A mum has taken to social media to criticise Disney for selling an ‘embarrassment of a T-shirt’ aimed at young girls.
Emma Palmer, 36, an interior designer from London, came across the Cinderella-inspired T-shirt while shopping at a Disney store in Westfield, London.
After reading the slogan, ‘Shoes Speak Louder Than Words’, she took to Facebook to share her frustration about the product.
Emma commented: 'I saw this embarrassment of a T-shirt at the Disney store in Westfield yesterday, aimed at young girls.. This is just everything that is wrong with messaging to girls in a nutshell..It's 2018 .. Surely it is widely recognised that the content of your mind and words you speak are WAAAAAY more important than your f*cking shoes! *Facepalm*’
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10156047546228156&set=a.253276493155.170243.562288155&type=3&theater
It seems the slogan struck a cord with other people, who also commented to slam Disney's product.
'Hear hear!! Shame on Disney! Actually I think they should be ashamed of such vacuous and destructive messaging!', one commented.
'I'm on your team Emma on this.. stupid bloody message for girls!', said another.
Having not had much luck after complaining to the staff in store that the Cinderella-inspired top should be taken off display, Emma got in touch with Disney via their Facebook page.
So far, the brand has messaged her saying the issue has been passed onto the relevant team and she will receive a response from them ‘within 5 days’.
However, while a lot of people appear to be backing her in her mission to get Disney to remove this T-shirt from their shop floor, not everyone seemed to agree with her point of view, as one commenter offered: 'It could be humour. Just a suggestion.'
To which Emma replied: 'I don't think they are thinking deep enough to use irony! These micro messages of looks over substance does nothing for anyone... Just look at these millennials obsessed with the way they look and not with the contents of their minds. Stop it early!'
But for Emma, ‘this is so much bigger than just a T-shirt’. When speaking to INSIDER, Emma explained that this is just one example of the ‘many, many ridiculous, mind-numbing intelligence-zapping, vacuous messages targeted to young girls'.
Speaking to Buzzfeed News, she reiterated that as a parent to a six-year-old daughter and three-year-old son, Emma feels she had to battle against this type of gendered marketing to children.
'You start with an advert, a T-shirt, or going into a toy shop when everything is pink and it's drip, drip, drip', she said.
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