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In a recent article, GQ Fashion rated the best and worst dressed cities in the nation. Boston didn’t fare so well, coming in dead last.
I can’t really defend my fair city on this front. We ain’t exactly Milan. However, the problem wasn’t so much what they said as how they chose to say it. They referred to the city’s fashion sense as “a kind of Style Down Syndrome, where a little extra ends up ruining everything.”
I don’t think I need to tell you the myriad reasons why I found this troubling, but if you’d like to read a wonderful post that lays it out extremely well, I highly recommend this one — Denying Our Children’s Humanity for a Laugh.
GQ has since changed the line in the story, but so far they seem to have done so without comment.
My thought it this: anyone on Twitter? I am! You can follow me at @diaryofamom. So is GQ Fashion. You can follow them at @gqfashion. And then together, we can use this great tool to tell them that words matter. That our children’s dignity matters. That people with special needs – extra chromosome or otherwise – are not “ruined.”
I have sent two different Tweets so far. Please feel free to retweet either of them or to copy them as your own if you are so inclined. They’re all yours to do with as you please.
I’d love to start a respectful dialogue – to use this gaffe as (yet another) opportunity to teach the rest of the world about our children.
Yes, it gets tiring. Yes, it gets frustrating. Yes, we get really God damn angry. But sadly we can’t change anything with anger alone. If we could, we’d be done by now.
So, anyone want to join me? Here’s what I wrote:
diaryofamom jess.@gqfashion words matter. please take this opportunity to educate yourselves and your readers about what it means to respect human dignity.
diaryofamom jess.@gqfashion ”… a kind of Style Down Syndrome, where a little extra ends up ruining everything.” – Why this matters - http://specialchildren.about.com/b/2011/07/18/denying-our-childrens-humanity-for-a-laugh.htm
Hope to see you on Twitter!
I will gladly RT and send them a tweet all my own. Done with grace, of course:)
I am astounded that anyone could even contemplate that remark. Thank you for shedding light on this.
Egregiously awful and embarrassing for GQ fashion.
I RT yours to them (I think – new to this). thanks for starting the dialogue!
This is disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. I can not believe this ever got published!
How pathetic. I’ve retweeted – thanks for sharing with us!
Makes you wonder how they vet their editors doesn’t it? I’m throwing my tweet in the ring!
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. It’s astounding. Check out this wonderful response.
http://childrenshospitalblog.org/mock-my-pants-not-my-sister/
This may actually make me sign up for Twitter… Thanks for bringing this to our attention!
I will be tweeting. I know–you just said that was frightening or something like that but you said the same thing when I first told you I was on e-mail oh so many years ago. You can teach an old dog new tricks, after all.
Love you,
Your thoroughly modern Mom
Tweeted. Though it was difficult to use my 140 characters tactfully and with a purpose of educating. What I really wanted to do was scream. And curse. And put them in their place. This “changing the world” thing sure ain’t easy sometimes…
XOXO
Yep. Really God damn angry.
I don’t tweet, but I made sure to comment on their FB page!
what can i say about GQ fashion just Egregiously awful and embarrassing for GQ fashion not more words on them i have to said….