JC Penney Stirs Up Controversy with Their: “I’m Too Pretty to Do Homework” Shirt

Oh, outrage, it’s a’brewin’ over this shirt sold on JCPenney.com to girls sizes 7-16. And why shouldn’t it be? It’s ridiculous.

Sold with an online ad that read…

“Who has time for homework when there’s a new Justin Bieber album out? She’ll love this tee that’s just as cute and sassy as she is”

…this shirt isn’t being sold on the site any longer, especially after a petition on Change.org was started to stop it and was victorious.

Not since Mattel’s Talking Barbie told girls “Math is tough” have we seen a product that encourages the dumbing down of girls and that being smart is for boys…or ugly girls

And, let’s see, what careers can a cute and sassy girl (who has no time for homework but all the time in the world for Justin Bieber) count on? What is a cute dumb girl to do? Here are some of her best options:

Stripper- A perfect career for great looks and low self-esteem

Trophy wife- Perfectly suited for the pretty but dumb. Until the husband finds a younger, dumber and prettier version of her

Reality Star- Pretty and dumb is the most preferred type

Vanna White- You don’t even need to know the alphabet for this job. They light the letters for you. You just need to stand there, look pretty and follow the bright lights.

Mom- Not to bash the moms out there but, let’s be honest, any moron can squeeze out a kid.

Underwear Model- Until your looks start to fade and you then get downgraded to doing Metamucil and Denture commercials.

Gold digger- Well, maybe you need some sense for this one in order to scheme, but if you’re pretty enough it won’t be that hard to snag some oldie with billions of shekels stashed away

Recording Artist- In the day of auto-tune, having a good singing voice isn’t necessary anyway. I’m sure there is some record label dying to eff up your life in exchange for your soul.

Porn Star: Need I say more?

Mistress- Because you’ll be dumb enough to believe that he will leave his wife.

Miss America- Because isn’t it all just about wanting World Peace, anyway?

Ah yes, the future looks bright for those too pretty to do homework.

JC Penney commented on the shirt saying:

J.C. Penney is committed to being America’s destination for great style and great value for the whole family. We agree that the “Too pretty” t-shirt does not deliver an appropriate message, and we have immediately discontinued its sale. Our merchandise is intended to appeal to a broad customer base, not to offend them. We would like to apologize to our customers and are taking action to ensure that we continue to uphold the integrity of our merchandise that they have come to expect.

Thanks JC Penney, you just saved some girls from clear heels and having to make out with 99 year olds.

Bridgette Raes is the president of Bridgette Raes Style Group, author of the book Style Rx: Dressing the Body You Have to Create the Body You Want and a sought-after spokesperson, style expert and writer for many media outlets including CNN, Good Morning America and Real Simple Magazine. She and her Style Consultants are available worldwide for consultation, in-person or virtually.

72HW

Miss Americas aside – is it really so hard to imagine that a ‘cute & sassy’ girl has no sense of irony? That young women might be drawn to this type of statement as a F-YOU to people who think they are as vapid, as mindless and as malleable as Bridgette seems to think? I personally know more than a few women who have done exactly that and gained much as a result. Can my ‘cuteness’ get me places that would otherwise be off limits? Probably not – but I have a penis, so my opinion matters not. Flame on.
- http://www.bridgetteraes.com Bridgette
  
  Interesting comments, 72HW. However, considering the ages of the child wearing the shirt is quite young, I’m not sure if irony applies here. Considering JC Penney retracted the t-shirt from their site due to the amount of petitioners on Change.org who fought against it it it clearly rustled some feathers. Given the climate of this argument and that it is already difficult enough to create healthy self-esteem in a young girl these days, I can’t think that I am alone here in my feeling that a shirt like this is unnecessary, regardless of whether or not it is ironic.
72HW

I’m not so sure that a woman of such a young age would NOT be aware of the looks, the innuendo or the fallacy heaped upon her every day by the men around her. Would such a young woman be able to process the ramifications of such attentions? The women around me now say yes, but maybe not in the same way. Aware is not a philosophy.

Now – was JC Penny wrong in the marketing of this t-shirt? Possibly. But with models like Angry Little Asian Girl or other similar sentiments to follow, they alone cannot be blamed. Have you been unjustly crucified for speaking out against the shirt? Perhaps – but your opinion does seem at odds with more than one person out there.

I guess I am left wondering what the young women this shirt was aimed at think. I come from a decidedly aggressive left wing background, so my personal experience cannot judge what the youth of today feel. As a proudly bi-sexual man who has been involved with many aspects of the feminist cause over the years, I can’t help but think shirts like this might have more power in them then might be obvious at first glance.

I know I wish I could have worn the “Nobody Knows I’m Bi” shirt when in school – but that was over 20 years ago.

Subversive and powerful messages are all around us – we just need to find out how to use them.
- http://www.bridgetteraes.com Bridgette
  
  Interesting points, again. As far as what the young women this shirts was aimed at think. The size of the shirt came in 7-16 so they are on the younger side. So, my thought is that they haven’t really fully formulated a thought about their identity yet. HOWEVER, while the shirt may be more innocuous than all the hub bub surrounding it, to me, it’s part of a bigger landscape that is a problem. IMO, you have to consider the mother who is buying this for her daughter and assume that this mother thought it was a cute message. If this is cute to the mom what else is cute to her? What are the other messages being sent? What is that girl being raised to believe about herself?
  
  Secondly, why does a shirt like this exist? Why would this be something someone would even bother to design as appropriate. To me, that shows a sense of the level that some people put girls and how long we still have to go in general.
  
  Yes, a shirt like this may have more power when a girl is older, less influenced by her mother, can make her own choices and get the power behind it. But, at the age who wears a size 7-16 I’m not so sure that this girl has enough sense of herself to do that.
J. Schwarz

I understand your humor and the point to this posting, but you may want to think twice about the “mom” comment as it is not in line with the humor of your other examples. Rather, it comes across as hurtful and mean. It is not true that any “moron” can squeeze out a kid. Many women have great difficulty doing so and I would guess that many of your clients, or women whom you would like to have as clients, do have problems and wouldn’t find it all that funny to see this matter trivialized. Second, a mom is not seen in our society as someone who merely pushes out a kid. A mom is someone who plays a critical role in a child’s life. It is not always the “pusher.” As someone who has “pushed” out a kid, it’s not easy and I definitely do not think any moron could do it. Because you are in a client service industry, you may want to take a moment to think about the impact of your words on your intended audience.
Cameron Rose

“As someone who has “pushed” out a kid, it’s not easy and I definitely do not think any moron could do it.” Women in comas can get pregnant. Anything that can be done by accident while someone is unconscious cannot be considered an achievement.
- J. Schwarz
  
  Ms. Rose, I’m sorry you feel that way. I do believe, however, that you are taking the message away from my words. If you have taken my statement to be a way of looking for congratulations on some achievement, then I apologize for not making myself clear. I simply believe that Ms. Raes went too far in trying to make a point by belittling a large subset of her clientele. I agree, this t-shirt is bad news and good riddance. In fact, I dislike all of the attitude shirts for kids that flood the stores. Shopping for tots is a minefield. But, just as I must endeavor to choose my words carefully in making a point, it is also something that I’m sure Ms. Raes does, given her chosen career. After all, one could argue that a “cute and sassy girl” with an eye for clothes could be a style expert. To basically hold the role of a mom akin to that of a stripper, gold digger, and trophy wife, even though you will no doubt argue that those roles can all be held by the same person, smacks of bad taste. I only hope that if you someday chose to become a mother, or if you are, you will see that a mom is more than just the act of having a child. It wasn’t even so much that Ms. Raes offended me. I imagine those words being said of my mom and know that no “moron” could ever fill her shoes.
  - S. Brown
    
    If her statement wasnt true, there wouldnt be abused or neglected or otherwise just rotten kids. Being a mom can be an awesome job but it pretty much only takes a set of working pipes to grunt out a critter. Have you seen 16 and Pregnant? There are girls getting pregnant ON PURPOSE with the hopes of being on the show. Females become moms for a lot of the wrong reasons and that is, well…pretty stupid. I understand that everyone isnt exposed to the same socio-economic travesties, but I met women who had more kids to get more welfare money. That is moronic.
  - http://www.bridgetteraes.com Bridgette
    
    Hmm, perhaps I should change this blog title to Bridgette Raes’ Blog Post stirs up controversy.
    
    J. Schwarz, I was going to just approve your post and move on. Seeing that I am the moderator of this blog, I had no problem with a comment that disagreed with what I wrote. This particular post has generated disagreement and emotion. What can I say? I feel that the reaction has been a bit over-the-top, but if someone reacts differently, I can’t disagree with the point-of-view, as it is simply that, a point of view.
    
    Yet, like all the other examples I cited never once implied that every person who does any of the occupations, or lives any of the lifestyles, are dumb. I said it doesn’t take intelligence to do it. BIG difference. Additionally, what my post was pointing out was that if you don’t get an education your options become much more limited. What is true about each one of those is that it does not take a college degree or an education to do any of them…and that includes giving birth. Slugs procreate, teenagers have babies and women have been giving birth since the dawn of man. I am not claiming it isn’t hard, excruciating, dangerous or nearly impossible, nor that being a mother isn’t difficult, but until it takes an advanced degree to do it, any moron can squeeze out a kid. I’m sorry. There are just too many idiot moms out there who shouldn’t have a kid to prove this point.
    
    If someone is offended by the off-color humor found in this post, then I’m just not their flavor, and that is okay. And, as far as my comment not appealing to some my prospective clientele; I appreciate your concern for my livelihood but, well, what can I do if someone decides that I’m not right for them? Regardless of this blog, that will always be the case. I’m not for everyone and that is okay. As a writer, when you start censoring yourself to please everyone you wind up pleasing no one. For every person that was offended by what I wrote there was someone else who found it funny. If you didn’t then I’m sorry about that.
    
    And, of course, I could list my career on this list like you implied. It doesn’t take a genius to do what I do either…well, at least not well. Which is EXACTLY my point about that which you got so offended over: Any moron can squeeze out a kid…and any moron can be a style expert…whether they do it well is highly debatable but that argument has nothing to do with this blog post.
    
    If you take each example out of the context of the entire post then, yes, I can see why someone would be outraged. Plus, to then personalize an example given, like you did, I can see why it might rustle your feathers a bit. Every argument that has been posted against what I wrote have been cases where someone decided to put their own spin or interpretation on it, isolate and example and then get offended. Yet, I never once stated that every person who falls into these categories are dumb, that being a mother is easy or not noteworthy, that Vanna White herself is a moron, that every model on the planet is a twit. These were impressions that the reader got. This I can’t control.
    
    Thank you for taking the time to comment and have a fantastic rest of your day.

sabine

I thought it was just an ugly T-shirt and move on. You may have more protective instincts, that may explain your rant. Do you have daughters?
Careful with your judgement about moms; for some people it can be really difficult to “squeeze out a kid”. Hits them right in the face. I know what you mean, you often see people with more kids than they could or should handle in their situation. However there are increasingly high numbers of people hit by infertility in this country, who give their last shirt for a fertility treatment. Just as celebrities pay big money to have someone “squeeze” or be able to “squeeze” themselves.
Pingback: I'm steamed and this kettle is about to blow! | The Wild Women Entrepreneurs

Related posts:

Related posts: