JC Penney Apologizes for Controversial Girls T-Shirt
Retailer stops sale of "Too Pretty" shirt after Internet uproar.
| Posted Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2011, at 1:50 PM
Apparently, no one is "too pretty" to do their homework.
JC Penney announced Wednesday that it has stopped selling a girls t-shirt with the tag line: "I'm too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me."
The controversial shirt had been available online, but critics quickly took to the Internet to register their disgust with the slogan. An online petition garnered more than 1,600 signatures before declaring victory Wednesday afternoon.
Here’s the statement JC Penney issued to the petition organizers:
We agree that the “Too pretty” t-shirt does not deliver an appropriate message, and we have immediately discontinued its sale. Our merchandise is intended to appeal to a broad customer base, not to offend them. We would like to apologize for any concern we may have caused and assure you that we are taking action to ensure that we continue to uphold the integrity of our merchandise that [our customers] have come to expect.
The product page has been taken down, but the Village Voice notes that the original sales pitch for the shirt was: “Who has time for homework when there's a new Justin Bieber album out? She'll love this tee that's just as cute and sassy as she is."
For posterity’s sake, here’s a screen grab of the offending t-shirt in all its sexist glory:
Correction: An earlier version of this post misspelled JC Penney.
