'Come play with me' backfires on Truworths

The retailer's customer relationship marketing director Emanuel Cristaudo told The Times that while there had been "no outcry", some customers had voiced objections.

By Tuesday (6 August) afternoon the T-shirt range had been pulled off the racks even though Truworths said the T-shirt was "far less provocative than many others freely available to the public".

"Though this T-shirt is meant to be tongue-in-cheek it has gone further than we feel it should have," Cristaudo said.

Two years ago, outfitter Markham had to pull T-shirts bearing the statement "I (recycle) girls".

That same year, the Foschini Group, which owns Markham, came under fire from feminists, HIV activists and Christian groups for a number of T-shirts. One broke down the word "single" into "S: stay, I: intoxicated, N: nightly, G: get, L: laid, E: every day".

Christi van der Westhuizen, feminist and research associate at the University of the Free State's Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice believes certain T-shirts feed stereotypes and promote sexism.

"This kind of messaging is part of a backlash against women's empowerment, which is happening globally," she claimed.

"Such messages try to push women into thinking that they should always be available for sex on male terms," she added.

Source: The Times via I-Net Bridge