Steamed

June 22, 2011

And I'm not talking about veggies.

via

via

And finally, by Forever 21, who gears there merchandise towards young girls, teenagers and women:

*the magnet has since been pulled of their website due to the high number of complaints against it



As a woman engineer, seeing this image literally made me cringe.  Although there are those naturally smart people who will breeze through engineering school (they exist, I promise), I was not one of them.  And as a minority in all most my classes (as in could count the number of other females in the lecture on my hand) and my major, I struggled with confidence through most of my college education.  Now I'm not saying that all women go through this when they choose a career dominated by males, but I did.  And shirts and magnets that seem to encourage young women to stray from the studies and career paths that could provide not only incredible potential to themselves, but also to the fields they go into, REALLY, really makes me sad. disappointed. hurt.  That people would actually think it is a good idea to print this and sell it to and profit from girls who are already struggling with their own self image really is just ....Really, don't they have enough to worry and think about without having to agonize over whether the fact that they like or are good at math and science really means that they are ugly and uncool.  Because when I look at that phrase, that's what I think young women will see. Or maybe it's just another excuse for girls to avoid things that are hard. Whatever the reason, I think it's horrible.

I'm all for freedom of speech and expression. But please, lets take a better look at how and what we are encouraging the young girls around us to do.


Further ranting can be found here, here, here.  In fact if you google it, you'll probably find a slew of other well-versed, angry rants.

*Stepping off my soapbox*
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10 comments:

Mrs. B-P said...

I am appalled that a clothing store would sell something like that - but I find more contempt in the parents (usually the mom) who allow their children to buy and wear a shirt like that. I am a high school math teacher and I can tell you that 99% of the girls I teach get their anti-math ideas from their moms. If I had a dollar for every time I heard a mom say "well, I was never good at math either", I'd be a rich woman! Whatever your experiences in school were, please let your kids make up their own minds about what they like!

Anonymous said...

DISGUSTING. I am angered by such merchandise and phrases. Seriously?! In this day and age?! Strengths and weaknesses of the academic kind are not based on gender and I am appalled that any stores would even promote such degrading messages.

Meagan said...

Not going to lie to you, I had a shirt with that logo on it ... I got it as a joke from my dad when I bombed AP calculus in high school. I can't say I ever wore it, but it didn't bother me at the time. I didn't inherit the math gene in my fam and we made light of it so I didn't feel badly. I;m not saying it's a good message, but it didn't negatively impact me personally.

Try Anything Once Terri said...

Absolutely ridiculous. I would not allow my daughter to wear something like that.

kimberly michelle said...

I'll stand on your soap box with you! Ugh... I loathe the fact that knowing how to do math is deemed "optional" and some higher operational skill. :(

Bonnie Joy said...

I'll steam along with you! While I have chosen to major in English at university, I was also good at maths in highschool but the prevailing attitude of teachers and male students around me is that girls who were good at maths were not "normal." Utterly ridiculous.

Julia said...

When I was little, I got a talking Barbie doll as a birthday gift from a friend. One of the catch phrases was "I hate math! Don't you?" My mom made me take it back to the store. Toys like that, and shirts like this, are no way to raise strong women!

Layla said...

I'm more disturbed that any parent would let their child wear a shirt like this than anything else.

Larry and Martha said...

Ditto to everything you said and everything that is in the comments above. Girls have a hard enough time with self image what with models being toothpick thin and now this. Let them know they are beautiful and smart no matter what the "industry" says.

Emily said...

Hi, I wanted to thank you for linking to my blog (Rosie Says) at the end of your much-deserved rant. I'm right up on the soapbox with you! Can you believe this crap??