Worried about my 18 year old son buying joke shirts from Afflecks Palace

[ForSparklyFatball]

Hi everyone, I’m after some advice because I’m really not sure if I’m overreacting or not. My son is 18 and has started going into Manchester at weekends with his university mates. They’ve been spending time in Afflecks Palace, which I know is full of alternative stalls, but he came back yesterday with a couple of t-shirts from the shop on the top floor that does the t-shirt printing.
One of them says “Don’t bully me, I’ll cum” and the other was along similar lines with crude sexual humour. He thought they were hilarious and just a bit of edgy fun, but I’m honestly concerned. At 18 he’s an adult, yet these kinds of slogans seem to normalise really objectifying and inappropriate attitudes, especially towards women and sex. I’ve tried speaking to him about it calmly, explaining why it bothers me, but he just laughed it off and said it’s only a joke.
Has anyone else come across these sorts of shirts in Afflecks or had their own son or daughter bring something similar home? Am I making too much of it, or is this worth having a firmer conversation about? Any thoughts on how to approach it without it escalating would be really helpful. Thanks.

'Rage against the washing machine' was my personal favourite from Alfflecks Palace as a teenager 😅 love that place!

OP I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill and tbh if you tell him you don't like it, he'll probably buy more! I would have at 18!

Yes, let's make sure he doesn't make his own choices and, God forbid, have a sense of humour that differs from his Mother's!

Aaaw Afflecks is fabulous. Dumb t shirts are a thing at that ages. I had a mate who wore one that said ‘Stop staring at my tits’. The reactions from blokes on the tube…. Brilliant !
We used to have places like this in London before it got all sanitised.

didnt you rebel as a teenager? It could be a lot worse!

I have a great sense of humour that doesn't involve demeaning women. Or being into sex games that involve pain. S&M is sick and perverts enjoy it.

The venom just pours out of you, doesn't it?

I do hope you don't speak to your son and husband the way you speak about them here.

Really sounds like you have, hun.

No

What venom? I'm just upset. I thought all this was done in the 1990s. Lads mags, that sort of thing. I thought I had a good lad, I failed as a mother.

I think you're really mentally unwell and need to seek some professional help. This thread is insane and you're acting completely irrationally, I'd be very worried if any of my friends were talking to people like this.

Your son is a 'FOOL' and your DH 'SPINELESS' according to you.

Lovely.

Your 'upset' doesn't warrant you being such a controlling, judgmental arse which, ironically, is a bigger fail in motherhood than your adult son wearing a mildly risque t-shirt.

Well thanks to this thread I googled that “Obscene-a-tee” website and have found several shirts I’ve sent screenshot of to my 18 year old who I think would go find hilarious. His response was to say he’d like me to buy them all for his half birthday… his favourite was the don’t bully me one lol.

My favourite was the chat shit one. You’ll have to wait for the mn filter to review it, but if you share my sense of humour, I hope this tickles others as much as it has me. So tempted to buy it. For me. If you’re the easily offended, don’t open the image.

Poor Mother Teresa. Another awful T-Shirt.

Your husband degrades you?

You got a DH problem.

Your son sounds cool as fuck!!

He’s 18, they do stuff like this. If he was 45 and wearing it, I’d judge him, but it’s just stupid teenage shit that he’ll grow out of. At his age I thought this kind of thing was so edgy and hilarious; the novelty rapidly wears off.

I’d roll my eyes and let him get on with it.

Also, “Rage Against the Washing Machine” above - love it 🤣

Thanks for the laugh, and the nostalgia, loved Afflecks in the 90s. Be glad he only bought some pretty tame t shirts as far as you know🤣

Mother Theresa denied countless dying people essential treatment and pain management and insisted all they needed was 'prayer'.

Poor her my fat arse.

Mid ‘90s I wore the ‘bad girls go everywhere’ t shirt, best friend wore one that had ‘all this and brains too’ emblazoned across the chest. We thought we were so cool!

Are you always this crazy 😂 maybe get a hobby OP and stop obsessing over harmless t-shirts

In those days, very few people became porn stars though, while now, a lot of people see it as a career path (and the magazines we read certainly wouldn't have praised some types of exploitation/having multiple partners the way they do now). Yet words on a t-shirt are more offensive now than they were then. Progress, eh?

Has Op finally proved this is a joke?

Or an advert?

Nobody is this ridiculous, surely?

I hope Afflecks are enjoying their random surge of sales.

Those t-shirts are not a sign you failed as a mother. Your attitude towards your son and his father on this post are quite concerning though. It comes across that you see your son as some kind of vile, sexist pervert. Based on what you've written, there's nothing wrong with your son, it seems like you are projecting based on your own sexist views.

She’s 100% jumped the shark.

Should probably get that on a t-shirt for her.

The accuracy 😂