Introducing The World’s Most Sexist Pair Of Pants

by Julia Rubin | 1:51 pm, March 7th, 2012

And the week of outrage continues! The latest controversy to come across our desk involves an exceptionally sexist pair of pants.

It all started when the Daily Telegraph‘s Digital Media Editor Emma Barnett found a pair of her boyfriend’s pants while she was cleaning her house. The pants’ large white tag caught her eye, and a closer look caused her to tweet a photo of its washing instructions on Monday:

In a post for the Telegraph, Barnett picked apart the tag’s sexist message, writing: “Even the language — ‘Your Woman’ — presupposed some kind of Neanderthal mentality from my boyfriend, an unwilling shopper after some affordable chinos — preferably not lined with sexist imperatives.” The pants come from British discount brand Madhouse. She reached out to the company, who were slow to reply, though they eventually responded that they had no clue the tag read as such. This seems pretty unlikely — someone at Madhouse had to have given the text the okay.

Barnett’s thoughts on the matter echo our own:

If the comment had been remotely funny — I would have been the first to laugh and shrug it off — as it really wouldn’t have bothered me enough to photograph it, tweet it, and then write about it. But it was the lack of any implied humor and the horrible surprise of such an incongruous message hidden away inside some trousers, that left me just plain stunned.

What do you think? Are the pants funny or offensive?

[Daily Telegraph]

Madhouse Sexism

Guest

It’s a joke. Have a sense of humor folks! It’s kind of like the one that read “give it to your mom, she knows what to do” Are moms offended?
Ckkal

@”Guest”, this label does not say, “give it to your girlfriend/wife/mom, she’ll know what to do” (this statement which I also find somewhat disturbing, at least hints to the fact that women could be ”helpful” or “knowledgable” (even if it is regarding the subject of laundry)). In contrast this label instructs…”Give it to your WOMAN, it’s her JOB”. So, yes, any woman with an ounce of self respect will find this offensive. If you have respect for any women in your life you would find it offensive as well.
http://behindthelashes.com/ Behind the Lashes

I think it’s funny as hell.
http://www.buywiseofbanbury.co.uk/blog/index.php/madhouse-sexist-trousers-spark-twitter-row/ Buywise of Banbury

Bad design or good marketing? We have just added a blog post about the Madhouse chino Twitter outrage too!
http://www.buywiseofbanbury.co.uk/blog/index.php/madhouse-sexist-trousers-spark-twitter-row/
http://www.websitesediting.com/ Websitesediting

As a Brit I find it amusing at I see it as an ironic sarcastic satiristic comment. Perhaps it is just a British thing. If the writer actually believed the concept of “‘er indoors” and all that it implied in the past then it would indeed be insulting. It actually is saying that men are effing useless at any domestic chore so give up trying and let an expert (any female in his life) do the right thing instinctively, without needing reams of text to tell the man the most obvious of things connected with hygene processes.
Anonymous

Coming from a guy, the first line by itself would’ve been great. Outrage over the second line is probably warranted
RF

This is just wrong on so many levels.

First, everyone knows that women do not read instructions, so there is no way a woman found that tag (regardless of the undoubtedly phony explanation given above), which means some guy, given a helpful tip from the manufacturer, took it upon himself to go “hey babe, look at this … it says here you’ll know what to do with these”. Neanderthal! Haven’t you learned by now NOT to point out potentially offensive text to women? What were you doing during that sensitivity training class, anyway? (Wait, don’t answer that.)Next, “It’s her job”? No way she is getting paid for that, so how is that a job? ”It’s her duty”, “it’s her responsibility”, even “it’s her forte” would have been much more appropriate and not as likely to end up with the guy having to pay “his woman” for the task.Finally, no self-respecting GUY is going to actually follow those instructions anyway, which means he would (if he had not been prompted to have his woman get involved immediately) have washed the pants inside-in, in whatever colors were available without any ironing afterwards, WHICH WOULD HAVE RESULTED in his woman going, “give me those” and doing it right in the first place, making the whole label totally unnecessary.

Whomever added that comment to the label needs to be found, arrested and after a fair trial stabbed to death with her own pen … maybe that will teach people not to try to be funny!
The5thsister

I think it’s hilarious, and I have many ounces of self respect !
Tombakers

oh give it a freaking rest people.. cant anyone laugh anymore? shazbot..
http://www.facebook.com/hayward.withers Hayward Withers

Even if it was completely serious. So what? There’s a lot of people with opinions you don’t like. If you feel so inclined you can chose to not wear their pants.
John

It is sexism,no doubt about that and common sexism of the lowest kind.
Jenna

????….Being concerned with cleanliness is not a stronger instinct in women more so than men. Women who are married and have children do stay at home to take care of the child, and in turn take care of the house since that’s where they spend most of their time. However I hardly see how that makes all women experts at domestic chores.

Introducing The World’s Most Sexist Pair Of Pants

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