McCain Gets A Zero From NARAL

McCain may tout himself as a maverick, but when it comes to women's rights, he gets a big fat zero on his pro-choice record...or should I say anti-choice:

K-Mart Caught Lying About Their Abstinence Pants

The PR folks over at K-Mart must not be very bright. They are currently dealing with flak caused by the retail giant selling pro-life anti-choice clothing to our nation's youth. To those that didn't do so well in their communication classes at K-Mart, you might want to read what the fore-mentioned product said on it before trying to respond.

From Feministing:

Via Consumerist, we find out that Kmart is claiming their True Love Waits sweatpants have absolutely nothing to do with abstinence.

A spokeswoman for Sears Holdings Corp., which owns Kmart, told The Buzz the pants have absolutely nothing to do with taking any kind of position, either way, on abstinence. "It was not associated with any group or any cause," said Amy Dimond. "It was just a graphic put on the pants."

Piper & Blue, Kmart's private label brand, designed the sweatpants as part of its summer collection that hit stores in late April.

Although the pants were not designed to make a statement, Dimond admitted that "there may be some (customers) who made the (abstinence association), but it was not the intention."

Oh, wow. How stupid of me! When I saw the description of the pants on Kmart (right after "drawstring waist) as having a "bold abstinence screen print," I must have been hallucinating. Oh wait, no. There it is.

Perhaps it was just intended until it was not intended? Intended for some but not for all? Does K-Mart think their shoppers are that stupid to believe their lies?

The answers to those questions are no, no and yes.

Attention K-Mart Shoppers, Get Yer Pro-Lifer Gear Here

Big box stores scare me for many reasons, especially the devastating impact they have on family-run business when those megalith buildings are erected so that thousands can shop at one time. Besides the economic pitfalls, there are also the social ones, such as denying birth control and now we have a "pro-life" clothing line brought to you by K-Mart.

From Feministing:

Aw, shit. Kmart is selling abstinence-gear for juniors.

Featuring what Kmart calls a "bold abstinence screen print," the True Love Waits sweatpants come in blue, yellow and gray. I also think it's no coincidence that on the same page they carry "Life is sweet" pants. I have no idea if the pants are in any way connected to the True Love Waits organization, but I'm disturbed nonetheless.

Thanks to reader WM for the link.

Yeah, this is definitely disturbing. I doubt we'll be seeing the opposite (its my body, my choice) line any time soon. The problem is that these corporate hogs are trying to impose their morality on the rest of us. Am I being a bit of a whiner on this issue? Perhaps if you look at it narrowly, but this is but one example of a larger picture that indicates corporate America taking a larger interest in our social moors than simply selling their wares (in a way that has been the slow death of small businesses in this country).