Nina Shen Rastogi at XXfactor on a new abstinence campaign:
Just $15 plus shipping and handling gets you a tight tank top with the slogan “I’m SEXY enough . . . to keep you waiting” emblazoned across the chest. Waiting until when, exactly—after dinner and a movie? I would never argue that a woman is “asking for it” with her wardrobe choices. But you’ve got to admit, having the word sexy displayed across your breasts in bright pink capital letters . . . well, it encourages people to look at your breasts and think about sex. If you really wanted to make a tank top that encourages teenagers to take it slow, why not make one that says, “HEY, WHY DON’T YOU TRY LOOKING ME IN THE EYES?”
August 12th, 2009 | 10:15 am
I share Nina’s bemusement with the shirt. Not really a fan. Yet I can’t help but think that the line on the shirt (maybe, better said, the line taken off the shirt and put on paper) works best as more than simply visceral…even in an existential sort of way, speaking as it does of the relations betwixt men and women writ large. In a crude way it does get to the heart of one the basic pivots in the relationship between men and women, inside and outside of marriage. A pivot point that is pretty much lost on us in any developed way these days. Rightly cultivated, that sentiment veritably creates civilization. Wrongly abused and misunderstood, that sentiment is just another part of the great unraveling…
August 12th, 2009 | 10:20 am
But isn’t Walker Percy right when he reminds us that within a second or two it becomes a perilous business to look into the eyes of someone of the opposite sex?
August 12th, 2009 | 1:15 pm
I can just the counter-shirt. “You aren’t sexy enough to wait for.”
August 12th, 2009 | 2:24 pm
“You aren’t sexy enough to wait for.”
Bwhahahaha…and so it goes.
August 12th, 2009 | 4:37 pm
With all due respect, it is blog posts like this that create the impression that abstinence is touted only by the unrealistic. Teenagers don’t need encouragement to think about sex…and we aren’t going to control it through wardrobe choices. Even the Catholic school uniform has become a sex symbol.
This tank top acknowledges sexuality (rather than trying to hide or avoid it…which never, EVER works) and, winking, challenges us to control ourselves. Good idea.
August 13th, 2009 | 9:20 am
Men are visual creatures. Whatever else may be said about it, like its deep décolleté sisters, this tank top is designed to draw the eye to a specific location. If location didn’t matter, the message would be on the belly or the back. Let chaste clothing be the first indication of chaste intentions.
Links
Blogs
Find Us
Contact