(no subject)
Forgive whatever potential offense this may cause... but if it does, that's the point!! It annoys me as well... and I guess you don't have this clothing range abroad, but maybe you might be able to sympathise with me!
“Go FCUK yourself!” The young girl’s chest screams at me. Not actually her chest; a talking chest would be a little odd, but the slogan emblazoned upon it. Again, not actually upon her chest, but upon its adorning t-shirt. For a moment I am taken aback until my brain kicks in and I realise that I have just been sucked in by one of those ‘oh, so inventive and amusing’ French Connection UK t-shirts. You see, the clever thing is, I thought it was a swear word, but no, it was merely the initials of the company name innocently arranged, which my sick and perverted thoughts had contorted into an expletive. And now I’m the bad guy!
I presume you don't have FCUK in non-UK countries... but maybe, just maybe you might be able to sympathise with me.
These t-shirts are starting to annoy me every so slightly for four simple reasons:
1) They’re everywhere; and we all know that anything that is everywhere is not good!
With the exception of air, which is quite handy in most situations. Although I suppose it isn’t everywhere, for there is no air in space.
God; He’s omnipresent, and He’s good, but He’s the only thing! Anything else that is everywhere is intrinsically evil for it takes up space where something worthwhile could be!
I get sick of being told at every turn that I should “FCUK off!” or that the t-shirt wearer is “a great FCUK!” or some other information or instruction I don’t really care to hear.
2) They are potentially offensive!
How many older people have you seen stop in the street, aghast at what their elderly minds are computing as explicit language on some youth’s t-shirt? “They can’t wear that!” or “you would never have done that in my day!” are frequently heard statements of disbelief and you can empathise with the people who misread the t-shirts. It is blatantly a deliberate ploy, that French Connection are playing on the fact that their name contains the same letters as an expletive. It is no accident; despite the ‘butter wouldn’t melt in our collective mouths’ look that many wearers plaster on to their faces. The marketing scheme would never have been the same had the company been called French Connection Great Britain. Who wants to wear a t-shirt saying “FCGB you!”? It just doesn’t work.
And there are so many of them around that our minds fill in the blanks, or rearrange the letters, so we automatically read them in the ‘implied order.’ Even though we know they don’t actually say what we are being led to believe, we are still caught off guard and taken aback. And many people are offended by them!
And not only perfectly, fully functioning humans; FCUK wearers - Have you ever considered how many dyslexic people you offend daily? They don’t have the luxury of being able to step back, look at the letters again, spell it out in their head and realise “oh, it doesn’t say that after all!” They read it as an expletive, and that’s it, the irreversible damage is done. It’s potentially as dangerous as serving a dyslexic alphabet soup! They read all sorts of things into it!
I can imagine it now; the new summer range - “FCUK dyslexics!” I wonder if that will catch on?
3) It affects our spelling.
Just as people have expressed concern over the affect of text talk on children, might I propose that these t-shirts are equally causes for concern. How many of this nation’s children will be led to believe that FCUK is actually the correct way to spell the expletive? We could be raising a whole generation of children who will hand in school essays littered with spelling errors such as “this book was fcuking incredible!”
Of course, another cause for concern would be the fact that children use such language in school essays and book reviews anyway. Ok, So this point doesn’t really stand…
4) (well, 3 really if you don‘t count the last one) It highlights a stupid and irrational urge within us!
Most worrying about FCUK t-shirts is the need that people feel to wear them! Why do people leap at the opportunity to wear a shirt that implies a swear word, often in a context that doesn’t even make a great deal of sense?
Here’s what I mean: You can go to a retail outlet and be finding your way through the aisles until suddenly you come across a big sign on the wall saying “FCUK clothing.” For some people their hearts leap with joy at this risqué line of fashion, for me I simply think “That makes very little sense. if I did, in fact ‘FCUK clothing’ you would be out of business!”
And I don’t understand why people would want to wear t-shirts that imply swear words. What is impressive about it? If I started selling ‘SITH’ clothing products would that take off. You can imagine people joyfully purchasing clothing declaring ‘I don’t give a SITH! Or ‘SITH happens!’ But it wouldn’t be long before I, as the producer, was labeled a Star Wars nut and sued by George Lucas.
On that note, did it at no point occur to Mr Lucas that the title ‘Revenge of the Sith’ is a perfect anagram of what we can legitimately expect from his new film? If his last two offerings have been anything to go by, I think this title is perfectly apt!
So there you go. I hate FCUK clothing! Four simple reasons why…
“Go FCUK yourself!” The young girl’s chest screams at me. Not actually her chest; a talking chest would be a little odd, but the slogan emblazoned upon it. Again, not actually upon her chest, but upon its adorning t-shirt. For a moment I am taken aback until my brain kicks in and I realise that I have just been sucked in by one of those ‘oh, so inventive and amusing’ French Connection UK t-shirts. You see, the clever thing is, I thought it was a swear word, but no, it was merely the initials of the company name innocently arranged, which my sick and perverted thoughts had contorted into an expletive. And now I’m the bad guy!
I presume you don't have FCUK in non-UK countries... but maybe, just maybe you might be able to sympathise with me.
These t-shirts are starting to annoy me every so slightly for four simple reasons:
1) They’re everywhere; and we all know that anything that is everywhere is not good!
With the exception of air, which is quite handy in most situations. Although I suppose it isn’t everywhere, for there is no air in space.
God; He’s omnipresent, and He’s good, but He’s the only thing! Anything else that is everywhere is intrinsically evil for it takes up space where something worthwhile could be!
I get sick of being told at every turn that I should “FCUK off!” or that the t-shirt wearer is “a great FCUK!” or some other information or instruction I don’t really care to hear.
2) They are potentially offensive!
How many older people have you seen stop in the street, aghast at what their elderly minds are computing as explicit language on some youth’s t-shirt? “They can’t wear that!” or “you would never have done that in my day!” are frequently heard statements of disbelief and you can empathise with the people who misread the t-shirts. It is blatantly a deliberate ploy, that French Connection are playing on the fact that their name contains the same letters as an expletive. It is no accident; despite the ‘butter wouldn’t melt in our collective mouths’ look that many wearers plaster on to their faces. The marketing scheme would never have been the same had the company been called French Connection Great Britain. Who wants to wear a t-shirt saying “FCGB you!”? It just doesn’t work.
And there are so many of them around that our minds fill in the blanks, or rearrange the letters, so we automatically read them in the ‘implied order.’ Even though we know they don’t actually say what we are being led to believe, we are still caught off guard and taken aback. And many people are offended by them!
And not only perfectly, fully functioning humans; FCUK wearers - Have you ever considered how many dyslexic people you offend daily? They don’t have the luxury of being able to step back, look at the letters again, spell it out in their head and realise “oh, it doesn’t say that after all!” They read it as an expletive, and that’s it, the irreversible damage is done. It’s potentially as dangerous as serving a dyslexic alphabet soup! They read all sorts of things into it!
I can imagine it now; the new summer range - “FCUK dyslexics!” I wonder if that will catch on?
3) It affects our spelling.
Just as people have expressed concern over the affect of text talk on children, might I propose that these t-shirts are equally causes for concern. How many of this nation’s children will be led to believe that FCUK is actually the correct way to spell the expletive? We could be raising a whole generation of children who will hand in school essays littered with spelling errors such as “this book was fcuking incredible!”
Of course, another cause for concern would be the fact that children use such language in school essays and book reviews anyway. Ok, So this point doesn’t really stand…
4) (well, 3 really if you don‘t count the last one) It highlights a stupid and irrational urge within us!
Most worrying about FCUK t-shirts is the need that people feel to wear them! Why do people leap at the opportunity to wear a shirt that implies a swear word, often in a context that doesn’t even make a great deal of sense?
Here’s what I mean: You can go to a retail outlet and be finding your way through the aisles until suddenly you come across a big sign on the wall saying “FCUK clothing.” For some people their hearts leap with joy at this risqué line of fashion, for me I simply think “That makes very little sense. if I did, in fact ‘FCUK clothing’ you would be out of business!”
And I don’t understand why people would want to wear t-shirts that imply swear words. What is impressive about it? If I started selling ‘SITH’ clothing products would that take off. You can imagine people joyfully purchasing clothing declaring ‘I don’t give a SITH! Or ‘SITH happens!’ But it wouldn’t be long before I, as the producer, was labeled a Star Wars nut and sued by George Lucas.
On that note, did it at no point occur to Mr Lucas that the title ‘Revenge of the Sith’ is a perfect anagram of what we can legitimately expect from his new film? If his last two offerings have been anything to go by, I think this title is perfectly apt!
So there you go. I hate FCUK clothing! Four simple reasons why…