Please take a moment to protest a viciously sexist "Onion" t-shirt
Please pass this on.. and call now!
From Lisa Thompson
"Here's some news that I'm sure will get your blood pressure up -- I know mine is. There is a T-shirt available for purchase on The Onion website featuring the slogan, "My Friend Went to Thailand and All I Got Was This Lousy Prostitute." However, if you look at the image of the T-shirt online, it actually reads, "My Friend Went to Thailand and All I Got Was This Lousy Kidnapped Prostitute." Either way such a message is utterly appalling. It's hard to believe it, but there are actually people out there who not only dreamed up the T-shirt slogan, but also thought it would be a good idea to make money on such T-shirts.
Wow, it's not bad enough that millions of women and girls are sexually trafficked, rape, subjected to all kinds of physical and verbal abuse, afflicted by a host of diseases, even murdered, or tossed aside to fend for themselves when they are no longer "marketable"; now some jerks have to make jokes about it! These people actually have the nerve to mock the abuse and exploitation of women and children.
Just so you know, I've already called the store and confirmed that the shirt if for real, and that is for sale. Interestingly, I was not allowed to speak to a manager. Evidently the store has already received some complaints, but I think they need a few thousand more. So, won't you please take a few moments and call 1-800-280-1791 to voice your objections? This type of callousness and outright mockery of exploitation cannot go unanswered. Please forward this email on to your friends and family. We need as many people calling as possible. Let's make this the last time The Onion ever sells a shirt like this.
Don't think I will. The Onion is notorious for doing flip-side sarcastic parody, and this is par for the course: they make blaise mockery of prejudice on a regular basis. Satire about the banality of evil, that is tucked neatly in the shadows. It is often offensive, and maybe that is a good thing. I'd as soon as pick apart the apparent prejudice of a comic like Russel Peters, or Sara Silverman. Certainly plausible to make the case, but I am not sure it worth my time, nor even if it is right to do so.
This for example is brilliant:
More naïveté... I doubt whether people who shell out $17 for a yuk yuk t-shirt do so to mockingly expose prejudice.
Sure they would. In anycase, my experience is that trying to parse the lines where this kind of thing crosses the line, and what the intent is, and why someone might wear it is a fruitless task. Some might wear it for one reason, and others for another. The whole site is paradoy.
Seriously, this is a bad taste joke about rich white sex tourists going to third world countries to exploit women and children. Something no one talks about. Putting it on a t-shirt makes obvious what is hidden. Putting it on a t-shirt exposes the banality of and "day to day" manner in which some people enage in this kind of "tourism". So they make an "tourist" T-shirt that exposes the reality of the privilege in play: Just like another rock concert, a fishing trip, or whatever. That is the way I read it.
Where do you put this kind of thing, for example: http://www.theonion.com/content/video/live_from_congress_representativ_0
Offensive on the surface, but not neccessarily so. Hard to say in the end.
I hear you but disagree. Some readings make more sense than others. The way I read it is that "rich white sex tourists going to third world countries to exploit women and children" is, contrary to your reading, something more and more people are talking and doing something about. So here comes a t-shirt pretending it's a joking matter. Reactionary shit. And people will pay to assert that they think it's a joking matter by sporting that shirt - look at me, I'm a cynic. And other people will go out of their way to make that less advantageous for The Onion. Sorry you won't.
You seem to forget that pardoy is potent political weapons. I am not going to spend a whole lot of time deconstructing every tasteless thing the Onion people do because I have seen enough of what they do to know that there intent is not to make money of the sex trade in Thailand.
You might as well start a boycott Russel Peters campaign, or go after Sara Silverman.
Apparently very few white Liberal icons ever achieved international t-shirt status. Must be why they drive expensive sports cars with HP sauce under the hood to make up for some shortfall or another in their cushy lives and must suffer from Che envy of sorts. No guts no glory no legacy syndrome of a sort.
They're raising awareness of a reprehensible practice.
You'd rather people shut up about this sort of thing?
Please reread the opening post. It's from women who have been in the sex industry and they don't share your optimistic view.
The Onion likes to push boundaries. A couple of years ago, in "Vanity Fair," (I think), there was an interview with Onion writers about the ideas they had post-911, and what they couldn't use; an example was, "Security is tight, assures Quadragon."
If you make a big deal out of this, it draws more attention to it. And then more people will see the T-shirt than otherwise would have.
There's all kinds of offensive crap on the Interweb, and I'm not really sure this is offensive rather than a vicious parody of the kind of casual sociopathy that makes sex tourism possible. Ignore it and it will go away.
Why should it if it sells (this is a marketing initiative, not a quip in a skit)? BTW, and not to confuse you with them in any way, this is exactly what promoters were saying about 'hardcore' pornograhy 25 years ago.
Doubt it's going to sell well; like you said, there have been other complaints.
Twenty or so odd years ago, I remember Michelle Landesberg going into paroxysms of outrage over a shirt she saw on the subway: "If you rape me, keep this side up." Certainly it's horrifically offensive, but I've personally never seen one of those shirts, and I doubt we'll see any of these ones you've just discovered. And even if we do, so what? Some people like to shock for the, um, shock value. If we don't react, it takes away their fun.
I want to take away more than their fun.
There is more in mainstream culture that I find offensive. Like the on-going anorexia of supermodels, for instance, or the continuous glorification of youth and beauty as moral values.
Absolutely. And since it is in the logic of the big corporations' sales of products, we have little traction to oppose that - although grassroots women are doing a lot here in Quebec...
(Edited to add some) But challenging progressives like the Onion staff over something like the sloppy instrumentalization of a feminist issue seems more likely to succeed - women are usually the minority in comedy environments; critical feedback might help them swing a change of policy. I wrote them here.
There is more in mainstream culture that I find offensive. Like the on-going anorexia of supermodels, for instance, or the continuous glorification of youth and beauty as moral values.
[Emphasis added]
Oh I hear you... I haven't forgiven the Ancient Greeks for doing that either. No, I am not being sarcastic.
Please reread the opening post. It's from women who have been in the sex industry and they don't share your optimistic view.
BAHAHA!
That would be a lot more noble if it weren't so painfully clear from this thread that your support for what sex workers have to say is entirely conditional on them telling you what you want to hear.
Do us all a favour: get over yourself.
Let's not drag arguments from other threads into this one. And that last line was over the line, Stephen.
If we're honest with ourselves, most of us are more likely to support those marginalized voices who say things we agree with than those who don't. Doesn't mean we shouldn't challenge ourselves and others on it when we see that we're doing it, of course. But it's also important not to completely write each other off because of it.
Also, I doubt that there are any women, from whatever camp, that support kidnapping women for sex tourists or making jokes about that so your point is moot, Stephen Gordon.
Not that it matters what they think. Unless they agree with you, of course.
If you can do better than personal attacks, please do. Other wise, please don't presume I don't know the arguments of the opposition by heart.
<snicker>
That'd be a lot more convincing from someone who hadn't thought it necessary to call me a Westmount Rhodesian.
Sorry Michelle, but what happens in other threads does matter.
Can we get back on topic? I just don't get your point: does it bother you that this action call against the Onion was initiated by a formerly prostituted woman (Trisha Baptie) and her allies and not by someone you feel you can easily dismiss?
Yay!!!
The (Chicago-based) Onion store finally pulled that horrible "joke" T-shirt reading "My Friend Went to Thailand and All I Got Was This Lousy Kidnapped Prostitute." A LOT of people had phoned or written in to express their indignation.
Thanks to everyone who took a moment to do so.
If you feel like commending the Onion Store for (finally) doing the right thing and being true to their usually progressive and funny content, go to: http://store.theonion.com/contents/show/2
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. (Margaret Mead)
If only we could get the same kind of response when protesting, you know, actual exploitive sex work.