Controversial t-shirt on ABC News
18/11/2013
ABC News 18/11/2013 [Controversial t-shirt] (19.11)
Some disability advocates have rallied against the sale of a controversial t-shirt in Rundle Mall. The garment offended the protestors but opinion is divided amongst people with a disability. This is the t-shirt which prompted a morning protest. Parents of children with a disability say the garments are offensive and demeaning.
(Sam Palor, Parent, grab)
Palor: “we’ve made so many strides for people with intellectual disabilities and then some retailer thinks they’re gonna make a buck out of a t-shirt that says ‘retard’ it’s just, it’s heinous.”
But not everyone is so upset.
(Mel Leckie, Paralympian, grab)
Leckie: “The only negative connotation is what society has put on it. This has nothing to do with people with disabilities, I don’t see what the problem is.”
And that raised the ire of Dignity for Disability MP, Kelly Vincent.
(Kelly Vincent, Dignity for Disability MP, grab)
Vincent: “If this woman wants to wear a word that says.. wants to wear a t-shirt that says the word ‘crippled’ that’s her choice because that’s her disability. She doesn’t own this experience. She does not have the right to wear this shirt.”
The garment is the brainchild of Adelaide designers, Renee Beattie and Emma Raw. Their website says the term is a French word meaning ‘delayed’ or ‘held up’ and is not intended to offend. But the business owner was making no apologies for stocking the garment.
(Clayton Cross, Globalize Co-Owner, grab)
Cross: “Everyone’s just gotta harden up a little. If someone walks past you wearing a shirt with seven letters that don’t actually mean anything on it and you’re so insulted by it that you become aggrieved, then you’ve really gotta have a good, hard look at yourself.”
Globalize says the t-shirts have almost sold out and it won’t reorder them.
