Christian Science Monitor’s Danna Harman writes about Los Angeles-based radio host Glenn Sacks and his crusade against a t-shirt maker whose products, according to Sacks, promote “misandry”, or anti-male, ideas.
The shirts in question have slogans like “Throw rocks at boys,” and Sacks calls into question what women’s groups would say if they had shirts that were the same with girls’ names or directed at the female population. While I think he is a little overboard on a lot of the topics he covers, I do think that when the executive director of the National Organization for Women (NOW), Helen Grieco, says “I spend every day on life-and-death issues and don’t have time for T-shirt campaigns,” it’s kind of a tough thing to believe - that NOW wouldn’t get involved if this were reversed. If a shirt came out and was popular that said “Girls are annoying, stick gum in their hair on the bus” or something, and 8 year old boys everywhere were buying it, we’d probably hear about it after a while. So she’s just being dismissive because she doesn’t like Mr. Sacks’ politics.
But the “His Side” radio show seems to have made an impact - three chains that carry the products, including shirts, lip balms, and chewing gum, have decided to remove them from their shelves. Which is fine until you read that the publicity has done just fine for the David & Goliath company, who continue to sell and market via the Internet, telephone, or other boutique stores.
