Icky shirts

[athenaltena]

I've seen two icky t-shirts as I was walking around Boston in the last few days.

One was "FBI: Female Body Inspector" worn by a guy at my gym.

The other was "Rub for Luck" worn by a woman walking past me on the street with the text, you guessed it, over the chest.

I thought about it for a bit, and I think both are equally icky, or at the very least they both inspired the same mental "Ew" reaction from me in more or less exactly the same tone.

Now I get it, both are trying to be funny. But still... really? Are people really going to wear those in public? And I know, free speech, don't censor other people's self expression, I just need to lighten up yada yada yada... but there's still a question of taste. I don't think there's a double standard for me since they both more or less inspired the same reaction, but they both seem to play into the same thing, mainly playing for laughs the invasion of another person's personal space and body, which makes me very uncomfortable. The one the woman had was maybe slightly better, but still, I think they were both pretty icky, at least by my standards. For the record if I saw a woman in a "Male Body Inspector" shirt I'd think it was equally icky as the "Female Body Inspector" one worn by that guy.

I will concede that both of those would be far, far worse if they were being worn by kids who had not picked them out themselves and were put into them by their parents. I can acknowledge that if you're an adult you have a right to wear what you want in public within reason (shoes, shirt, etc.) but making a kid wear those when they don't even know what they mean? That's not cool.

Comments

[meepalicious.livejournal.com]

I agree that the woman's shirt was less icky than the man's, because at least it was herself? Like, I know that's completely fucked up in it's own way, but her shirt wasn't a threat to other people's bodily integrity. I'm wondering if she found it ~empowerful or something.

I'd feel less squicked out by a "male body inspector" shirt than the other way around, but only because the likeliness the wearer would feel entitled to act on it is much lower. Women don't have the same kind of access to men's bodies as the other way around. (I'm not saying it wouldn't be gross, just less so.)

Like you said to kawakiisakazuki, if the guy is enough of a douchebag to wear a shirt like that, maybe it's better that he does. He might as well tattoo "misogynist" to his forehead.

[athenaltena.livejournal.com]

I think you're right about the one the woman was wearing and why it's maybe less bad, since it is her body and all that, but I do still think it wasn't in the best of taste. Still, they both rely on the same joke (mainly, that it's okay to violate people's personal space and their bodies) and it's not one I'm particularly fond of. The one the woman wears maybe squicks me out a bit because it plays into the whole "she was asking for it" assault-justification bullcrap and I can just see the guy wearing the first one maybe trying to use it as a defense. Or maybe not, now were into hypotheticals, but you get my drift.