Blog 3: As the Topman T-shirts show, misogyny is now so commonplace it's mundane

“Nice new girlfriend, what breed is she?”,was one of the t-shirt slogans that British clothing company Topman added to their clothing collection. Topman is known for having the latest fashion for men,as well as having ironic slogans printed on their t-shirts. Though recently, the slogans have seemed to come off less sarcastic and instead display expressions slandering women. Not only is Topman showing little regard for women, but also saying that sexist jokes are just a humdrum part of society and are prevalent enough to be printed on shirts. Topman made the statement to the disapproving crowd that, the shirts were suppose to be, “light-hearted and carried no serious meaning.” The production of these shirts exemplifies how popular culture views women within society. A study conducted by Princeton University, “found that male brains respond to women in bikinis as though they are objects, not people”. This study and the shirts comparing women to dogs manifest the idea of dehumanizing women withing society. Selling these shirts are showing how society is making it seem that misogyny is not harmful or offensive, and that it is fine to make these statements without having any regards to who it may offend.

When reading this article, it made me very upset to see how people in today's society are not taking sexism as an enduring issue. To have such casual statements that are degrading towards women show how inconsequential society views this problem. Having this type of attitude of accepting women as being seen as objects gives me doubt of women being seen as equal within any society becoming a reality. If society becomes accepting of this issue, will it ever be resolved? I believe if society continues to make mockery of this issue; then people will not take the initiative to fight against the objectification that society is passing off as being acceptable. It is unsure to tell when this discrimination will come to an end, but it will surly persist if the issue becomes an accepted joke.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/15/topman-tshirts-misogyny-commonplace-mundane