"Keep Calm and Rape On": Controversial T-shirts on Amazon.com

Link to Article on CNN.com

I stumbled upon this article yesterday on CNN.com about controversial shirts that were for sale on Amazon.com from an US company called Solid Gold Bomb. The company, which makes t-shirts based on the English wartime phrase “Keep Calm and Carry On”, had shirts for sale that depicted phrases such as “Keep Calm and Rape On” and “Keep Calm and Hit Her”. Twitter erupted with criticism against both the t-shirt company and Amazon.com for having and allowing such t-shirts to be sold, and the t-shirts listings were immediately taken off Amazon.com.

Solid Gold Bomb apologized for the t-shirts, citing that computers generate these phrases and they did not purposely create them. The author also cites Pete Ashton, an addition blogger “who writes about the internet”, who supports Solid Gold Bomb’s claim that these shirts were created randomly by computers and the company was not at fault. Pete Ashton also states that these t-shirts have never been printed and are only printed when a person requests to buy one.

I was astonished that t-shirts with these sorts of horrible, violent messages could be produced let alone sold online on such a popular website like Amazon.com. I am also highly critical of the defense from both Solid Gold Bomb and Pete Ashton. Solid Gold Bomb’s apology seems legitimate, but I have trouble believing that they have no control over what their t-shirts say or that they had no knowledge of these t-shirts existences. They both state that these shirts are computer-generated and that they have no control over what is printed, but with a company that size that makes large profits off of these t-shirts, how could no one have seen these? How could a computer “accidentally” generate those, particularly with the word “rape”? In addition, I question Pete Ashton’s credibility. How does he know about the t-shirt production business? How does he have so much insight into this situation? We have no background on this person and no real reason to give credit to this person. He is cited extensively in this article; why couldn’t CNN find someone with more established credibility to discuss this issue? For all we know, Mr. Ashton could have been hired by Solid Gold Bomb as part of their damage control from this scandal. I am not saying he was, but this was a poor choice on the part of the writer for CNN and makes the argument from Sold Gold Bomb seem less believable.

In addition, if no one on Twitter had ever complained about these t-shirts, would Solid Gold Bomb have ever even “noticed” them or taken these t-shirts off their listing? This article demonstrates the power of social media in inciting rapid action, and how social media can be used to give voice to the individual in the face of a corporation. This situation also brings into question where responsibility lies. The company blamed technology for the t-shirts, but is the company really blameless in this situation? How far does Solid Gold Bomb and Amazon.com’s responsibility stretch regarding sales over the internet? 

Although these t-shirts are shocking, this is not the first time I have seen t-shirts with offensive messages that I think shouldn't be printed. If you go into a clothing and souvenirs store in tourist-saturated areas of Florida, you see t-shirts with messages like these and worse everywhere. Our reading for February 18^th, titled “Nigerian dress as a symbolic language” by Adamo, discussed the power of dress as non-verbal communication. Author Adamo stated that “before someone opens her mouth to speak, her clothes are available for interpretation” and that “dress served both instrumental and communicative functions” (p. 2). One could argue that these “are just t-shirts” and don’t really mean anything, but what power do the messages depicted on these shirts have on how people think and behave?