I really hate those shirts. I was in middle or high school when they first came out and I always thought they were tasteless and immature, and I really don't think we need to be promoting that "battle of the sexes" myth these days.

I remember those stupid shirts from the late 90s as well and I always thought they were dumb.

Shirts for boys that make jokes about selling their sisters (ie: PIMPING), aren't any better, either.

I just wanna know who is winning.

... and since when did "eating bugs" become a "bad thing" that only boys did? Now, THERE'S a culturally insensitive statement right there.

True, I DID eat bugs when I was a boy. These bugs were purchased at a stand during this or that festival in Japan. They were seasoned (usually with at least soy sauce) and roasted over a fire. The locusts available at the end of summer were - in my mind - always served as an interestingly ironic (and tasty!) statement: gaining sustenance from the insect so closely associated with famine.

And I wasn't the only one eating these bugs - people who didn't have a Y chromosome to their name were also consuming them.

Finally, is it just me, or does anyone else find it ironic that a company named after two men from the Bible (David & Goliath) is profiting off of females (to whom I'm assuming these shirts are marketed)?

The most unfortunate thing is that a version of these shirts for boys, e.g. "Girls are stupid, throw rocks at them," would be inspire a backlash of unprecedented proportions. There's nothing acceptable about sexism against women, so we shouldn't allow sexism against men.

It really bothers me that men who try to get on my good side (as a feminist) cite that they like "jokes" like these.

which leads me yet again to informing them, I'm not the man-hater in these conversations.

I'm ashamed to admit I had the "Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them" poster when I was a college sophomore. My roommates and I were all single and bitter, and at the time it seemed funny. Of course, now I realize that it was really appallingly sexist - as Jennifer points out, instructing boys to throw rocks at girls would be heavily criticized, and yet when women direct violence against men (I guess because it's the less privileged group vs the more privileged one) it's seen as funny. If we saw gender relations less as a battle, where one sex must come out as the victor, then we'd actually have progress.

David and Goliath is also quite well known for stealing other people's art and ideas: http://www.miketyndall.com/todd_goldman/

Before anyone starts on the "reverse sexism" thing (and Matt K's comment about that is perfect), please note from LGreenberg's link, these were designed BY A MAN.

A story:
I was working in a bookstore and we had some of this merchandise. There were HUGE complaints about it, how horribly sexist it was, how it was damaging to one woman's son's self-esteem or something. So whatever, fine. It got pulled almost right away.
And we kept on selling Maxim and Stuff and whatever other lad mag full of airbrushed bullshit. And no one complained, and sometimes I'd see Dads showing these magazines to their sons.
The world has very screwed up priorities.

I always thought the "Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them" looks like sperm trying to penetrate an egg. But maybe I'm weird.

Most of the "sexism" towards men is perpetrated by men. Don't get me wrong, it's troubling, but it's not the action of the oppressed using the same weapon against their oppressors.

the thing that always irritated me the most about these shirts isn't even the boys vs. girls issue, but that they only perpetuate the same, tired female stereotypes: girls hate icky bugs! and that females at any age really ARE the nagging Ol' Ball and Chain that don't allow men to have any fun, be themselves, and must placate them or they will become even more angry and bitter. and after looking at the site for more current tees, lo and behold there are (KID'S!) shirts that say "it's all about me!", "your bag is fake", and "hottie". faaaaaantastic.

and for the record, i've known WAY more girls with hygeine problems than males.

I think it's funny (in a sad way) simply because I remember as an elementary being subject to what the boy is facing because I was a girl. I had rocks thrown at me, called dumb, etc. etc.

Hmm... I find it very interesting that these shirts would get pulled right away while the "lad mags" stay up perpetually. Any kind of discrimination that is not already accepted by society, I suppose would be much more difficult to criticize... those things that are accepted in society are naturalized, they're just the way things are. That is why "reverse discrimination" gets called really fast in an attempt to silence any discrimination against an oppressed group. Happens all the time with veganism. "Those self-righteous vegans... they just have no respect for humans."

All: Good dialog here, I need to pop in to comment more often as I plopped your link on the RW/culture of dignity blog about guys being 'slapped' in media without a societal flinch. http://rosalindwiseman.com/2009/08/18/the-double-standard-thats-a-slap-in-the-face/#comment-103

As for the tees, yep; I wrote about the subjective humor in "Why do we keep merchandising tees with 'tude?" on Shaping Youth about kids being granted a hallpass to be rude and obnoxious by sanctioning narcissistic satire. (the happy bunny phenom, etc.) http://www.shapingyouth.org/?p=62

I know, I know, they were meant to be snappy one-liners instead of coming off as snippy entitlement tees but, bleh. Cultural context doesn't need much reinforcement, ya know?

okay, i think all the arguing about whether this is technically "sexism" by everyone's definitions is missing a point-- it shouldn't be *okay* to teach little girls that little boys are gross, any more than it should be okay to teach the opposite. It shouldn't be *Acceptable* to have a "throw rocks at boys" shirt where a "throw rocks at girls" shirt would cause outrage. They should both be outrageous.

Even if women have been the oppressed group here, I feel like we'll never get anywhere unless we combat BOTH types of comments. How can you teach gender equality while telling your daughter it's funny to stereotype men?

@Matt completely agree on the narrowcasting of patriarchal gender roles and appreciate your male POV speaking to the bigger issue; and @Samantha, your comment resonates in the 'neither/nor' arena...

I'll toss in the corollary of racial stereotypes for context (see Racialicious.com or Anti-Racist Parent to get the drift here) because it's an easy way to see a double-standard readily apparent. (e.g. how many times have you heard racial-religious slams/slurs/stereotypes deemed as 'ok if uttered by someone from that background'?)

The problem is not just the 'joke' itself, it's the perpetuation of a stereotype that won't snuff itself out. That's why normalizing cues like these tees, or reinforcing sexist tees like this 'nipples-tassles-tot' shirt in the name of 'satire' just don't fly with me. http://tinyurl.com/m5v63g

Yeah, they can easily be shrugged off as stupid, but truth is, kids pay attention to what we value, applaud, reward and moreover, PERPETUATE in society...it's subliminal and it seeps into the larger cultural context.

After all, kids are dealing with this: http://www.shapingyouth.org/?p=8049 and misogynistic misfires like this: http://www.shapingyouth.org/?p=45 so it's important to see where the backlash/battle of the sexes takes hold. (I'd hope we could keep kindergartners out of the trenches, rather than putting our adult 'stuff' on them so early.)

I had a fascinating discussion with my husband the other day about the 'battle of the sexes'. I said something along the lines of 'our culture sets men and women up as opposing forces, which is bad for both men and women'. He disagreed.

Three hours of thoughtful, reasonably peaceful discussion later, he admitted that there is quite a bit of combat-related concepts and terminology floating around the whole man-woman 'thing', although he still feels that this could be primarily sub- or unconscious, and certainly isn't being reinforced on purpose by anyone.

And this just amazes me. My husband is fairly liberal sort who probably thinks of himself as feminist-leaning and a true believer in equality. But he's never thought about this in any detail before, and his knee-jerk reaction is that it couldn't be true -- I must be exaggerating.

Every time he and I talk about these topics, he comes to understand a tiny, tiny bit more where I am coming from. But it takes a lot of time and a lot of careful discussion. I can't imagine the kind of in-depth one-on-one interaction that would be required to help someone who isn't already pretty liberal (and also my husband, who is inclined to trust and believe me) get the point.

I've had several people buy me these things. Because I think women should have power and autonomy and be respected. Which of course means that I think boys are stinky.

Uuuuh... what?

Anyone else think it's interesting that "boys" have white skin and blue eyes?

I'm a boy and I, personally, am most definitely housetrained. I also brush my teeth and tend to avoid the consumption of insects.