A few years ago, Abercrombie and Fitch’s retailer CEO, Mike
Jeffries, was criticized on account of his comments toward why the company doesn’t
make clothes for women over the size of XL or a size ten pants. His reply was
that he “doesn’t want
larger people shopping in his store, he wants thin and beautiful people.” He
also was quoted saying, "we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive
all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people
don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely." Unfortunately, his discrimination and negativity hasn’t stopped with his crude
remarks, but in his employment process as well. Abercrombie and Fitch only
hires “good looking individuals” and the least “good looking” employees they
force to stay in the back of the store; out of the sight of customers. His argument for this mindset is that he’s
trying to target a specific group of people however his biased goes far beyond
that. That being said, how do you feel about the decisions Abercrombie
has made? How does it affect women over size ten? Is this type of mindset the
reasoning behind the existence of eating disorders in our country? Is there
such thing as the “perfect body” and should those who don’t fit the description
be treated differently because of it?
This angers me more than anything I've seen thus far in our blog postings. First of all, Abercrombie and Fitch isn't even all that great! I'd rather shop at Marshall's (Just saying). But for someone to be so arrogant and selfish makes me wish their business would burn down! I'm surprised people even shop there. I don't even fit in Abercrombie jeans! Lol. But for an over seize 10 woman that would bring my confidence down alot... I just did a blog posting on Anorexia and eating disorders and this is the reason why it even exists! Its companies like Abercromie that make girls turn to eating disorders. There is NO such thing as a perfect body because what may be "perfect" to you can be perfect to another person. There are flaws in a persons body that are considered sexy to a man or woman. Those who don't fit the description of society's perfect body shouldn't be treated differently but sadly, they are. It's inevitable and being biased towards over weight people will always be an on going problem.
ReplyDeleteIt’s hurtful that Abercrombie said this but I don’t think Abercrombie’s decisions are the worst decisions ever. The CEO, Mike Jeffries has any other right to say whatever he wants, he owns the company. People should already know that many industries target models or workers that are attractive and can sell their merchandise. BryAnna posted an article where a model had an eating disorder and weighed less than a hundred pounds, died due to her pressured job in the fashion industry. People who are usually known as the attractive all-American kid wear name brands that target “perfect” and the not so “perfect” do not. The fashion and modeling industries will never quit pressuring others thinking that “perfect” is necessary for these types of jobs or necessary to wear designer brands.
ReplyDeleteI remember I used this article in my midterm paper for eating disorders. Their CEO is really disrespectiful and really should get fired for these comments. Not everyone is born skinny. He's just losing customers by saying rude stuff like this. This is the reason why girls are going anorexic and bullimic. There is no such thing as a perfect body. Girls are beautiful they way they are and shouldn't have to fit society's idea of "perfect". There needs to be a drastic change in the way that people think of girl's bodies and people need to realize that every body shape is beautiful and people are perfectly fine the way they are.
ReplyDelete