A (J.C.) Penney for your thoughtlessness?

by David Safier

Let's see, how many bad messages can we give to young girls? That being "pretty" is enough? That school doesn't matter? That homework is for boys? There they are, all on one J.C Penney's t-shirt, for girls aged 7 to 16.

"I'm too pretty to do homework, so my brother has to do it for me," it says.

Here's the sales pitch that goes with the shirt. Really, I'm not kidding.

"Who has time for homework when there's a new Justin Bieber album out? She'll love this tee that's just as cute and sassy as she is."

J.C. Penney saw the error of its ways when it received enough complaints.

J.C. Penney is committed to being America's destination for great style and great value for the whole family. We agree that the "Too pretty" t-shirt does not deliver an appropriate message, and we have immediately discontinued its sale. Our merchandise is intended to appeal to a broad customer base, not to offend them. We would like to apologize to our customers and are taking action to ensure that we continue to uphold the integrity of our merchandise that they have come to expect.

To the company's credit, that's a pretty sincere, excuse-free apology. I don't think it's enough, though. I want the team that came up with the idea to write the entire apology 500 times, long hand, with a dull pencil. Not 500 times total, 500 times from each of them. And if the handwriting's sloppy, I want them to write it another 500 times until they get it right. But that's just me.