Laundry, a woman's job?
Was it a joke, an attempt at humorous marketing, or a mean-spirited slight against women? A clothing company sets off a firestorm with what is perceived as a sexist label in its pants.
carljohnson/flickr
Laundry on clothesline.
Most people rarely notice, or pay attention to, the laundry instructions label in the clothing they buy. A British journalist, Emma Barnett, Digital Media Editor at the Daily Telegraph, sent out a tweet about a pair of pants her boyfriend had purchased.
Her
tweet included a photograph of the laundry care label. On the label, below the typical laundering instructions, were the words, "Or give it to your woman, it's her job"
The tweet set off a storm of protest among social media users, calling the company sexist and misogynistic.
Barnett said, "There was no attempt at wit, and unlike the Topman t-shirts, which offended so many with their brazen slogans to be worn across young men's chests – this was a hidden message – or rather an order, intended to encourage women to re-assume their once ‘proper place’ (in the home) and young men to maintain the expectations of their grandfathers."
The company responded on
Twitter saying that it had not checked the label, which it felt was clearly a joke, and that the company would be more careful about such things in the future.
