Girl-cotting Abercrombie

A group of teeangers launched a nation wide campaign to "girl-cott" a line of T-shirts recenty designed by Ambercrombie & Fitch that were deemed offensive to women.

Ambercrombie is known for it's overtly sexual style of clothing. Their catalogue is sexually explicit often including many pictures that include no fashion at all, rather suggestive pictures of females or of males lying chest on chest together. Hmmm, what clothes am I interested in here?

The Pittsburg teenagers were successful in their march against Abercrombie pulling support from national organizations like Ms. Foundation for Women.

One surprising element is the offense these young girls directed to the large corporation.
Todd Corley, Abercrombie's vice president of diversity, told the girls the company's slogans are thoroughly tested before being put on the market. When challenged on the company's lack of diversity as far as its women models go — most appear to be thin, blonde and Caucasian — Corley urged the girls to visit the diversity section on company's official Web site. The girls responded by saying they shouldn't have to go to online to find people of color in their organization.

What is most intersting is the naivety that Ambercrombie spokesmen and businessmen regard these T-shirt slogans.

"We recognize that the shirts in question, while meant to be humorous, might be troubling to some," the company said in a statement.

"We want slogans that inspire girls and let them know it's OK to be smart and it's OK to look different from everyone else," said 15-year-old Zoe Feinstein, who explained the reasons behind the girl-cott to the panel. "Some people were saying, 'Why are you taking this so seriously?' since the shirts were meant to be taken as raw irony, but the problem we saw was that the girls wearing them didn't know that."

The bottom line is that many teenagers and young women don't see anything wrong with suggestive slogans and sexually alluring clothing. Many young girls would not sacrifice modesty for fashion. Look in my church. Look in your church. What do teenagers wear?

It is easy to paint a dark picture about a dark world. I urge everyone to pray that we are the counter cultural example. We, the church, have to tell teenagers the truth, show them the way, and give to them the satisfaction of God's Word so that they won't turn to crude shirts and alluring clothes simply to chase after cheap thrills and temporary affection. This task will not come by diagnosing the problem. The cure can only come through our Lord. We have to pray and pray and pray. When changes must happen, they come about through prayer. Be diligent in your prayers.