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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Pornographic clothing

101 replies

ISeeWesen · 14/05/2015 17:14

I've name changed for this because I've ranted about this to everyone who will listen.

Today I made a complaint about a clothing display in a blokes clothing shop. A stand right at the front of the shop which opens in to the main avenue of a shopping centre. On the stand were several sweatshirts each with an image on the front made to look like the cover of a porn mag. A naked young woman squatting with her legs wide apart, nipples covered by text but I think her vagina had just been blurred out. The sweatshirts were hanging at child's eye level, I know this because I had a child with me and they were at his eye level.

I collared a store assistant and at first and pointed out that it wasn't great to hang porn right in the faces of kids, he did move them but I don't know where.

The AIBU bit is this. WIBU to request that these sweaters be moved. And AIBU to think there needs to be common sense about displaying sweatshirts with these sorts of pictures on. If magazines with the same image have to be displayed on the top shelf, I don't see why sweatshirts where the images are much much bigger, should be allowed to be hung in at eye-level and in plain view of any passing child.

[Message from MNHQ - some of the links posted on this thread contain t-shirts with fairly graphic images.]

OP posts:
Andrewofgg · 15/05/2015 17:27

Naked men on T shirts wouldn't sell because (by and large and with glaring exceptions!) your gender has more sense than mine.

nellieellie · 15/05/2015 17:34

YANBU. Well done. Vile sexism. We don't want in in our faces, nor the faces of our sons and daughters. Gross.

soverylucky · 15/05/2015 18:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Eustasiavye · 15/05/2015 18:05

Went to a school production and a man ( presumably a parent) was wearing a similar t shirt. I stared at him as I couldn't quite believe that a parent finds it acceptable to dress like that.

Andrewofgg · 15/05/2015 18:15

Eustasiavye At a school production?

Holy shit . . .

Psycobabble · 15/05/2015 18:38

I'm getting adds for blue inc now including them vile t shirts after clicking on the link from here earlier Angry

Andrewofgg · 15/05/2015 19:13

That's what happens when you click on adverts because you are curious!

Mrsstarlord · 15/05/2015 19:20

Am going to suggest to MN that they put a warning in the title. If you click on the links you get bombarded with pics of soft porn on tasteless t-shirts

spillyobeans · 15/05/2015 19:33

Pmsl at wearing a penis shaped hat. Also if you asked the wearer if they were trying to arouse other men with their tshirt im sure they would stop wearing it!!

Andrewofgg · 15/05/2015 19:56

doragora Flaccid I hope!

MsInterpreted · 15/05/2015 20:26

The word flaccid is almost as disgusting as those tee-shirts. I know flaccid is the normal state for penises (peni?) but it's still a gross word.

DoraGora · 15/05/2015 20:38

Well, you can't call them floppy. That sounds too much like a pet.

dillite · 15/05/2015 21:23

Perhaps you could call them saggy?

Lunaballoon · 15/05/2015 22:27

Me too Psychobabble! Talk about rubbing salt into the wound..

Szeli · 15/05/2015 22:29

Sidge Explicit being the operative word. There's nothing out. There's nothing explicit.
Porn to me involves sex; soft core implied, hard core full on. Side boob and a butt cheek do not a pornographic image make - if they did many designers/shop owners etc would be in all kinds of legal trouble as would many women out sunbathing this summer.

Justanotherlurker · 15/05/2015 22:34

This what you should be worried about if you really do want a better future for your children.

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/uk-government-rewrites-surveillance-law-to-get-away-with-hacking-and-allow-cyber-attacks-campaigners-claim-10253485.html

Another 'shirt gate' scenario is small fry in the long term, and although you don't focus on on one thing at a time, while your being distracted by on one side, other long term issues are being introduced by the other.

NCTimeAgain · 15/05/2015 22:41

Anyone else puzzling out the logistics of Andrew trying to gnaw off his own gonads while claiming to be rotund?Grin

FriendofBill · 15/05/2015 22:59

It's about context Szeli.
I doubt you would catch someone doing the Nicky Minaj on the beach...more like the bedroom.

It is not appropriate to don these images at school, work, shopping, on the high street.

Just because it's not 'hardcore' it doesn't mean it's not porn. Even a side boob and a butt cheek, why? Our bodies are not commodities. We are not objects. We don't objectify men in this way. It's humiliating and degrading.

Just because there are worse things happening it doesn't mean we should leave this unchecked. This is how we will shape a better society.

Even so, I will check out the link NL and see what I should be getting my (suitably concealed) knickers in a twist about now.

Devora · 15/05/2015 23:18

Pull your child away

This is the crux of the issue, and I completely disagree with this poster. I shouldn't have to pull my child away; it's a public space. It's really important that we guard the line that says pornographic material should be confined to spaces where adults can choose to view it. Adults have the right to use porn in their own home; they should also have the right NOT to see it, and to protect their children from seeing it.

Devora · 15/05/2015 23:20

And, just to add: whenever we discuss Page 3 or controversial TV programmes, we get posters saying, "You don't have to buy it. You don't have to read it. You can turn over." In a public space, you can't choose not to see it. So it's not respecting my right not to view such images, or to choose for my children not to. Is it really too much to ask that porn doesn't take over our entire culture?

CoffeeAndBiscuitsPlease · 15/05/2015 23:24

My other half hates these t shirt, oh every time he sees them he gets on a rant about them.

I've seen lads who look 13/14 in those t shirts, disgusting.

Andrewofgg · 15/05/2015 23:42

NCTimeAgain You'll just have to use your imagination and if you solve it don't put it on a T shirt.

Anyone else remember Athletic of Chelmsford in Round the Horne? Grin

Toofattorun · 15/05/2015 23:54

What the....?!?!

NCTimeAgain · 16/05/2015 00:03

Grin Andrew. I can make a cast iron promise about the t shirt.

Szeli · 16/05/2015 14:30

Men are on tshirts, I cant vouch for blue inc as iv never seen that shop but in primark there are certainly.

Also it was adverts involving topless men on cardiff buses that were pulled this week due to an outcry.

Calvin Klein amongst others use pictures of men in their underwear just as much as they use women - and these images go on billboards yet you don't see many threads whinging about that. Is it because women on this site are sexist? I don't know, but I don't understand why a bloke's buldge is ok but a woman in a bikini is not (and btw there are plenty of thong bikinis about).

The non famous girls are probably thrilled their image is being used as it can get them more exposure and better paid work, if the shoot was for the design better still as she or her agent could quote accordingly for the job - a less likely scenario tho