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Sex News | Clothier pushes porn, group sex to youths
Clothier pushes porn, group sex to youths
Catalogue suggests retailer selling philosophy not shirts and pants
Protesting the Abercrombie & Fitch Christmas catalog
is becoming an annual holiday ritual, but this year the Ohio-based clothing
retailer has reached a new low, contend anti-porn and family advocacy
groups who are launching an unprecedented offensive.
Abercrombie & Fitch catalogs have taken on a new look since this 1940
edition
Along with sexually explicit images, the company's "Christmas
Field Guide" tells young people in no uncertain terms "there
are no sexual boundaries and no consequences to any sexual behavior,"
says the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families.
"They are using clothing to sell a philosophy and
a way of thinking about sexuality that is dangerous and risky," Maryam
Kubasek, spokeswoman for the group, told WorldNetDaily.
Though previous protests seem to have had minimal effect,
Kubasek says this one is necessary because Abercrombie's "maglog,"
as it is called, is getting worse.
"They are not backing away from the text or the
visuals," she said. "It has become clear to us that if we do
not rise up and say this is wrong, it will continue and send a message
to similar clothing retailers that you can advertise like this."
The coalition has established a special website and urges
consumers to stop spending money at all Abercrombie stores, sign an online
petition and contact a local store manager.
Founded in 1892, the company operates 641 stores in the
U.S., including Abercrombie Kids and Hollister Co., which it introduced
in 2000.
The quarterly catalog, which is sold at the company's
stores, has been published since 1998, and in previous years it has drawn
the protest of political leaders such as Michigan Attorney General Jennifer
Granholm, the Chicago City Council, Illinois Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood and
Illinois state Sen. Patrick O'Malley.
An order by the Michigan attorney general in 1999 –
citing a state law barring disseminating, exhibiting and displaying sexual
explicit matter to minors – forced Abercrombie to limit sale of
the catalogue to people 18 and over and require ID.
'Supersafe alternative'
This year's issue, the slipcover says, offers "280
Pages of Moose, Ice Hockey, Chivalry, Group Sex & More … ."
One article says "a pleasant and supersafe alternative
to [group sex] is group masturbation – sometimes called a circle
jerk or Jack-and-Jill-Off."
Mark Millar, a comic book writer shares this thought:
"My idea is you have the Old Testament, the New Testament, and this
is the Final Testament. This is a thing about Jesus coming back as a 12-year-old
kid … pontificating whether or not he should masturbate …
."
In another interview, Sari Locker, author of "The
Complete Idiot's Guide to Sex," says: "College is the time when
you have the greatest opportunity to have sex [and] the highest number
of potential sexual partners … ."
This year's issue also includes a "sexpertise"
column that says kids going to college "shouldn't be looking for
someone to marry." Rather they should be "focused on getting
experience."
The "sexpert" employed by Abercrombie offers
advice on "sex for three" and tells readers willing to "go
down" on a date at the movies it's OK, "just so long as you
do not disturb those around you."
A comparison column advises men on the benefits of sleeping
with young school girls as opposed to older women, comparing the "fruits"
of biting into "fresh apple right off the tree" versus the "store-bought
variety that sit on the shelf wrinkled and bruised from the handling."
Making something out of nothing
An Abercrombie spokesman with the company's PR firm in
New York has not responded to a WND request for comment.
The company's chairman and CEO, Michael Jeffries, was
the creator of the catalogue's concept, according to its developer Sam
Shahid.
"Mike planted the seeds and we took off, and he's
major in this thing with support – and with ideas," Shahid
said in a 1999 interview with the New York Post.
Responding to criticism, Shahid said, "I don't think
we've done anything wrong. Sex has always been there. It's very healthy,
and I'm very open about everything."
If there's a problem, it's not with Abercrombie, he seemed
to suggest.
"When people make something out of a thing that's
not there, they're reading their own problems into it, or their fears
or what they may be guilty of," Shahid said.
Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary, observes the magazine obviously needs to push the boundaries
a bit farther each year, noting, "In this culture, you have to work
hard to remain scandalous."
What Abercrombie is doing, he said, is not about "just
clothing, just advertising, or just publicity. It's buying into a lifestyle."
Last year, he notes, Abercrombie sold thong underwear
for girls, in children's sizes, with the words, "Eye Candy"
and "Wink Wink" printed on the front.
In a June 2001 column, National Review Editor William
F. Buckley said he came across the catalogue while purchasing a pair of
pants.
The current issue at the time, he said, "goes far
in suggesting that young men and women are better off wearing no clothes,
which leaves the catalogue reader wondering what it is that A&F will
make money from."
"Perhaps," he suggested, "its catalogue,
which of course is best advertised by the fiction that one really needs,
in order to purchase it, an ID establishing that the purchaser is 18 years
old."
Buckley said by the time the reader gets to the last
part of the book, which actually displays clothes, "he is hotly indignant:
What are all those shirts and shorts and pants doing, interrupting my
view of the naked kids! I mean, I showed you my ID, didn't I?"
Multi-issue offender
Abercrombie has caught criticism from other issue groups.
In 1998, an article in the catalogue titled "Drinking
101" included alcohol recipes, raising the ire of MADD, Mothers Against
Drunk Driving, which noted the company's target audience includes kids
below the legal drinking age. Abercrombie promised to remove the article
from future reprintings of the issue.
T-shirts sold by Abercrombie & Fitch
Last year, Asian groups boycotted the company for a new
line of T-shirts depicting racial stereotypes.
One shirt read: "Wong Brothers Laundry Service –
Two Wongs Can Make It White" and showed two smiling men with slanted
eyes wearing conical hats.
Abercrombie said if thought the shirts were funny but
pulled them from its stores.
"We personally thought Asians would love this T-shirt,"
said spokesman Hampton Carney.
"We're very, very, very sorry," Carney said.
"It's never been our intention to offend anyone."
Full credit for this group sex news article goes to:WorldNetDaily
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