Lighten up, West Virginia, have a laugh

Those crazy insult-hounds at Abercrombie ‘ Fitch are in trouble again. This time, it’s not… Those crazy insult-hounds at Abercrombie ‘ Fitch are in trouble again. This time, it’s not over their nearly pornographic catalogs and advertising, allegedly racist hiring practices or indubitably racist T-shirts poking fun at Asian laundries.

This time, they pointed their rapier wit at West Virginia.

The retailer, which targets teens and young adults with its preppy, expensive, casual clothes, has a range of T-shirts with the slogan, “It’s all relative in West Virginia” and a picture of the shape of the state. West Virginia Governor Bob Wise has demanded that the shirts all be destroyed, claiming they perpetuate an unfair stereotype of the state.

Wise, clearly, needs to lighten up and laugh a little. It’s just a T-shirt, after all, and not a particularly clever one at that. The stereotype of West Virginia as the incest capital of the world is an old and pervasive one, and an overpriced T-shirt won’t make or break it.

It’s as if Wise has just had enough and can’t take one more West Virginia joke, and so he’s snapped. And as anyone with a younger sibling can attest, teasing is so much more fun when the victim really gets annoyed. His temper-tantrum has created much more publicity for the shirts and the company.

Abercrombie should keep the shirts, Wise should take a deep breath and accept some free publicity for his state, and West Virginia should hit back with its own line of state-insulting T-shirts. After all, lots of states are ripe for insulting.

What about a T-shirt with a picture of Florida, bearing the slogan, “Penis of the Nation”? How about “Delaware, State of Nothing Distinguishing but Lack of Sales Tax”? Our own Commonwealth of Pennsylvania might look particularly dashing on a shirt that says, “Pennsylvania, Not Even Really a State.” A nice jibe at New Hampshire from the mountains of West Virginia could say, “At Least Our Old Man of the Mountain, Toothless Drunk He May Be, Can Keep His Face Attached.” Wisconsin might have a better sense of humor about a shirt that says, “Wisconsin: We Love Cutting The Cheese.”

The possibilities are endless. West Virginia should relax and get in on the insults. Sure, Abercrombie ‘ Fitch will never win any sensitivity awards, but this is one of their lesser crimes, and hardly worth all the fuss.