The following article says so much about our society. Please take a moment to read it and develop your own conclusions.

If Boys Just Want To Have Fun, This May Bring Them Down
Teenage Girls Go for T-Shirts That Belittle the Fellows; Is Turnabout Fair Play?
By ANN ZIMMERMAN, Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The Wall Street Journal; Friday, November 10, 2000; pages A1 and A12.

If you want to know what today's teenage girls think of boys, just read their T-shirts: "Boys Are Great. Every Girl Should Own One," says one. "I Make Boys Cry," brags another. A particularly biting shirt has the phrase "Boys Will Be Boys" stenciled above a picture of a donkey's hindquarters.

So much for sugar and spice.

Boy-bashing slogans are very popular in teen specialty stores from coast to coast, reflecting a new outspokenness among girls, who feel more courageous about returning put-downs.

A few relatively benign antiboy phrases started showing up on T-shirts in stores more than a year ago, alongside tops with humorous phrases such as "Supreme Goddess" and "Trailer Park Princess." But at the late-August teen apparel show in Las Vegas, which featured winter and Sprint product lines, the number of antiboy slogans on clothes proliferated, and they became harsher.

"The trend went from some mildly negative stuff last spring to outright boy bashing," says Elizabeth Pierce, a retail analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities, who follows the teen specialty stores and was at the teen apparel show.

Teen retailer Hot Topic joined the game with a T-shirt that says, "Boys Make Good Pets." The company says the only negative feedback it has heard from boys is: Why doesn't the company carry clothes with antigirl slogans?

Hot Topic doesn't want to cross that line, says Cindy Levitt, Hot Topic vice president and general merchandise 'manager. "Antiboy shirts elicit a fun response, but antigirl shirts could be cruel. There's too much of a stigma. Our men's buyer keeps trying to come up with them, and I keep saying no."

Larry Kleinstein, owner of Acme Shirt Co. in New York, claims to be the mastermind behind this latest teen trend, which took some time to catch on. Mr. Kleinstein first introduced a line of junior shirts with the phrase "Boys Lie" at a trade show three years ago, but retailers wouldn't buy them.

"The stores were a little afraid," Mr. Kleinstein says.. "They didn't want to be seen as negative. And they didn't want to deal with a backlash from mothers of sons."

He introduced the Boys Lie shirts again a year later and this time Hot Topic, which is based in City of Industry, California, decided to place a small test order for its mall stores. The shirts sold so well that the company tripled its order. Soon, Gadzooks and Pacific Sunwear came calling, and so did the junior catalogs, such as Delia's and Alloy, which originally had told Mr. Kleinstein they were afraid mothers wouldn't approve.

"Why are they so popular? Because boys lie," says Hot Topic's Ms. Levitt. "Everyone can relate to them," she says. "People laugh when they see them. Girls get a sense of camaraderie from them. They provoke a lot of comment."

Sarah Blaney, a 17-year-old from Morocco, Ind., says she likes her Boys Lie T-shirt for its shock appeal. "It gets a lot of attention," she says. "But it's not as degrading as the Hooters shirts boys wear. These shirts are an answer to that. Traditional men have been able to offend women. This new generation of women are saying they don't have to take that."

When other manufacturers started copying his shirts, Mr. Kleinstein applied for a trademark and started creating new slogans to keep the trend alive. "The people at Hot Topic told me that it was very unlikely that I'd ever come up with anything as hot as that again. To not even try," he says.

But the craze shows no signs of abating, thanks to the introduction of new designs, such as "So many boys, such little minds" and the "Boys Lie Dictionary," which has the entries: " boy (boi) n. see pet; girl (gurl) n. see perfect; and dog (dawg) n. see boy." A California company called Qute recently came out with T-shirts that say, "Boys R Toys."

Culture of Nastiness

"They're critical of boys, but they're not meant to be mean," says Mr. Kleinstein, who estimates he has sold about $2 million of the shirts so far. "It's tongue-in-cheek. Through the ages, girls have been put down more than guys, so it's payback."

But some see marketers taking advantage of girls' newfound assertiveness by encouraging cynicism and hostility. "I think these shirts are exploiting the development and vulnerability of teens and preteens," says Susan Linn, a psychologist at Harvard Medical School. "They contribute to this whole culture of nastiness that disregards feelings and respect."

Girls themselves can see both sides. LaQuet Thompson, a Dallas 15-year-old, bought a T-shirt that says, "Boys S-k." It's not that she hates boys, she says. "And I don't think girls are buying them to feel powerful. It's an attitude thing. We wear them because we can. And we want the stupid boys who think they're players to know how we feel."

Expression of Prejudice?

But Jena Allen, a friend of Ms. Thompson's, recently stopped wearing her Boys Lie shirt, because it got a weird response. "I bought it because it was funny," the 16-year-old says, "but then people convinced me it was prejudiced."

Still, Gadzooks, another retailer with stores in the malls, has stocked up on the shirts, which retail for $18 to $20 each, and thinks they are going to sell well this Christmas to girls buying gifts for their friends. Gadzooks president Jerry Szczepanski says he got one letter from a boy in St. Louis who was appalled that the store would "attack the male teenager."

"I wrote him back and told him we luckily live in a country where there is freedom of speech, and if people want to say something, they can," says Mr. Szczepanski. "I told him that guys have had their crack at it for some time. Just think of all those blonde jokes."

Stores serving the teenage market aren't the only ones doing a brisk business in boy-bashing clothes. The idea was first suggested to Mr. Kleinstein by a friend who runs a retail store catering to gay men.

"They can't get enough of them," says Mr. Kleinstein.