To think 6 year olds should not be wearing this

[welliments]

Merchandise from a major dance show at the excel centre in London next month. They sell these, and tshirts from age 6 up.

I’m going to have to explain to a 10 year old why she can’t have a jumper...

That the child won't understand it is not the point. Most adults will. I certainly wouldn't have my six year old parading around wearing a smutty joke. It doesn't outrage or offend me that others would. I'd just view the parent as dull, or tasteless, or naive.

@Frusso, as mentioned numerous times earlier on in this thread, the "do it" slogans are a very well known and somewhat overused innuendo for sex. Yes, it is rather a puerile interpretation but that is the point of it! It's meant to be puerile!

I think if English is your 2nd language then maybe you might not have heard of this joke before, but trust me it's a very old one, which anyone who's lived here for a while would recognise straight away.

Yes, @AnElderlyLadyOfMediumHeight - me too.

Relax, don't do it. When you wanna suck a Chewit... 🎤🎤🎶

Anyway, this thread is . I knew what you were talking about immediately, OP. The Facebook 'I like it on the stairs / sofa / floor' statuses are also meant to have a sexual undertone. I can only assume that mumsnetters do it with faux confusion and superiority.

I'm just relieved to have had my innuendo/double entendre issues clarified.

MN taught me that it's "another think coming"

Oh for goodness sake!

NRTFT. Well, my eyes aren't focusing properly this morning, so I read that as "Bangers do it with attititude", so definitely thought it was inappropriate.

The Facebook 'I like it on the stairs / sofa / floor' statuses are also meant to have a sexual undertone.

See, that's different.Straight away you think of "it" as sex. That sentence, on a 6 year old, I'd be
There's no verb.
Dancers dance. "Dancers do it with attitude." They dance.
You have to look hard to be offended, or straight away think of sex even though you have a verb in there making it very clearly have a different meaning that doesn't automatically think sexual.

Why are you still wittering on about being offended? Do you link sex with offence?

Dancers dance. "Dancers do it with attitude." They dance.
You have to look hard to be offended, or straight away think of sex even though you have a verb in there making it very clearly have a different meaning that doesn't automatically think sexual.

Sorry to be a pedant...but the verb there is "to do". Not "to dance". Dancers dance with attitude? Fine. Dancers move with attitude? Also fine. Dancers have an attitude? Also fine and possibly the play on words with the ballet position discussed above.

But "Dancers do it with attitude" = there is something done by dancers, which is done with attitude. What is that? You have to infer it. And given that "do it" was a popular euphemism for sex and there were squillions of these tops around about 30 years ago a la Madonna's "Italians do it better", then it isn't ridiculous to think that the inference that may well be drawn by people is that one.

Why are you still wittering on about being offended? Do you link sex with offence?

WTF kind of response is that?
Way to bypass everything I just said and just come out with "wittering on" instead.
Of course I don''t link sex with offence.
Then I'm the one who gets "you can't educate pork" comments halfway through the thread. It's laughable.

But "Dancers do it with attitude" = there is something done by dancers, which is done with attitude. What is that? You have to infer it

That has also been my point throughout. Yes, you have to infer it. People also see "it" in this context as dance - as dancers dance. It doesn't automatically mean sex.

I think the very dull explanation is that people who don't have English as their first language make a lot of sloganned clothing and sell it on the internet.

Now I know that, additionally, lots of native speakers don't consider what others might involuntarily 'see', or care.

And given that "do it" was a popular euphemism for sex and there were squillions of these tops around about 30 years ago a la Madonna's "Italians do it better", then it isn't ridiculous to think that the inference that may well be drawn by people is that one

With Italians do it better - again,not comparable as that's clearly a sentence that a question could quite easily arise - " what do Italians do better?"
"Ermmm...."

"Dancers do it with attitude..."
"*what do dancers do with attitude?"
"Well, they dance with attitude of course."

Mumsnetters do it by judging anybody who does it differently to them

Dreamy Yes, of course you're right that the inference is drawn by others.

But take a (more extreme, admittedly) example. Equally, I could walk round in a top which says "I like a big cock" when I am referring to my poultry. Or one which says "I'd like a 12 inch meat feast" when I'm referring to my preferences for pizza. And the inference that I mean something else is - absolutely - drawn by others.

But if something is in common parlance (a "well known phrase or saying", if you will) then surely it would occur to you that, absent any other context, others may draw that inference? I'm pretty sure if I wore the slogans above emblazoned on my chest, I'd get a lot of comments and sniggers....

"Well, they dance with attitude of course."

So all those joke t-shirts:
Engineers engineer with precision
Magicians do magic with their hands
Astronomers do astronomy under the stars all night long
Chemists refer to the periodic table periodically on a table.

Yes, I can see now why those t shirts never sell

In earnest 'sisters are doing it for themselves' DIY spirit (not an innuendo. Was it? Annie seemed pretty serious about the jobs and stuff. Dave was not smirking), my contribution to the lexicon of 'doing it':

Do It as straightforward euphemism for sex - Not used by anyone other than 10-11yos, '80s comedians e.g. Victoria Wood, The Young Ones. So puerile. Mumsnetters are far more sophisticated so say 'DTD'.

XXXs do it in/with YYY - puerile but universal 80s sex joke trope, popularised on bumper stickers (whatever happened to those?) and instantly, involuntarily recognisable to anyone who remembers Yuppies, Rubix cubes and Adrian Mole.

Birds do it, bees do it, even sentimental fleas do it - deffo sex, though the song says 'fall in love'.

'Just Do It' Nike slogan - about sport but streams directly into the inner 'sex' part of people's brains, as so many advertising messages are designed to do, thus inducing a far bigger response than any sporting slogan should. The 'death row last words' derivation may be true but is esoteric knowledge, it's not what the phrase is about in Nike's useage.

Do-It.org volunteering - Follows from the Nike useage, so not about sex but may access unintended brain areas.

Do It Yourself aka DIY - home improvements, popularised in the 70s. Used smuttily as an innuendo for masturbation.

Relax, don't do it, when you want to go through it.... when you want to cum - not sex. No. Specifically orgasm.

do this / do this thing - not about sex

Anyone else?

Here's Rae Morris on the subject:

YANBU. I would not let my (ballet dancing) daughter have that hoodie. The slogan is clearly double-entendre and even if my daughter would not understand the innuendo, some people looking at it would, and it is not therefore appropriate for a child to wear.

It would be different if an adult ballet dancer chose to wear it, because he/she is old enough to choose whether they want to wear a slogan which some people will understand it as being a(albeit joking) reference to how he/she has sex.

I am amazed that so many speakers on this thread (most of whom presumably speak English as their first language) do not get the inference in this slogan or think that is is OK.

More generally, I am sick of slogans on children's clothing which use this kind of innuendo.

There's no issue here, isn't 'Just Do It' the Nike slogan too? I hardly think it's sexual, that's a pretty big leap.

How are these innuendo jokes remotely similar to Nike or Maybelline or McDonald’s?

I see ‘divers do it underwater’ and I see sexual innuendo.

I see ‘just do it’ I think Nike.

I see ‘maybe she’s born with it’ I think maybelline.

I see ‘I’m lovin it’ I think Maccies.

The problem isn’t with the word ‘it’

I think a lot of people on here are being disingenuous for some reason. And as someone said, it’s not offensive but it’s not appropriate either IMO. I had an FCUK t-shirt in the early 2000s, I wouldn’t let a kid of mine wear that eithe even though it’s not even a word! It just means French Connection UK!

I wouldn’t let my Xbox mad kids wear a hoody saying Xbox players do it in the living room (because I am a responsible parent and make them do it in front of me)

I thought of the FCUK thing too, Diana. Similarly, there's one of those comedians doing the rounds with a show entitled something like "I'm King Cnut". I'm not going to take my daughter to that and assume it's going to be a night full of history jokes.....

Yes, It by itself - not sex.

Actually OP you must be wrong coz I just asked DH and he wouldn’t think that at all

Behold! A man has Given His Opinion