Note (02/26/07): The shirt has since been removed from stores.
A t-shirt, bearing the slogan “NO MEANS have aNOther drink” and distributed at Bluenotes stores across Canada, has sparked controversy and raised the ire of a number of student coalitions and anti-violence groups.
Spoofing a slogan used in date-rape and violence awareness campaigns by the Canadian Federation of Students for the last 10 years, the shirts have attracted the attention of a number of media outlets and publications, including the Globe and Mail, Canada East Online, Shameless Magazine, and my friends over at Torontoist. Brent Farrington, national deputy chair of the Canadian Federation of Students, has been quoted decrying the shirt’s message. “I think it’s incredibly unfortunate that it is . . . inversing the meaning of this slogan to mean it’s okay to date rape somebody. Not only is that socially irresponsible, it’s corporately irresponsible,” he said.
Torontoist contributor, Stephanie Hart, put it even better. “Something is in the air at Bluenotes,” she said, “and it smells like stupid.”
Obviously aimed at college students, the message this shirt promotes will serve only to deepen the notion amoung young males that their time is best spent partying, getting drunk, and plying the next inebriated co-ed for sex. For young women, it will only reinforce the unfortunate idea that, in order to be popular, one must be willing to “give it up” to any male willing to buy enough drinks. For Bluenotes, in a world where one in four women can expect to be sexually assaulted in their liftime, it represents one of the most boneheaded marketing ploys I’ve seen in a long time.
What were they thinking?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Honestly, while I find the shirt to be mildly offensive I can’t tell someone NOT to wear it.
If you were to wear that shirt out, you might as well be wearing a shirt that says “ATTENTION WOMEN… AVOID ME LIKE THE PLAGUE!”.
James: I don’t claim to tell anyone what they can and cannot wear.
Perhaps, however, you’re on to something with this plague idea. If more “less than stellar” guys started wearing this shirt, perhaps it would thin the dating herd a little?
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