Hey! You Can't Wear That!

In response to Ms. Powell's Hey! You Can't Wear That!

Abercombie and Fitch, a teen clothing retailer, has undergone controversy in the past.  Recently, an interview from 2006 with the company’s executive, Michael Jeffries, re-surfaced.  Please read the following article to find out what the interview was about:

This issue was also featured on the Ellen Degeneres show.  Watch the following video to see how Ellen feels about this retailer:

Many individuals have been speaking out against Jeffries.  People are even being encouraged to sign a petition against the company’s policy.

Check out the following video to learn about what one individual is doing:

Based on the article and the video above, comment on the questions below in a blog post of 300 words.

1.     How do you feel about Michael Jeffries’ view on who should wear Abercrombie and               Fitch’s  clothing?

2.     Is it fair/equitable to target a particular group of teens?  Why or why not?

3.     How does this contribute to our already biased perception of what beauty is?

My responses are:

1. I feel that Michael Jeffries view on who should wear Abercrombie and Fitch clothing is that its really terrible and mean. I think this because he is being very stereotypical to people that are overweight. I think this because he said that overweight people will never be part of the "popular crowd" and also his clothing company does not create clothing sizes of XXL or XL while his competitors do. According to him fat kids will never be apart of his clothing brand. I feel that he should stop what he is doing and be like other clothing companies and have XXL and XL clothing. All of his comments are really mean, rude, and stereotypical.
2. No it is not fair/equitable to target a particular group of teens. It is not fair/equitable to target  particular group of teens because nobody wants to be made fun of or feel left out and out of place for something that isn't even their fault. Its not right to do what Michael Jeffries is doing, singling out and isolating one particular group. It isn't fair to target a particular group when you own a big company like Abercrombie and Fitch because you can also influence other teens and other people to isolate this particular group.
3. This contributes to our already biased perception of what beauty I. This contributes to our biased perception of what beauty is by saying being beautiful is when you are slim, clean, perfect, etc. With all the magazines with beautiful people, this is what is contributing to peoples opinions about what perception of beauty is. Showing only biased perception of beauty on magazines and television will only influence others that this is the only kind of beauty. People will only think of beauty as a very nice outer appearance and not on the what is on the inside which is their personality. Now that Abercrombie and Fitch is doing this it is going to get even worse because other companies and people will get influenced by their opinion and that's not good.