Site offered discounts on white tanks to proven "wife beaters"
This is the shit that makes me want to crawl back in bed and never come out.
Wife-beaters.com, a Dallas-based business that sold wife-beater T-shirts, has been shut down after a San Antonio man complained to the company hosting the site....The Web site sold white tank tops, commonly referred to as "wife-beaters," and gave a discount to anyone who could prove they were convicted of wife beating.
Awesome that it was shut down, but the fact that anyone ever thought this was clever is just massively depressing.
Posted by Jessica - February 25, 2009, at 01:32PM
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Consumerism
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Sexism
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Violence Against Women
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Words fail me.
I'm glad somebody complained. I think it's high time we did away with the common name for that style of shirt anyway. As the daughter of an abusive husband/father, I've never found the term particularly cute, or whatever it's meant to be. Just call it a white tank top already.
I've seen them sold at other places as "A shirts" (I think the "A" might mean "A line", like they're narrow. But maybe I'm wrong) or just "undershirts". That is technically what they are: men's undershirts.
The name I first learned for them was ethnically offensive rather than violent towards women. What is it about those shirts?
I saw a boutique in Philly that had tanks like that cut for women and labeled "boyfriend beaters" instead. I loudly commented that I found that equally distasteful.
I say we call 'em "ribbed tanks" and be done with it.
When you said "what is it with those shirts?", is it because you really don't know why they're linked to domestic abuse? Or was that rhetorical?
For anyone who might be confused where that term comes from (it's gotten far enough removed that it's understandable)- as far as White Americans, I believe the term "wife beater" was first coined when Cops starting airing on Fox. This was because, at least once per episode, they got a call for a domestic disturbance. When they would show up and usually the abuser was a drunk White guy in just his undershirt & boxers. Or undershirt and some kind of stained pants. Thus, that became the uniform of a "wife beater". If anything, the term was originally to make fun of those jerks, but since it has gotten so separated it's now just an offensive term for no reason.
My friend and I decided to call them "pechos." Pecho is the Spanish word for chest. That or just tank tops.
The police refer to it as an "athletic t-shirt" as they can't really call it a wife-beater or Dago T over their radio. Of course, I don't believe I've ever seen anyone who I would describe as athletic wearing one.
Maybe that's what the "A" stands for when places call the A-shirts.
Maybe its a regional thing. I had never heard the term "wife beaters" until I moved out to LA. I was very perplexed when I first heard it. In the Midwest we always just called them tank tops.
Um.....whaaaaat?
Wow, that's horrible, I'm glad it was shut down promptly.
"Wife-beater" in reference to tank tops is one of those phrases I'm having a hell of a time dropping from my vocabulary. I fully understand and agree it's terribly offensive, but I keep half saying it out of habit. It's maddening I'm so accustomed to "wife-beater" to differentiate it from a regular cut tank top.
I hear you. It's hard to change language that has become a habit, even if the other part of your brain has fully come to terms with the wrongness.
I checked out the websites for Target and Macy's. Their undershirt vendors (Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, Tommy Hilfiger, Jockey, Calvin Klein) just call them "Tank" or "A-Shirt." I think that's perfectly acceptable, even if it doesn't exactly describe the type of loose-fitting sleeveless shirt with big neck and arm holes marked by that other term. "Loose Tank" - that's what I'd probably use.
D'OH.
Wow, that's horrible, I'm glad it was shut down promptly.
"Wife-beater" in reference to tank tops is one of those phrases I'm having a hell of a time dropping from my vocabulary. I fully understand and agree it's terribly offensive, but I keep half saying it out of habit. It's maddening I'm so accustomed to "wife-beater" to differentiate it from a regular cut tank top.
Sorry, I got an error message the first time.
You get a lot of this sort of behaviour from internet companies and I don't see it as a real problem. It was probably started by some immature guy who thought it would buy him free advertising (I guess he was wrong). Either that or he thought it would be funny. But since internet businesses rarely have anything to loose from being offensive it doesn't really say much about anything when they are. Probably the best response is to see these gimmicks for what they are, innocuous publicity stunts. That way when we ignore them they will either go away naturally or remain hidden in some corner of the web for no one to find.
You see no real problem with this? Encouraging a guy to brag about his arrest for beating his wife? Are you f**king serious? Why are you here?
I cannot call this "innocuous" when it encourages illegal, violent behavior. Only a man (and an ass at that) would say so.
Seriously. Did you read what I wrote? If this were Walmart or some real store by all means boycott them. DV is exceptionally offensive to me. But it's the internet! Give me five minutes and I can find a website selling just as offensive products. Writing blog posts about it just plays into their desire (attention or publicity). If we ignore them at least they might go away or stop being relevant (and therefore offensive).
You see no real problem with this? Encouraging a guy to brag about his arrest for beating his wife? Are you f**king serious? Why are you here?
I cannot call this "innocuous" when it encourages illegal, violent behavior. Only a man (and an ass at that) would say so.
You see no real problem with this? Encouraging a guy to brag about his arrest for beating his wife? Are you f**king serious? Why are you here?
I cannot call this "innocuous" when it encourages illegal, violent behavior. Only a man (and an ass at that) would say so.
oh, good lord in heaven.
i gave up swearing for Lent, otherwise i'd say what i really think of this tasteless, cruel, hateful, misogynist crap.
Ignoring the obvious issues here: Who buys an undershirt online at an undershirt specialty store, anyway? Don't you get them in packages of three in drugstores or something?
Hence the discount scheme I guess.
"...even if it doesn't exactly describe the type of loose-fitting sleeveless shirt with big neck and arm holes marked by that other term"
Neither does "wife-beater".
I never did call those type of shirts "wife-beaters" because:
1)I just called them shirts. Really never get into the difference.
2)The name was completely uncall for.
I am glad the site was shutdown. The ideas people think that would sale. Sad indeed.
Glad the website was shut down. Don't know much about the law, but offering even small incentives to commit criminal activity sounds like it should be illegal, and the idea itself is tasteless and goes some way toward trivialising domestic abuse. That said, I laughed pretty hard reading this article.
I don't think the website will have encouraged any DV and there can't be that many men convicted of beating their wives who would go through the effort and humiliation of proving it to save however much on a vest.
James Doolin is out to make money and piss people off. He's done OK at pissing people off - and that's socially useful. And he made me laugh.
As a victim advocate, I know of many, many men (and a few women) who have been convicted of DV, and not a one of them was ever humiliated by it.
That's really disturbing.
On a side note, I usually call such shirts "beaters," because while saying "wife beater" is incredibly offensive and trivializing of DV (IMHO), I too had problems removing it completely from my lexicon. So I decided to say beater, much in the way one might refer to an old car they just abuse as a beater (other people have heard this, right?). I think it is apt because it is really the shirts themselves that take the most abuse (I wear them while cleaning, painting, etc).
P.S. I think that this site offering discounts for people who can prove that they are domestic abusers is pretty much the most offensive thing I have heard all week. I don't exactly cruise around the internets looking for something to piss me off, but that is pretty horrifying. If someone needs to get a discount, why not the victims? Granted, that is pretty problematic as well, but I think it would be less bad than the thing that they were doing.
You know the really sad thing? Based on the records at the Internet Archive, it looks like Wife-Beaters.com has been offering discounts to convicted wife beaters for the past nine years. Here's a copy of their order form from November 2000.
"__I am a convicted wife beater. Please send me a second beater at half price.
Note: You must enclose proof of conviction, court records, restraining order, probation officer's phone#,... photos are NOT acceptable."
Rofl!
"Trailor# or Apt#"
Lawl
wtf texas! honestly, why must you be the cesspool of the usa. yeay, such pride in my sister city.
and i remember some lgbtq online shirt store called that style of shirt "wife-protectors."
why don't we not go making vast generalizations about a very large state with a lot of oppressed people, huh?
disgusting
I couldn't help but laugh a little at the order form (as it appeared to be intended to mock "trailor trash" abusers), but it really is offensive. I know that sounds hypocritical, though......
I have to wonder, though, if they even sold anything or if the discount was a joke... It wouldn't excuse it either way, though. But I'd feel a little better if it was all a big joke. I don't know if I could maintain my faith in humanity otherwise....
Well, I suppose if anyone needs a good deal on clothing, it's convicted felons... Wait. What? No. No, this is disgusting. And impractical. How many people are really going to make proof of their crimes that public just for a BOGO deal on undershirts?
Well, I suppose if anyone needs a good deal on clothing, it's convicted felons... Wait. What? No. No, this is disgusting. And impractical. How many people are really going to make proof of their crimes that public just for a BOGO deal on undershirts?
I actually don't object to the term "wife beater" in reference to those shirts. Those shirts are pretty nasty anyway, just like people who beat their wives. When I see a dude wear one, I'm immediately turned off.
This is... ironic.
My parents are planning to move to Dallas in a few months. Now I'm kind of concerned.