American Apparel issue awful creepy Black Friday shirts

I've been boycotting American Apparel on this blog since I started in 2008.

I am always happy to see someone else join the cause.  If your unsure why should never shop at this place then do a quick google.

An employee leaked a staff email to the internet and the internet responded. Apparently staff have been asked to wear this shirt on Black Friday.

The employee felt that it exploited their sexuality to make profit for the ailing brand. They also called into question the age of some employees being as young as fifteen.

'I understand that American Apparel, the corporation, doesn’t see me as a real person and aims to commodify my sexuality in order to sell their product. I still work for them because in the past, I have always had discretion about how I choose to present myself at work (so long as I wear AA head to toe). Now they are actively encouraging our patrons to sexually harass me and my colleagues, some of whom are as young as 15. A lot of our retail workforce is made up of high-school aged girls. There’s no question in my mind that anyone wearing the shirt will face inappropriate comments from customers.'

This is of course an odd choice for a company fighting to defend itself after a wave of sexual harassment lawsuits. Oh and not to mention defending those awful overly sexual campaigns which have upset so many people.

Not to mention its playing with the idea of men approaching women in a creepy way.

'To be honest, my overall experience at AA has been very positive. My location is very supportive and appreciates hard workers. We’ve had campaigns in the past that I’ve rolled my eyes at (ex. #pantytime) but I’ve always had a choice in how to present myself at work. We always have a choice if we want our images used for advertising on social media. We can choose to be sexy, or not, depending on how we feel that day. So American Apparel has always benefited from the sexuality of its retail workers, but at their discretion. With this particular campaign though, it takes that commodification of our sexuality out of our hands, inviting customers to comment on our bodies in a way that’s really gross and invasive. Which is funny if you read the fine print of the directive – they’re encouraging us to cut up the shirts, but they still have to be “appropriate”, which is laughable when you consider this overtly sexual tagline that we’re not allowed to alter in any way.

I know at my location, me choosing not to participate won’t be a huge problem, I won’t get a lot of pushback from management. But girls at other stores may not be given the choice, most of them won’t ever see the directive document first-hand and its up to management to communicate this information to them. I think there’s a huge risk of harm for our employees.'

So for those who were excited about the hiring of a woman as CEO to the company - hold your credit cards tightly folks - its not over yet.


UPDATE : The Marysue.com have reached out to American Apparel for a reply and received this response.

'This slogan on these tee shirts – which were distributed to both male and female employees as optional – was originally intended to be a play on words to engage customers during our Black Friday Sale, which features an additional 50 percent off items that are already marked down 50 percent. We understand that this offended an individual employee who spoke up about his / her concerns. American Apparel is a company that values free speech, and most importantly, creating an environment where employees feel valued, protected, and safe. As such, we have decided to discontinue this slogan and will seek other ways to stay creative and push the envelope, which is part of our brand DNA.'

They are now off the menu! Yea!