A TikToker revealed the sexist tags that instructed women, moms, girlfriends and wives to do the dirty laundry for men and boys.
Millie Lusson (@one.in.a.millie.on) shared a video on TikTok of ten different wash instruction labels that had various versions of the same sexist phrase.
Lusson captioned the video with:
"Time to check clothing for sexist labels."
She included hashtags such as #enoughisenough #thisneedstostop #genderstereotypes #thisisridiculous.
Some of the phrases included:
"...Or give this to your mum she'll wash it."
"If washing becomes completely necessary give to momma or gf then go skate."
"Dirty laundry keeps women busy."
"Fine your mother, give her a big hug, hand her the pullover."
"Give it to your woman."
"Give it to your wife."
@one.in.a.millie.on time to check clothing for sexist labels 🤦♀️ #whythough #why #enoughisenough #thisneedstostop #genderstereotypes #thisisridiculous
The video reached 910.6 thousand views and 212.2 thousand likes.
Commenters were outraged by the blatant sexism of these companies.
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People in the comments wanted a follow up on the companies that used these phrases on their clothing, so Lusson gave it to them.
Some of them issued apologies while others gave their reasoning for using the phrases in their garments.
First, Lusson looked at the skate company, Enjoi:
"They have a couple different versions of the 'Dirty laundry keeps women busy,' tags."
"They've had a lot of other problematic ads and merchandise including t-shirts that promote domestic abuse and rape culture."
"They have not apologized for any of these."
The company Madhouse had a tag that read "Give it to your woman. It's her job," and they did give response but not an apology:
"They had a non-apology response saying it was the manufacturer that made it and it was not proofed by Madhouse."
"But that's a non-apology."
The next one was a tag that read "Give this jersey to your woman. It's her job," and this company had an "apology" of sorts:
"This is from the company Salvo and I'm just gonna read their apology."
"The quote begins, 'The message is simply instead of washing it in the wrong way you might as well give ti to a lady because they are more capable."
"'There's no intention to humiliate women.'"
"'In contrast we want to tell men to learn from women on how to take care of cloths because they pay attention to details.'"
"'Not all men understand/know how to take care of their own cloths.'"
"'Women are more knowledgeable/experts on such matters.'"
"'We apologize profusely for any misinterpretations.' End quote."
"Yup. Just gonna leave it there. Not much more to say on that."
Another company called Shoeshine dismissed the allegations as well:
"The spokesman said, 'It was a simple joke aimed at teenagers.'"
"'There is no kind of sexist irony.'"
"'Just a simple joke aimed at teenagers who are our target audience.'"
"So yeah, disgusting."
The final company, Dryworld, gave an apology for the label and it seems to have been a one time event.
The commenters were even more outraged by the lame excuses and so-called "apologies" from the companies.
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Everyone's going to be checking the tags on their clothing now.
We've seen funny and clever tags without relying on sexism or other bigotry.
These companies can do better.