Girlcott

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Girlcott is synonymous with boycott.

[edit] Origin

The term girlcott was coined in 1968 by American track star Lacey O'Neal during the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, in the context of protests by male African American athletes. Speaking for black women athletes, she advised that the group would not "girlcott" the Olympic Games, because female athletes were still focused on being recognized.

Girlcott also appeared in Time magazine in 1970, and was later used by retired tennis player Billie Jean King in reference to Wimbledon, to emphasize her argument regarding equal play for women players.

[edit] Protest of Abercrombie and Fitch t-shirt slogans

The term was revived (with a different spelling) in 2005 by a group of young women in Allegheny County, PA protesting what they deemed sexist and degrading T-shirt slogans on Abercrombie and Fitch merchandise. They used the term to raise awareness of the slogans, through media and emails such as:

"Dear awesome girls,

JOIN US in a GIRL-COT of Abercrombie & Fitch.

Why you ask? Because lately their attitude tees have a bit TOO much anti-girl attitude for our tastes.

Here are some recent lines from recent A&F tees...

"With These Who Needs Brains..."

"I hope you can make more than I can spend..."

"Last night I had a nightmare I was a brunette.."

We would never let anyone exploit us, so why are we exploiting ourselves?

They'll stop making these t-shirts if we stop buying them.

We, as young women and girls, do not need to create extra division andcompetition between our ranks. By girlcotting these shirts, we not only create unity for a single project or battle, we create unity within the female community as a whole,

As girls, can spend our dollars on more empowering, less racist and less sexist street ware.

So join us in our national girl-cot effort to encourage A&F to stop selling these rags and instead start selling some more girl empowering wear.

This girl-cot is being launched by an independent group of girls - The Allegheny County Girls as Grantmakers group - a diverse group of 23 girls from across the county. We represent different schools, neighborhoods, ethnic groups, religions, races, sexual orientation, athletic and academic interests - you name it - but what we have in common is an interest in making our world a better place for girls to grow and thrive.

Won't you join us?

We are asking girls throughout the country to do two things:

1) Stop shopping at A&F till they stop selling these tees and formally apologize to all of us for selling them in the first place.

2) Email a letter saying that you will be doing #1 to the A&F headquarters. Their email address is: xxxxx@XXXX.com

3) Spread the word to other groovy girls you know. It's as easy as that.

Signed,

The Allegheny County Girls as Grantmakers Project"

The group of girls from Allegheny County were part of the Girls as Grantmakers program of The Women and Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania. Heather Arnet -- the Executive Director of the Foundation -- revived the rarely-used term "girlcott" in reference to the girls' protest of Abercombie & Fitch.