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“A dream you dream alone is only a dream; a dream you dream together is reality.” — Yoko Ono
Jan
27
T-Shirt Hell Closes Its Doors
Filed Under assholes, bigotry, misogyny, patriarchy, pop culture, race and racism, rape and sexual assault, violence against women and girls | Posted by Cara |
Trigger Warning — highly disturbing images below the fold.
Via Sociological Images, I just learned that T-Shirt Hell (no I’m not linking) — that website that sells t-shirts which are beyond racist, misogynistic, homophobic, ableist, and I’m sure in many other ways very hateful — is closing down. And knowing that they will be no more, even at the same time as I know that someone will inevitably take their place as soon as I write this, makes it a good day indeed.
The delusions of grandeur in the final message from the asshole running it are also the first funny thing he’s ever produced:
Anyway, rather than cater to the masses, I’m just going to stop making shirts. It’s not enjoyable anymore and I have enough money to move on to something more rewarding. Maybe I’ll start my own hooker farm or maybe I’ll practice sleeping. Whatever I decide to do, it will be better than this.
Attention any venture capitalists or independent investors/business assholes who are about to inquire about purchasing T-Shirt Hell. Don’t. You won’t do the company justice and I won’t take that chance. I’m putting it to sleep. It’s over.
That’s right, I’m crazy. I’m pulling the plug on a company I could have sold for millions. Why in the fucking world would I do something so stupid? Because I can. I don’t care about money. This is the way I’ve always done things…my way.
So, to all the kickass motherfuckers who supported us and REALLY got what we were trying to do, thank you (no, not you, you racist idiots who thought we actually had racist intentions and no, not you, you dumb as a stump fucks who just think any shirt with the word “fuck” on it is as right as rain). Thanks to all the people who contributed to my vice fund and at the same time helped make a funny statement about the world today.
Oh yeah, Sunshine Megatron (no, that’s really what Aaron Landau Schwarz is now calling himself), you did good things. And I’m sure your company really is worth millions. *eye roll* There is nothing more admirable, or more “satirical,” than making the kind of jokes that cause marginalized people to feel like they’ve been punched in the gut. And if you’re offensive to every marginalized group, Lord knows that the feelings of those marginalized groups don’t count. Like the feelings of those women who see the images promoting rape and sexual assault, below the fold.
Yes, I can see what is so satirical and subversive about the idea that women exist to be sexually abused for male pleasure, with the less consent the better.
And I’m sure that if I, or some other women who has actually been raped, or some person who actually has a loved one in a coma, saw someone wearing this shirt and was triggered and broke down crying or was kept awake with nightmares for nights, the wearer would be quite pleased with himself for offending the sensibilities of that obnoxiously overly-sensitive woman. That’s the point after all, isn’t it?
See more highly offensive t-shirts at Sociological Images. And be grateful that it’s the last time you’ll have to see them . . . for now.
Comments
29 Comments so far
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“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” — Susan B. Anthony
Those shirts are definitely disgusting. Looking at the ones that Sociological Images has up, I’ve seen one of those on someone before. The “I support single moms” and it’s a picture of a stripper pole dancing–a 9th grade kid in a class I was substituting (here in Canada) had it on. I was disgusted when I saw it (and surprised the school didn’t do anything about it). It’s even worse to think he might have gone and bought it on this site.
Good news indeed. Although I will be interested in seeing how some of my liberal-but-don’t-recognize-their-privilege friends/acquaintances will react. Perhaps this will be the opportunity for a teachable moment?
I used to love to buy shirt like the second one and wear them on my clearly ciswoman body, and watch the gears slowly grind and grind in someone’s head as they tried to think about what I was trying to say, exactly.
Some of these shirts disgusted me, some made me laugh, and some didn’t get anything but an eye-roll out of me. So long, T-shirt Hell. Now we move on to Torso Pants.
So, anon, what were you trying to say?
By the way? Changing your name to “anon” and keeping the same IP and email addresses really doesn’t prevent me from connecting you with the other identity you use on the blog. Which I really couldn’t care less about if you were sharing sensitive information about, say, a history with violence, or your sexual preferences . . . but just to avoid a connection with your other identity on here because you know your comment, which you chose to leave anyway, might upset some of our sensibilities? Not particularly cool.
I’m still not sure why my first two comments were disappeared, but I’ll give it another shot, using the text from my first one. Maybe it was too late/early when I posted previously.
It’s a sad, sad day indeed. It seems I must bid farewell to one of the highlights of my youth. I haven’t been to that site in years, but this news made me pay a visit to my old stomping grounds. It’s still hilarious.
No James, your comments were deleted because you’re talking about how hilarious a website that I just wrote a post about being racist, misogynistic, homophobic and triggering to victims of sexual violence like myself is. For fuck’s sake. You’d think that’d be pretty clear. Obviously I should have banned you to begin with.
If you want to ban me for having an opinion contrary to yours, feel free to do so.
My father was brain damaged and in a coma for six months before we took him off of life support. Having to watch him waste away to nothing haunts me to this day and was one of the most traumatic experience of my life, but I can still find that coma shirt funny. I’m sure there’s a euthanasia shirt on there somewhere, but I’m not going to curse someone for wearing it. Humor saves us, and I believe to limit it in any way is wrong.
If you think that the idea of someone in your father’s position being raped is funny, that’s certainly your business. But expressing that you find it hilarious is not welcome on this blog, because it is a safe space for rape survivors. So yeah, you’re banned. And good riddance.
Cara–
I’m under no requirement to use the same name twice. You know who I am, after all.
So, anon, what were you trying to say?
What was I trying to say? Absolutely nothing. The goal was to have people try to figure out what I was trying to say, and, for once, actually arrest someone’s attention and focus them on the shirt in question and what meaning could be generated by and how it could reflect on me. Was I being ironic? Literal? Was I self-hating? Stupid as hell? Who knew?
I have to admit I quite like some of the shirts.. but I wouldn’t buy one. Just because *I* like them doesn’t mean I have the right to wear them (fucked-up humour is ever how I reacted to sexual violence) and potentially completely ruin someone’s day and trigger them. I dunno.
Yes, but the readers don’t. I believe that online identities are important. If you purposely switch names without announcing it in order to deceive others, then you’re bordering on sock-puppeting. Which isn’t allowed. So yeah, you are required to maintain an identity unless it’s for sensitive reasons like the ones I outlined above. Otherwise, I have no qualms outing you and/or banning you. Which I don’t want to have to do. But seeing as how I don’t have all day to keep up with each and every reader’s various online identities, chosen based on how offensive they might be acting, it’s necessary. That’s your last warning.
If you were wearing a shirt (or similar one) that makes a joke out of sexual violence and could be triggering to other people, and you openly state that you were trying to say absolutely nothing by doing it, I know perfectly well which of those above options is the correct one.
“If you want to ban me for having an opinion contrary to yours, feel free to do so. ”
It’s funny how bigots always reduce their hate down to a difference of opinion. Its not that they’re broken, heartless, empty bigots, it’s that people who have been or have loved ones suffer at the hands of people LIKE THEM are too sensitive.
Good on you for banning that waste of skin, Cara.
Cara, I don’t have anything to say about T-shirt hell that you or the people who have commented here or at the Sociological Images post haven’t already said. I just wanted to give you a kudos for the way you handle yourself here. I imagine it would be incredibly overwhelming to have to deal with all the ridiculous, insensitive and immature comments you receive, but you do it every day. Thanks!
Aw, thanks Ash! That really brightened my morning :)
“If you think that the idea of someone in your father’s position being raped is funny” – From Cara in reference to James saying his father was in a coma. About the “Coma Sutra” shirt.
“Coma Sutra” is just a play on words from “kama sutra” it’s not advocating/supporting rape of coma patients. A lot of the shirts are just a play on words, in my opinion. Not to say that some aren’t offensive.
Seriously Liam? Are you that thick? Yes, it’s a play on words. The “joke” is that the positions are positions that you use to rape someone who is in a fucking coma. The woman in the images is in a fucking coma, being raped by a man. This isn’t fucking difficult.
““Coma Sutra” is just a play on words from “kama sutra” it’s not advocating/supporting rape of coma patients. ”
*lol* wow. Did you *think* at all about what you were typing? What, exactly, is hard to understand here? Someone in a coma CAN’T consent to sex. They sure as shit aren’t going to be enthusiastic participants. There is nothing more to that sick that a RAPE “JOKE”.
I hope for the sake of the human race people are dumb at this don’t breed.
Liam’s last comment was deleted and he has been banned. Because I have better things to deal with all day than answering the question “how can you see rape in those images?” from someone who clearly can’t tell that the female has been purposely made to look unconscious — or doesn’t think it qualifies as rape.
I never saw his second comment, but given the sheer stupidity in the first, I can imagine the next level of douchery.
“— or doesn’t think it qualifies as rape”
*shudder* He’s walking around in public, near all kinds of women. how freaking chilling is that?
The only bad thing about T-Shirt Hell’s demise is that it didn’t happen much sooner.
That shirt makes me feel physically ill.
And I don’t want to know what Sunshine Megatron (*seriously*?) thinks a “hooker farm” is.
Ugh. Good riddance.
Long live free speech, and the horrid death it is dieing because of snots like you.
Simply put, I will fight for the right of anyone to say what they think, espically if they disagree with me. That is what free speech is supposed to be about.
Change has Come! Death to the First Amendment!
You know what is an infinite source of amusement? People who go around humping the First Amendment without understanding a damn thing about what it says — enough so to claim that it was violated, due to a company closing down based on the fact that other people chose to exercise it.
And you know what’s an infinite source of annoyance? See above.
“and the horrid death it is dieing because of snots like you.”
*lol* So, our exercising our right to free speech is killing free speech?
Do you freaking morons ever *think* before you type?
“Do you freaking morons ever *think* before you type?”
Ahem….I think the relevant question is whether they ever think.
Dear everyone who ever desires to comment on this post:
The First Amendment and the concept of censorship to not, I repeat not apply to personal blogs. Nor do they apply to the fact that a company decided to close its own doors because other people chose to exercise their right to free speech.
And yes, I will keep deleting comments that tell me I’m stupid because OMGLOL the shirts are just a joke and so so funny!!1!!1!
That is all.
Betty Boondoggle – “It’s funny how bigots always reduce their hate down to a difference of opinion. Its not that they’re broken, heartless, empty bigots, it’s that people who have been or have loved ones suffer at the hands of people LIKE THEM are too sensitive.”
This is not that same guy you are talking about, I just wanted to say how funny it is to me that so may people point their finger and name someone a bigot just because the so-called bigot has a different opinion than they and is willing to voice it.
No, the t-shirts on tshirt hell are not for everyone. Yes, they tend towards excessively offensive. There are many on the site I would buy and wear in public. There are many I would buy and only wear in the privacy of my own home. The vast majority of the shirts on that site are something I would never even buy.
Does it make me a bigot that I find those shirts amusing? No, it doesn’t, no matter what you think. Self-awareness is what makes us sentient, a sense of humor is what makes us really human. I don’t expect anyone to have the same sense of humor as I have – hell, my wife is offended by many things that I laugh at. At least she understands that I’m not a monster because I chuckle at something. (and yes, there are plenty of things I no longer find funny as a result of my wife’s views)
You don’t like them, and I respect that. It is unlikely that I will ever wear one in front of you, thereby forcing you to cope with my differing sense of humor in a potentially painful manner. Just remember that my laughter, when applied to any subject, does not automatically mark me as a bigot.
[...] T-Shirt Hell Closes Its Doors : The Curvature "Yes, I can see what is so satirical and subversive about the idea that women exist to be sexually abused for male pleasure, with the less consent the better. [...]
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