related to High School Musical clothing…how?).
P.S. This is important.
I’m just wondering what the reaction would be if the message logo was on the back. Or what if somone made adult diapers with the same message. “discusss……………..”
@cerbie: What and no comment on the mute rape issue? Come on man, I’m trying to get a reaction out of you….
@FijianTribe: actually, I thought that was kind of funny.
@cerbie: @FijianTribe: Better yet; Magic 8-Ball panties.
“Can I have sex with you tonight?” *SHAKES*
“DIVE IN”
Brings a much more random and exciting element to foreplay. Even if the girl is mute/unconcious!
If your daughter is old enough to catch the innuendo, then she’s either old enough for you to have the “sex talk”, or she gets the joke and is mature enough to handle it.
Does this mother even watch kids programming?
TV is full of perversion.
This crazy mom has her head in the sand.
Buy it or don’t, but stop telling people what they can and can’t make, in *your* opinion.