Derogatory barb hurled at Cynthia Nixon becomes the latest empowering T-shirt
It only took four hours for T-shirt artists to reclaim Christine Quinn’s insult directed at Cynthia Nixon. The day after the Sex and the City star announced her candidacy for New York governor on Monday, Quinn, a former New York City mayoral candidate, called her an “unqualified lesbian.”
Speaking to the New York Post, the openly gay politician said, “Cynthia Nixon was opposed to having a qualified lesbian become mayor of New York City. Now she wants an unqualified lesbian to be the governor of New York.”
Just a few hours later, comedian Marie Connor (also openly gay) created a T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase “unqualified lesbian” in what we can only guess is an effort to reclaim this insult.
“If Miranda is an unqualified lesbian, then I guess I am too,” the description of the tee reads. The $20 T-shirt comes in all the colors of the rainbow and will be available for purchase through Monday.
As everyone is calling this move a stunt that Nixon’s SATC character Miranda Hobbes would pull, another T-shirt has surfaced that reads, “We Should All Be Mirandas.” The $32 tee is already on backorder. “It’s hard being a Miranda in the age of Trump and $700 feminist slogan tees,” the caption reads. “But if Mirandas ruled the world, the world would be a considerably less f***ed up place. We should all be Mirandas: smart, pragmatic, ambitious and unafraid to eat cake out of the garbage. And now you can pay homage to the sanest member of the squad with our ‘We Should All Be Mirandas’ tee. At $32 it’s a full $678 cheaper than a certain ubiquitous designer tee, plus all of the hottest celebs are wearing it! And we’re donating 15 percent of the proceeds to the Cynthia Nixon’s gubernatorial campaign, because it’s the Miranda thing to do.”
We think it’s safe to say Miranda would love the idea of reclaiming these insults thrown against her.
This T-shirt trend has helped find the fun in many obnoxious comments. In fact, Connor, the comedian, has been behind many of them, like the tee she created after a Christian bakery refused to make a cake for a gay wedding. That one reads, “Where’s my gay cake that a Christian baked?” She also sells a T-shirt that reads, “I am the gay agenda the Republicans warned you about.”
After Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton a “nasty woman” during the third presidential debate, the phrase trended nationwide, and the label found its way onto key chains, posters, and, of course, T-shirts. One, in particular, a plain white tee with “NASTY WOMAN” written over a heart, raised over $100,000 for Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, the Houston Food Bank, Unidos Por Puerto Rico, and She Should Run. Samantha Bee also designed “Nasty Woman” T-shirt that raises money for Planned Parenthood, and her Spanish version of that shirt raises money for Puerto Rico.
After Trump called African nations “s***hole countries,” the term was reclaimed on T-shirts featuring the president’s face. And then when the world heard the recording of Trump saying he could “grab” women “by the p***y,” merch emerged with the phrase “This p***y grabs back,” the ultimate example of insult reclaiming.
When Sen. Elizabeth Warren was attempting to argue against the confirmation of Sen. Jeff Sessions as U.S. attorney general, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell attempted to silence her. She kept speaking. He described her actions using the now-famous phrase, “Nevertheless, she persisted.” It’s become the slogan for many women, and a go-to for empowering apparel, one of which raised over $500,000 for Planned Parenthood.
Finally, in one of the most mature moves: When people started making fun of Kim Kardashian’s ugly cry, she turned that exact face into an emoji, a backpack, and stickers.
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