A 12-year-old girl’s complaint to Dick’s Sporting Goods about no female models in their catalog sparks a thoughtful discussion about political correctness.
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She wanted to see herself reflected in their catalogue. Who can blame her?
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There has been a story circulating the Internet about an amazing 12-year-old girl who penned an open letter to Dick’s Sporting Goods about their latest magazine. As she was flipping through the magazine she noticed that there were NO girl models. A young basketball player herself she felt that this was not fair. She wanted to see herself reflected in their catalogue. Who can blame her?
Her dad tweeted out the letter saying, “My 12yr old basketball loving daughter got the latest@DICKS catalog & had a big problem with it. She wrote a letter”. Here it is below:
After a few days Dick’s released a statement apologizing for the indiscretion, vowing to make a change in the future. When I read the response from Dick’s I was elated, what a victory for this girl. Then the CEO responded:
But then I did something I knew I should not. I read the comments. Not only that but I kept reading the comments. I just could not stop.
I wanted to write a post celebrating this girl but I kept thinking about what people were saying about her. Cutting at her bravery and courage.
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The hatred and disgust at what I saw as a victory was incredible. As quickly as I felt excitement for this victory I felt frustration at the response. I wanted to write a post celebrating this girl but I kept thinking about what people were saying about her. Cutting at her bravery and courage.
So what were people saying? I looked at a Washington Post article and Huffington Post article and here is just a taste of what I found:
Why does a 12-year-old asking for some pictures of ladies in a magazine make people so outraged?
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What are these people afraid of? Why does a 12-year-old asking for some pictures of ladies in a magazine make people so outraged? Why were so many people claiming we are all just too sensitive this day in age, exhausted by demands for being political correct? Soon, many said, there will be requests for people in wheelchairs, people of color, or other minority categories to be in the magazine. As if this would be the demise of human existence as we know it.
Privilege and power. I imagine many of those making comments wondering to themselves, “if 12-year-old girls can make change WHO ELSE CAN GET POWER”?
To have a more inclusive representation in magazines like Dick’s we have to acknowledge these people (basically anyone who is not a White male according to the comments) can exist in those spaces. And for many that is a frightening thought.
Cue the claims for too much sensitivity and being unnecessarily politically correct. Being politically correct, or PC, is, “the attitude or policy of being careful not to offend or upset any group of people in society who are believed to have a disadvantage.”
What I do not understand is how the idea of being PC is so laughable, so scary, and so daunting …. Being considerate of other people is not being too sensitive.
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What I do not understand is how the idea of being PC is so laughable, so scary, and so daunting. To me this notion seems like common sense. Being considerate of other people is not being too sensitive.
It is being a human being that cares about the well-being of other human beings.
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People need to see themselves reflected in media—movies, television, music, in sports and in jobs. When you see yourself reflected in a position you want you can imagine yourself there. McKenna needs to see herself as a basketball player. All children deserve that. All adults deserve that.
Asking for more women in Dick’s magazine is not being politically correct or whining or whatever other nonsense some of the comments had in it. I am proud of McKenna Peterson for her courage and her willingness to speak up. And do not let people afraid of change get in your way. I love McKenna’s father for encouraging her to voice her opinion and sharing it with the world. I appreciate Dick’s Sporting Goods’ response and their vow to do better in the future. At twelve years old McKenna is a role model for all of us that seek to make change. And to all those who responded to this story in nasty hurtful ways I hope you someday see the value in an act like McKenna’s. Keep it up girl.
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Originally published on Carly Puch’s blog.
Photo—Jim Larrison/Flickr
Not critizising the girl who wrote the letter, or her father, in any way, but a philosophical question:
If we always needed role models to achieve or do anything, if the adage “You cannot be what you cannot see” were true, wouldn’t we all still be living in caves?
I believe being pc and being sensitive towards others are two different things. I am a conservative who wishes bullying to stop because people don’t need to be assholes. But for some reason they gey rewarded to be so. So transgender, gay, diffetent, uncool whatever should be allowed and celebrated solely for being themselves and nice people understand that. PC starts from a premise of politics. That some position determines what and how one responds. That a political thought determines if you act as such then you must be a good person and that is absolutely false logic. And that’s… Read more »
I wonder how the venomous types criticizing this 12-year-old would react if somehow, all of their favourite products and magazines switched to depicting solely female models. I suspect angry frothing festooned with hastily-Googled anti-woman slogans, because they would’ve pre-undermined their own protests based on what they’ve written about this 12-year-old.
Shocked by what straight (cis) men have to say about females, girls and women alike? No, never. Many, maybe most, really could care less about our lives, freedom, choices, etc. (or lack of it for that matter). Many, or most, indeed believe we are inferior, that we “suck”, have less intellect, intelligence or attributes (something many older “wise men” have spoken as truth), that we are less than human, less than them. They want us to have less and keep it that way. But most importantly, they want us to be seen as inferior (even more when it comes to… Read more »
Maybe they don’t care about other groups because people (like you, apparently) think it is ok to make such generalisations about them – generalisations that would not be tolerated if directed at other groups.
Wow. Are you serious? I mean, this sounds a bit hyperbolic, but I guess there are people who think like you do. And the opposite. There ARE quite a few men who hate women. Do you think it’s just their nature to do so? Or can you imagine their hatred has grown from feeling mistreated and marginalized by women? After all, it sounds as if your experiences with men have convinced you that we are all horribly selfish and immoral. It sounds as though you need a hug. Maybe most of these men need one too.
paul man,
luciana/ susanna alves / denis stone is always hyperbolic, particularly about american men for some reason
“Hordes of American straight men”…. Hahahahahha….. yup, there are hordes of us… we have secret meetings in dark dungeons and caves while our most powerful warlocks cast magical spells over the land that keep women and minorities down all over the Earth. Forward my brothers! Victory is almost complete! It is as the prophecy foretold! But seriously…. get a grip whoever you are. Most straight white american men are too busy WORKING to put food on the table or DYING in useless wars to give a crap about this whole whiny “poor me. I’m oppressed” narrative. You think you’re so… Read more »
The letter was well written and the store should be aware of its customers and target its ads to them appropriately. I think I have an insight into why there is so much anger in response to this. There are many men who feel that they cannot have a space for themselves, that the instant they try to make a place where they can feel comfortable as men, women force their way. I know that this does not represent everyone’s experience, but it does represent the experience of many. Many of these bitter individuals have fled online, which has maintained… Read more »
Yes, these men want a place for themselves with no women or non-straight men around… so they can say all the misogynist and homophobic garbage they love to say while patting each other’s backs. Humiliating women and gay men is what makes many straight dudes the happiest, sadly.
They do that to women in games, in forums, in the workforce, in sports… everywhere.
@ Samuel So you’re thinking they’re ex-jocks whose lives never panned out or are they the geek / nerd? It seems that you’re implying both, which seems contradictory. We already segregate sports, but I rarely see instances of men / boys playing on girls teams. How many guys in the developmental league could play in the WNBA? How many would be allowed to? I think there already see spaces carved out for women where men are not allowed. Why shouldn’t there be spaces for men? I think it’s a legitimate question, but not relevant to this particular instance since this… Read more »
Part of the problem is selective outrage. Being PC is reserved for select groups. For example, Amazon has a Amazon Mom programs were parents get a discount. There was some complaints in the MRM. There was even a petition circulated asking Jeff Bezos to change the name to Amazon Parent. http://www.amazon.com/gp/mom/signup When people complain about VAWA pointing out that the name can confuse people into believing that it does not cover men regardless of the actual law (it’s not gender neutral in all aspects, but it is in some), the people complaining are told they’re being too sensitive by the… Read more »
That girl is totally un-PC herself. How does she actually KNOW that the people in the catalog were all males? If she’s basing that on their appearance, then she’s jumping to stereotyped conclusions about gender identity. She is “erasing” the experiences of trans* people. Shame on her for refusing to accept that some of those people in the catalog may identify as female. Just because they don’t look like her, they’re not girls? Shame.
Come on, Steve. Even the response letter admits they were wrong and that no female models were featured.
And you know that how?
Again, what is to stop someone taking offence at the girl’s letter over this?
It’s wrong to cause offence, right?
I can’t believe anyone in late 2014 is still shocked by the venom they read in online comments. Where have you been? What internet have you been surfing, where idiots and haters don’t have a lot to say? This kind of article is now its own mega-genre: people pointing out how racist, sexist, and homophobic comments sections can be. Yes. The internet generates depravity. Water is wet. That girl definitely deserves praise. I’m guessing most (90%?) of the people reading that story thought she did a good thing and most of the rest cared very little either way. Don’t give… Read more »
Gender politics aside, can we all at least be pleased to read a coherent, grammatically correct, and well-worded letter from an American child for once?
And NOT just a 140-word tweet but an actual formal LETTER!
Hallelujah, an educational success story!
Someone somewhere is doing something right.
The “whims of the easiest offended”? “Balance inclusion with avoiding societal paralysis” ?? This girl’s request for visibility of female athletes like herself in a Sports circular is not a whim. And it’s not about “balance” either, given that there wasn’t even a single photo in the Dick’s catalogue. Michael Kasdan is correct: You cannot be what you cannot see. To hear some adults miss this point so completely is disheartening.
Yeah. What? Sorry, Jennifer, but OirishM and dinomax comments above were NOT criticizing the girl’s request, they were explaining that there ARE those who are too easily offended. Case in point: someone who reads only enough to wrongly assume someone’s position on an issue and then accuses THEM of missing the point.
You make a good point here. Some people see any criticism of any kind as whining. I would argue there is a huge spectrum. There’s a huge difference between whining personal whims and a legitimate expression of disagreement.
And some people vice versa.
As Paul pointed out, Jennifer, I didn’t have a problem with what the girl in question did. I am responding to this in the body of the article: Being politically correct, or PC, is, “the attitude or policy of being careful not to offend or upset any group of people in society who are believed to have a disadvantage.” While admirable in theory, offence is subjective. What is to stop someone from saying what they say as PC-gone-mad is offensive to them? Then you are in a quandary. In practice, however, this quandary is usually ignored in favour of louder… Read more »
That should read “what is to stop someone from saying what they SEE as PC-gone-mad…..”
The argument, as ever, is where does one draw the line.
Shackling society to the whims of the easiest offended does not sound like a step forward to me.
However, in this case, a simple letter written convinced a business to change their mind. No harm, no foul IMO.
Good point.. I think that for most people, that’s the dilemma. We need to balance inclusion with avoiding societal paralysis. The bottom line is, someone is always going to be offended..
Yes, exactly. And so often, the most easily offended are the loudest voices. This is the problem with so many issues. I think what this results in is that people on one side of any issue see everybody on the opposite side as extremists. The voices of moderation and reason need to be louder. So the girl writes this letter politely asking for recognition, but some people are going to lump her in with people who expect politically correct perfection and whine about relatively insignificant issues. I think extremists do damage to the causes they supposedly support by giving traction… Read more »
I’m thinking that McKenna is not necessarily one of those people who is easily offended. Loud, easily offended hotheads do not write a formal letter using moderate, concrete language. They fire off a poorly-thought-out comment like I’m doing here without thinking about it.
If she were a kneejerk outraged person, she probably would not have moderated her criticism by pointing out what a loyal customer she has been nor mentioned her positive experiences in the store itself.
If you want to see who is really in charge, just look at who you are not allowed to criticize. Voltaire said that I think. Here’s the bottom line: the PC machine has gone too far. It’s original intention was a good one. Now it’s been perverted. The PCers are behaving like the same bullies their original efforts were meant to neutralize. In my view that is enough to judge the whole PC system as guilty of crimes against the truth and convict it to a term of life of being forgotten about forever. PC people know their days are… Read more »
Terrific story. As anyone in education knows, THE most crucially important thing in fulfilling goals, especially under circumstances where our society has laid so many barriers, whether it is to be a female scientist or someone who rises out of a rough neighborhood in the Bronx to become a CEO or entrepreneur, is to see and learn from people *who look like you* and have achieved that goal.
Beautifully said. I’ve been raging about this since the 80’s. When people say, “I don’t wanna be PC,” my reply has been “You mean, you don’t want to be polite and considerate?” I would also like to remark on Ed Stack’s genuine reply. I thought it was well-worded and paves the way for more civility and respect for customers, for women and for little girls.
Robbie…. being PC and being polite are NOT the same thing. Being polite is saying please and thank you, holding doors for people, waiting until the waiter brings everyone’s food before you eat, etc. Being PC is demanding that people think and talk the way you want them to just because you demand they do so. PC might have once been about inclusion and kindness but to any thinking person it is about bullying others into adopting the same point of view, no matter what the cost. PCers major flaw in logic is that you all believe you can eliminate… Read more »