Nicole's Editorials

Sexually suggestive clothing, without showing skin

As I was checking people into their rooms at the beginning of the school year, I noticed a t-shirt one young man was wearing; An awkward morning beats a boring night was written across his chest. "What a first impression!" I thought to myself.

There isn't anyone to control what you can wear in college, but it's a different story in high schools across the nation. In Ian Shapira's article, "Teen's T-shirts Make Educators Squirm," he points out that high schools are dealing with these "gray area" t-shirts. T-shirts promoting alcohol, drugs or weapons are obviously unacceptable, but more and more school's have to make the determination of what is now acceptable, and what is not.

"Sexually suggestive T-shirts often fall into a gray area that requires officials to evaluate one shirt at a time. Some messages are considered harmless -- "Single and Ready to Mingle" or "My Boyfriend Is a Good Kisser." Others are not.

I've found that many of the t-shirts' messages have fine denotations, but when cultural knowledge is incoroporated, have very negative connotations. The signified messages of the t-shirts are not moral ones. Kids are now walking through school with t-shirt messages that include: Don't Call Me a Cowgirl Until You See Me Ride, yes, but not with u!, Yawn so I can see if you're the one and my girlfriend's sick in bed.

With the Nelly singing "Candy Shop" and Abercrombie and Fitch as well as other name brands promoting these "cultural" values, I can see why kids want to wear this clothing. I know that my 12-year-old brother will understand many of these messages, but I can hope that he hasn't gained the cultural knowledge at this point to understand them all!

posted by clevergirl @ 10:47 PM