Abercrombie and lessons in critical thinking

This weekend I took my soon-to-be-11 year old daughter shopping for her birthday. The only thing on her list this year was a trip to Abercrombie and it was in a way a shopping trip to pre-pubescence, teenagerhood and adulthood all in one -- an adventure out of Old Navy/Gap Kids/Children's Place-land and into a world we've not ventured through before.

Yes, this was on the wall:

I am really excited to watch my daughter grow up and learn about the world and test out being big. And it wasn't necessarily the baby-ish stud/vixen images all over (although, really, what's that about!?!?!) that unnerved me the most about Abercrombie. What made me itchy about the place were two things: the bleach blonde, orange tanned, unable to form sentences young teens who worked there (the future of our society!) and these:

(Notice a difference between these "kids" t-shirts? Remember, this is the company that once produced t-shirts for young girls that read: "With These Who Needs Brains". Obviously no lessons learned.)

BOY SHIRTS:

GIRL SHIRTS:

For one, boys, it seems, get stared at and have a line of ladies no matter what, while girls need their hair and eyes to make them worthy, and passive.

I was processing these t-shirts with this additional piece of information I learned at TED: the number one gift to girls graduating high school last year was breast augmentation. Yep, great start for the future of our society.

So, here she is, on the brink of puberty, and our daughter sees so many different messages and images every, single day (be sure to click on that link and watch the video - awesome.) The world isn't going to change, but I'm hoping if she can process all of this junk as a critical thinker she'll be just fine. I keep thinking of the Abercrombie girlcott (started by a group of Pittsburgh girls - yeah!) from a while back and am reminded that there's hope, commitment, energy and lots of brain power out there dedicated to positive, empowering messages for girls -- and for boys, for that matter.

Comments

[BeachMama]

Wow, as an owner of some Abercrombie I can say I am a little surprised at those t-shirts. I guess because I am usually looking at the sweaters or tops and not the t-shirts I never noticed before. But, they definitely are sending the wrong message. I hope you were able to steer your daughter in the right direction.

[Beth]

As the mother of an almost 12-year old, I feel the same way. The girl's t-shirts used to be much worse before a group of girls from Schenley high school in Pittsburgh arranged a boycott against Abercrombie and got the company to pull the offending items (something about big chests and blonde hair). Abercrombie does seem to be some sort of 'right of passage' with kids and prohibiting it only seems to make them want it more.

[Shaping Youth]

Hi Cooper & Emily! It's Amy here...checkin' in...Glad to see you posted this...

I grappled with the dilemma of 'hand-me-down' A&F jeans because the 'green' mom in me wanted to recycle, but as founder/exec. dir of www.ShapingYouth.org I found it hard to stomach my own preteen being a human billboard for a brand that's deployed vapid values to make a buck w/out consistently.

I just wrote about the A&F hospital wing naming rights on Shaping Youth here: http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=1216

Talk about ambient advertising. sheesh. Mind you, it's more than just the A&F appearance cues (or the racial slurs & shock schlock that got them into hot water prior) it's also of note that the A&F 'conglomerate' factor is setting the tone & removing other 'choices.'

For example, tonight I popped into Bath & Body Works to pick up some Easter basket lotions, and whammo, there's the Victoria's Secret "pink" line, (which tweens are ga-ga for w/the stuffed dog and awww cute innocence) building the bridge into the lacy/racy sex kitten style without missing a beat. The cross-marketing may be great for them, but not for me, since it 'limits' my choices...

Limited Brands owns the whole freakin' bunch...VS, B&BW, they (divested) and owned A&F which is now sister store to Hollister, yadayada. (In fact, you can almost set your clock by tweendom time when Limited Too is defunct and Hollister is the 'it' brand.)

The more co-branding and replication, with new stores exuding 'the coolness cache du jour' the fewer choices for identity and self-selection, which is why I keep saying we have to watch out, since 'media/mktg. are defining kids before they can define themselves.'

And...The 'message bleed' which seeps from one chain to another in 'age compression' is rushing childhood for us all.

As you know, as a nonprofit media maven/mom I track this stuff 24/7, so I can only put in a plea to those w/purchasing power to 'think before you buy' as those cues and stereotypes stick like bubblegum on a hot day.

You can try to scrape it off, but there's always a smear and a trace that remains; very, very hard to clean it off completely. Keep in touch, let's reconnect again soon! --a.

[Shaping Youth]

Crum...I forgot to leave you this Limited Brands/WikiInvest snapshot to make my point about the rise of 'one voice' and the fall of indie/diverse eclectic choice...
http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Limited_Brands_(LTD)