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Store Flier Describes T-Shirts As 'Wife-Beaters'
ClickonDetroit ^ | February 22, 2006

Posted on 02/23/2006 3:38:31 AM PST by ShadowDancer

Store Flier Describes T-Shirts As 'Wife-Beaters'

Company Apologizes, Plans Retraction

POSTED: 9:58 am EST February 22, 2006
UPDATED: 11:24 am EST February 22, 2006

BOSTON -- Building 19, a Massachusetts-based discount store known for its quirky sales circulars, described a package of sleeveless T-shirts as "wife-beaters" in a recent sales flier.

WCVB-TV reported Tuesday that even store officials admitted that the flier went too far. It upset advocates for domestic violence victims.

"I can't say what I thought. I know what I thought, but I can't say out loud what I thought," Jane Doe Inc. spokeswoman Mary Lauby said.

The flier advertised a three-pack of men's undershirts as "wife-beaters."

"That does, you know, go to numbing and dumbing down and normalizing and suggesting that battering is a normal behavior," Lauby said.

Building 19 spokesman Jerry Ellis took the criticism seriously.

"They were right. It was awful and I am sorry it happened," Ellis said.

E-mails came into the discount store's Hingham headquarters where everyone was apologetic.

"It's a slang expression, a street expression, but we should have known better not to use it. I am supposed to read every word. Sometimes it's busy or I am lazy. We are working on a retraction," Ellis said.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS:
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To: NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
Try "sleeve-less T-shirts", for starters.

Well, that makes no sense. A T-shirt is called a "T-shirt" because when you lay it out flat, it is in the shape of a "T".

A similar sleeveless shirt would be more like an "I-shirt", don'tcha think?

61 posted on 02/23/2006 6:22:16 AM PST by gridlock (eliminate perverse incentives)
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To: ShadowDancer

The girls' versions are now called "boy beaters" and just about every catalog uses that term to describe them. What's the issue, again? ;)


62 posted on 02/23/2006 6:23:49 AM PST by Mr. Jeeves ("When the government is invasive, the people are wanting." -- Tao Te Ching)
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To: gridlock

Oops! Great minds think alike.

Apparently mediocre minds as well...


63 posted on 02/23/2006 6:23:51 AM PST by gridlock (eliminate perverse incentives)
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To: ShadowDancer
If you're asking me if he would have been perfectly within his rights to allow the ad to run like that the answer is yes. Just as the group who complained about the ad were well within their rights to do so. They voiced a complaint and he agreed and retracted. I don't see a Freedom of Speech issue here.

***************

Exactly right. Unfortunately, the msm won't let it die.

64 posted on 02/23/2006 6:24:21 AM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: ShadowDancer
Store Flier Describes T-Shirts As 'Wife-Beaters'

So do most people. That is what they are called.

65 posted on 02/23/2006 6:24:38 AM PST by Rodney King (No, we can't all just get along.)
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To: Unkosified
No kidding? I'm almost 50 and have never heard them called that.

I'm 53 and I only know because my nephews tipped me off 8 or 10 years ago.

66 posted on 02/23/2006 6:25:28 AM PST by TC Rider (The United States Constitution © 1791. All Rights Reserved.)
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To: ShadowDancer
It was a dumb thing to do but nothing to get hysterical about.

They apologized, lets move on.

67 posted on 02/23/2006 6:25:57 AM PST by MEGoody (Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.)
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To: ShadowDancer

68 posted on 02/23/2006 6:31:09 AM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist (Tagline removed by Moderator)
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To: Tribune7

That makes sense in an odd, trailer park, Budweiser, Saturday night crazies are out kind of way. :)


69 posted on 02/23/2006 6:45:48 AM PST by Unkosified (Patiently waiting for Ted Kennedy's manslaughter trial for 36 years now.)
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To: ShadowDancer
Here, in the "backwards backwoods" of East Texas, we call them, "undershirts" (as opposed to "tee shirts" which may be worn on the outside).

When worn on the outside, we call them "tank tops" or, simply, "cheap".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BTW & FWIW, the "Building 19" stores, of which there are many (distingushed by fractional numbers -- as in "Building 19-3/4") are, indeed, "zany" places. They are disorganized "clutter-mazes" that dispose of all sorts of overstocked goods. Savvy folks never go there expecting to find something in particular -- they go to see what "bargains" they can "unearth"...

70 posted on 02/23/2006 7:49:43 AM PST by TXnMA (TROP: Satan's most successful earthly venture...)
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To: joebuck

I think you nailed it. I've always heard these were called wife beaters as a result of Stanley Kowalski.

"STELLLLAAAAAAA!!"

71 posted on 02/23/2006 10:57:48 AM PST by Responsibility2nd
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To: ctdonath2; NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
Try "sleeve-less T-shirts", for starters.

It's the sleeves that make 'em "T" shirts, right?

If they're sleeve-less, shouldn't we call 'em "I-shirts" instead?

I believe the technical term for them is A-shirts. Ever since COPS came out I have heard them called wife beaters prior to that tank tops.

72 posted on 02/23/2006 3:17:10 PM PST by CzarNicky (The problem with bad ideas is that they seemed like good ideas at the time.)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

You win!


73 posted on 02/23/2006 4:02:52 PM PST by ctdonath2
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To: ShadowDancer
What do 54,000 abused woman every year have in common?

They just don't LISTEN.

74 posted on 02/23/2006 4:07:13 PM PST by Plutarch
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