Wear blue

Sexist T-shirts are sick jokes

University of Michigan "Freshmen girls. Get 'em while they're skinny" ... in Atlanta? This slogan was created by two University students and has be seen on T-shirts across campus and as far away as Emory University since Welcome Week.

Earlier this semester, two LSA juniors decided to produce and sell T-shirts with this slogan to fellow students. The shirts, which can be spotted across the campus, have been called everything from funny to a disgrace.

This business venture by two juniors has caused more uprise than its creators expected. In response to the shirts, the Michigan Student Assembly's Women Issue Commission is asking that students across campus wear solid blue shirts tomorrow to demonstrate their support of "women and the challenges they face," said WIC co-chair Katie Williams, as well as to protest the juniors' idea of a funny prank. We encourage all students to show their support of feminism by wearing blue shirts tomorrow.

The "Freshmen Girls" shirts began as a combination of a prank and a get-rich-quick concept. They have been selling since Welcome Week, and their creators are considering expanding the business to sell them to other schools across the country, simply by removing "University of Michigan" from the front. While few students make the effort of starting a business while still in school, this is hardly an enterprise worth praise, as its product should have been given much more careful thought and consideration.

It is a shame that campuses across the country are getting their impressions of the University through such a demeaning shirt. Unfortunately, the two juniors who thought up this inspiration were limited by their own possible gains and did not have the foresight to imagine the consequences.

This immature prank advertises skinny girls as though women are a commodity to be grabbed up by male students as quickly as possible. The idea that female first-year students are transformed into sex objects based on purely superficial reasons is detrimental to women's self-esteem and self-images.

SUch a slogan as "Get 'em while they're skinny" contributes to societal pressures on women across campus to adhere to one expected body image, possibly leading to an increase in eating disorders.

The most recent study performed on campus of eating disorders was published in the Michigan Women's Handbook in 1992. It found that 86.1 percent of first-year females partook in abnormal eating behavior. This is greater than the national college average that states that more than half of all college students admit to having eating disorders. In an atmosphere where body-image issues are present, it is amazing that students are willing to spend money only to increase already existing tensions.

When supporters of the shirts are questioned on such consequences of these shirts, few have more to stand behind than the First Amendment. This joke is viewed by others as neither funny nor acceptable.

The First Amendment is one of the most important rights guaranteed by the Constitution. But the idea of saying something simply because it is allowed is usually long abandoned by the time one reaches college age.

We ask all students, male and female, to show their support for women's issues by wearing solid blue shirts tomorrow in support of the WIC. Perhaps these two juniors will walk around campus tomorrow and see the reaction they created. And maybe they will think better of distributing such a demeaning message nationwide.

10-21-99