Dear Friends and Allies,
We need your help to end an offensive and damaging new ad campaign aimed at girls and women. American Apparel has launched a contest called The Search for the Best Bottom in the World, and Hardy Girls is leading the effort to get AA to end this campaign immediately. Click through and you’ll see why. American Apparel is asking girls and women to upload pictures of their butts to the company’s website wearing AA intimates, and inviting visitors to comment and vote on the submissions.
I’ve signed the petition demanding American Apparel stop this campaign and hope you will too.
The consequences of marketing practices like this are a generation of girls and women who feel silenced, objectified, and disempowered. We know that these messages are damaging to boys views of girls as well, and contribute to an epidemic of violence and harassment towards girls and women. Here are just a few of the trends American Apparel is contributing to:
- The sexualization of girls and women - according to the 2007 APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls in Media, the negative impact on girls and women is indisputable: the sexualization of girls and women in media wreak havoc on our psychological, emotional, cognitive and relational lives;
- The direct and unconscionable undermining of girls’ healthy development - by equating confidence with looking sexy, winning with being judged on their appearance, and personal value with 15 seconds of fame;
- The objectification of girls’ and women’s bodies in mainstream media - in a country where 1 in 4 women is a victim of violence, and sexual harassment is rampant in our schools; and,
- The placing of girls in jeopardy of prosecution by inviting them to post highly sexualized images of themselves online – at a time when sexting is making headlines.
I urge you to sign the petition, pledge not to shop in American Apparel stores, and tell your friends to do the same!
