Sunday, September 4, 2011

In Defense of JCPenney: Social Media Justice and Mob Rule

That half a dozen of my Facebook friends (all of them women) separately denounced the recent clothing miscarriage showed just how vehement and wide-spread this outcry really was. I can see the point: JCPenney made an obviously-sexist T-shirt available for sale that seems to promote looks over brains. Before too long, another T-shirt came under fire for listing ‘boys’ and ‘shopping’ among a list of a girl’s ‘best subjects.’ The outrage spread like wild fire, and the same day it started, JCPenney pulled it and issued an apology.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and defend JCPeney: they shouldn’t have pulled the shirt. I mean, you can’t fight a mob, so pulling it was certainly the smartest business move, but don’t think for a second that JCPenney actually gives a damn what was on that shirt.

First of all, this is not a controversy at all, and it should be. Half of the more than three hundred headlines that come up in a Google search for this story read “sexist T-shirt sparks controversy.” I’m sorry, but controversy implies there is an argument going on, but I see no debate. There is no one providing another perspective. So I guess that’s my job.

It is such a wild phenomenon to witness the mob mentality at work on social media. No one engages in discussion at all. It’s just, “Oh my God, this! This is happening!” And you pass it along just like that, and pretty soon everyone feels like they are a part of bringing down the Berlin Wall or something, but they always end up looking like Johnny-come-latelys who do their deed and walk away having no clue what they've just done. I’m not saying this is true for everyone, of course. Some people do have strong beliefs, but to jump on a band wagon and pass it along without a conversation is a little disingenuous.

The only article I found – the ONLY one – that actually gives another view is from this mother of two. Her personal opinion is this:
And I wouldn’t pity a girl in this shirt because I don’t know that girl or how she sees herself. I agree it advertises something, but that something is exactly what’s up for debate. Is it…

I’m pretty, I can’t be smart.
I’m pretty and I’m so smart I conned my brother into doing my homework.
I hate homework, I wish being pretty got me out of homework.
or even
This shirt’s slogan is silly, I’m just wearing it for fun

Who knows?

She also points out, correctly, that it is her job, and NOT JCPenney’s job, to be the role model and educator of sexual and social values. She has her opinion about the shirt like everyone else, but ultimately it’s her decision to buy the shirt for her daughter or not.

But it’s not just the controversy, it is the apparent amnesia that social media justice seems to have when executing its sentence. Remember Don Imus? The racist who talked about the black WNBA athletes as a bunch of “nappy-headed hoes”? Sickening, right? You should have heard his show years ago! He wasn’t racist enough to get fired before, so why now? Because of social media. But this is a double-edged sword. Imus’ audience didn’t go away, just him. You can dance with joy that you've brought down an awful bigot, but isn’t it his audience we should be concerned with? I would have though bigotry would be bad for business in this day and age, but he was holding steady right up to the end.

And do you really think that JCPenney is the first to put out a T-shirt that promotes looks over brains? Certainly not. There’s a whole market of sexist T-shirts for sale online! If she can’t get it from JCPenney, she’ll get it from someone else. JCPenney is not the culprit, here.

But let’s assume they are, and get to the bottom line (no pun intended): Demanding that options be taken off the table does not fix the problem in a free market, it just removes options. The only thing that will fix the problem is for consumers to not buy the product. It’s that simple.

Vote with your dollar, not your voice. Here’s why…

When the next shirt comes along, how is the marketing manager going to know if there will be another public outcry? Suppose you go to Walmart and say, “I was told that Tapioca will give you cancer. How dare you make Tapioca available! I’m telling!” And then you go tell your friends and they tell their friends, and pretty soon there’s an angry mob outside demanding the removal of Tapioca from the shelves. They remove the Tapioca as anyone with any business sense would, and the mob goes away feeling like they’ve done their job. But later on, a new rice pudding comes out. The market manager might reject it because it bears too close a resemblance to Tapioca, and whether it is or not, it would be too much of a risk to carry it. And others will no doubt follow. And this is all to say nothing of the fact that Tapioca MIGHT NOT ACTUALLY BE BAD FOR YOU.

Nevertheless, for these reasons, it is not just the “I’m too pretty” shirts that will be pulled and refused to be sold. There are several shirts which will never see the light of day, and not because people won’t buy them, and not because they are bad. As this girl points out, while she’s glad they pulled the Homework shirt, she doesn’t have a problem with the other shirt that quickly made the rounds on social media. But JCPenney won’t consider the difference.

And also, if anything was done here today, it has probably resulted in making teen girls MORE interested in things like this. If you make a forbidden fruit out of it, they will flock to it. No doubt some of the girls saw this come up on their Facebooks and thought, “now I want that shirt!” And they will try and get it or one like it, not because it’s how they feel but because they don’t want to feel stupid anymore. At least the T-shirt will give any parent a golden opportunity to teach their kid a lesson about self-worth, which is not a lesson every girl needs to learn. Just the ones who vote with their dollar.