Underwear from American Apparel…$24
Elmo shirt from American Apparel…$14
Saving your daughter from being sexualized by American Apparel? Priceless.
I want you to think about a tween or teen girl that you love. Your daughter. Your niece. Your best friend’s little girl. She’s a good person, isn’t she? She has a lot to offer. She’s probably pretty talented, and smart, and interesting. Maybe she’s generous, a good athlete, musical, or has a knack with animals or kids. She has assets. Oh yes, she does. And yet, there are corporations that are telling our teens that their assets are not in their brain, or their heart– but…in their pants.
Welcome to American Apparel’s rock bottom contest– or as they call it, “the search for the best bottom in the world.” Yes, on the same website where you would find Sesame Street Clothes for your favorite girl, you can also find an ever changing array of bottoms flashed in your face. Stock photos? Nope. In an unfortunate, disgusting, and sadly, successful attempt to invite girls to exploit themselves, AA has already received numerous photo submissions that are prominently displayed on their website for all to see. Yuck.
So, Hardy Girls, Healthy Women (HGHW), is organizing a GirlCott. Want to join in? Sign your name here. And, send a letter like this one provided by HGHW to American Apparel:
Joseph Teklits and Jean Fontana, Corporate Relations
Dov Charney, CEO, American Apparel
747 Warehouse St.
Los Angeles, CA 90021
Dear American Apparel:
The sexualization of women and porn-inspired media have infiltrated the everyday culture of the youngest girls.
According to the 2007 APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls in Media, the negative impact on girls and women is indisputable: the sexualization and objectification of girls and women in media wreak havoc on our psychological, emotional, cognitive and relational lives.
Your recent campaign is a perfect example of the insidious ways marketers and media promote sexualization and body obsession as “girl power.” American Apparel is directly and unconscionably undermining girls’ healthy development by equating confidence with looking sexy, winning with being judged on their appearance, and personal value with 15 seconds of fame.
The objectification of girls’ and women’s bodies is a real concern in a country where 1 in 4 women is a victim of violence, and sexual harassment is rampant. This ad campaign invites girls to self-objectify, inviting girls to post pictures of just one body part, and inviting others to comment and rate it is demeaning and dangerous.
By launching this campaign at a time when sexting is in the headline news, American Apparel is literally placing girls in jeopardy of prosecution by inviting them to post highly sexualized images of themselves online.
Don’t insult us with the usual defense: this is not real girl power; this is not just girls feeling good, making choices or feeling confident in their bodies. American Apparel is selling girls for parts, and we’re not buying. –HGHW”
Let’s join HGHW and remind our girls that they are more than a sum of their parts. Let’s remind them that their best assets don’t get shoved into a thong and displayed on a corporate website. Come on girls; you are worth more than that. Let’s all get together and tell American Apparel now and tell them loud; Kiss My Assets! And show them what you’re REALLY made of…
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Excellent! Just posted on Shaping Youth a bounty of tee-shirt alternatives with powerful words and positive sayings here: http://www.shapingyouth.org/?p=9966
Your readers might like to know we’ve already received a host of social media mavens rallying around the cause. The power of Twitter and tools to give voice to grassroots astounds. I’m out to help HGHW 200% by whackin’ American Apparel in the assets.
Bottom lines should not be made by bottom-feeding and sexploitation of our youth. ugh.
consider it done and linked….
I might be a Canuk, But this is the same regardless,media hits us all where it hurts. Our girls.
Thanks, Amy, Cooper, and Xmixhra! It’s time to put a stop to the slop.