The response to the ‘No Fats, No
Fems’ shirt has been one of outrage. While that’s a valid response, there is an
opportunity to respond in other ways as well.
The shirt is being sold at online
retailer Marek +
Richard. According to their website, the brand was founded in May
2011 by Neil Marek and Robbie Richard, two guys who met while pursuing fashion
degrees at The University of North Texas. M+R is a causal knitwear line based
in Dallas, Texas. It offers a wide range of clothing gear (everything from
jockstraps to sweatpants) in collections inspired by street fashion, youth
trends and pop-culture.
M + R sell a number of t-shirts with
gay/pop slang emblazoned across them such as ‘BTTM’, YAAAAS’ and ‘THOT”.
However it’s the ‘No Fat, No Fems’ shirt that is causing an uproar on
social media.
I will say this at the outset, that
if you are one of the people genuinely upset or offended by this shirt, you are
perfectly entitled to your feelings and thoughts. I’m not in any way trying to
diminish or downplay them. I’m simply exploring other ways of responding to the
shirt.
Given the context of the company, the
‘No Fats, No Fems’ shirt can be viewed as continuing that legacy of cheeky word
play, designed to shock, surprise and generally, illicit a response one way or
the other. I don’t think the company released the shirt with the sole intention
of seriously upsetting anyone. It simply appears to be continuing a legacy of
sarcastic, witty and boundary pushing social commentary.
Maybe it just went a little bit too
far for some people. The tough thing for M + R is that any reaction to its
clothing can only be gaged after it’s been released. By then, given the
lightning speed social media can spread content around the world, it can be too
late.
The tricky thing about context and
intention is that they aren’t tangible or visible qualities. They are
subtle and nuanced and require a degree of knowledge about the company, its
philosophy and its history.
From what I can gather, M + R’s
response (on social media) has been clear. The shirt is designed to be
sarcastic. This is the company’s response across all of their social media platforms.
Unfortunately, scrolling through many of the comments, it doesn’t seem like
this response is being heard or is appeasing anyone.
From my own personal observations of
their social channels, the brand seems to be pretty inclusive. They use a
diverse range of models of various shapes and sizes. So my own personal opinion
at this stage is to believe M + R when they say they their intent was to be
sarcastic.
Let’s have a real conversation
The controversy surrounding the shirt
is bringing up a very real issue – the level of discrimination in our gay
community for guys who are overweight or present femininely. Let’s use this
controversy as an opportunity to have a real conversation about these issues,
and not just get stuck in outrage mode.
I would love to hear from people
within our community about how these appearance issues impact them. I’d love to
question why we have and hold onto these strong, rigid and incredibly narrow
body ideals. And why is femininity, or anything associated with being feminine
(like bottoming for instance) still seen as a negative thing?
The shirt may be new, but these
issues we’re facing aren’t. Let’s tackle them head on, and maybe we might make
some headway in reducing them. And hey, maybe that was one of the points of the
shirt? To get people thinking and talking about these issues.
It’s just that it’s hard to talk when
everyone is venting their outrage on social media. Why not share our own
thoughts and feelings, and then – and this is the important bit – listen with
compassion and respect to as many different voices as possible?
No comments:
Post a Comment