I wonder if they make another shirt with checks on math, science, history, and a big blank on dancing? I know it wouldn’t be on shopping - this is a retail corporation, after all.
No kidding. It’s horrible of them to uncheck math (I mean, let’s face it – math is the secret language of the universe), but where is science, history and literature? Kind of makes me think we should send their communications staff some shirts that have “copy writing” unchecked.
And, yes, I’d be all over a shirt than has anything rhythm related unchecked. The biggest shame of my life.
I can only conclude that this retail chain is courting publicity. And considering that I can never recall having heard about them before, I guess it’s already working.
I’ll bet you’re not a parent living in the States. They’re everywhere, here.
Who keeps buying these? My little mitten actually is good at math. Not so much the other stuff. My oldest daughter will literally buy the first piece of clothing that fits her so she can go home - she hates shopping that much. Of course, she also has a mohawk and wears doc martens…soooo…yeah. I forget where this was going.
i used to work for a T-shirt company that produced for all the major dept. stores and i am not surprised by this at all, when i was in the industry the big trend was boys shirts that basically bragged about not doing homework
the saddest thing about it is that clothes like these aren’t aimed at the kids, most kids don’t care what they wear, this stuff is marketed straight at the parents and they are the ones who are deciding to put these clothes on their kids
otoh, i have advanced math degrees and i still wouldn’t call it my best subject; it just happens to be a prerequisite for understanding anything at all… sucks, but that’s life.
of course, neither are shopping, dancing, or music my best subjects.
Canada as well. I used to shop there all the time when I lived in the city.
Boy’s shirts are still like that. 
Either nobody told them about the Barbie “Math is hard!” fiasco, or they’re deliberately courting controversy, or they’re marketing to the reactionaries who don’t want girls to be good at math… or at much of anything, actually; their idea of the ideal woman is the trophy wife who can (pretend to) be incompetent at everything.
Isn’t it equally sexist to assume that this shirt is intended for girls?
Exactly. While this shirt might be a particularly egregious example, I went through the girls and boys tops and none of them were exactly advertising STEM fields. Girls were cute, butterflies, selling your brother. Boys were skating, loud music, sports. (There was one boys shirt labeled “Astronaut something something” with what looked like a monster holding a platter with a rolling olive. Feel free to give them a half point if you want, but I mark harder.)
All of them were stereotypical and traditional-gender-specific. All sucked.
All you gotta do is wiggle.
That’s not how sexism works. Pointing out obvious sexism is not sexist. Recognizing that something is obviously sexist is also not sexist. We are all well aware how certain (hell, most) toy and clothing brands market to children. This sort of uber-skepticism* is ironic because it lacks any ounce of real critical thought.
*Neo-skepticism, maybe? Heh.
(Side note: It’s already been noted that similar anti-intellectual themes aimed at boys also exist. But that doesn’t make this particularly shirt any less sexist, and there is plenty of context in our world, and plenty of history in marketing and consumerism, to see that.)
That’s the pathetic thing. Commercial pandering to this idiotic anti-intellectual strand amongst parents.
Actually knowing things and having abilities should be celebrated, not scorned, but not everybody sees it like that.
So here’s a general announcement:
Okay, idiots, we get it. You didn’t like school when you were kids. But deliberately messing up your children’s education as some form of revenge against the system helps nobody.
Exactly. The results of marketing research encourages them to do it more.
i promise you that people at apparel design companies are not thinking about it at all, they are having their designers poop out as many regurgitated variations on best selling designs possible and then presenting them all to the buyers at the intended store
many times the buyers at the stores make suggestions and the designers mindlessly produce them without question
How is hating school anti-intellectual?
Schools, particularly K-12 schools, severely restrict learning. You aren’t supposed to do math except during math (and maybe physics) class, and even then you must follow along with whatever the rest of the class is doing, even if you already know it or have other interests.
