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‘It’s Not Rape. It’s A Snuggle With A Struggle’: T-Shirt Slogan Causes Outrage, See Who Sells It

By Tara West
Published on: 13:46 PST, Sep 24, 2014

A department store is under fire after an image of a brown t-shirt that promotes sexual violence surfaced on a customer’s social media account.

Karen Kunawicz from New Orleans, Louisiana, was shopping at a department store in the Philippines when she saw the shocking t-shirt slogan. The SM Store in Pasay City is the offending clothing retailer. When Kunawicz saw the shirt she immediately took a photo with her cell phone camera and shared it to her Facebook account. She captioned the photo to let boys know that when a girl says no, she means no.

“Really SM Department Store? In the boy’s section? ‘It’s Not Rape, It’s A Snuggle With A Struggle?’ SM–the same mall that has the daily angelus and refused to show Tim Burton’s “Sweeney Todd” in the cinemas? Boys listen to Tita Karen–if a girl says NO and pushes you away, just err on the side of caution, she likely means NO. And go watch Sweeney Todd. WTF, SM.”

The garment read: “It’s not rape. It’s a snuggle with a struggle” and showed two hands forming a heart in the center of the tee. The shirt was being sold in the teen boys’ section of a department store, according to Kunawicz. The image has now gone viral and has been shared over 4,600 times. SM Store has taken note of the outrage. The department store released the following apology on their Facebook page yesterday in response to the outcry over the offensive tee.

Response posted by SM Store on their Facebook page.
Response posted by SM Store on their Facebook page.

Time reports that SM Store made a statement the slogan was unacceptable, noting “SM does not support such irresponsible and malicious acts that mock important and sensitive social issues.” However, many social media users aren’t buying their excuses, wondering how the shirts made it to the shelves without anyone approving the design. Some users are even calling out the store, asking it to take sexual violence seriously by making donations to women crisis centers.

Here are some of the responses to the tee from twitter.

What do you think of SM Store’s apology for their pro-rape t-shirt?

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