In the last few days there has been a petition hosted on change.org that has been circulating around campus by the UO Coalition on a t-shirt design from teespring.com that reads “She Wants the D” with a duck logo on it. As of Jan. 30, the petition has reached 377 supporters and only needs 123 more supporters for this design to be removed.
The University of Oregon released an official statement in response to this t-shirt:
“The University of Oregon is aware of a t-shirt being sold and considers the message on the t-shirt highly offensive. The University does not own the trademarks for the letter “D” or the depicted duck image. We share the concerns expressed by students and others on the petition on change.org and support the efforts to have it taken down as soon as possible.”
Jolene Fisher, graduate teaching fellow from the school of journalism and communications, heard of the petition from friends and decided to check it out. When Fisher saw the t-shirt she felt that the design was inappropriate and disturbing. She also commented on the change.org petition.
“This shirt is sending a problematic message and it’s using a college to promote that message,” Fisher said. “Rape culture is a very serious thing and when they decide to use the duck logo it just reflects poorly on the UO and I would hope that the UO licensing would do something about this. Especially since I don’t think the UO would agree with this problematic message.”
The design has disturbed some students and many believe this t-shirt is promoting rape culture at the UO, specifically through this shirt’s message, by justifying men’s nonconsensual advances on women. UO Coalition is asking the UO’s director of licensing and brand management to take action toward this offensive design, according to the group’s petition.
The UO Coalition is a group of faculty and graduate students on campus that helps bring awareness about sexual assault on campus and advocates a safe experience at the UO, according to its website. The group hopes that with the help of students signing this petition it can help stop rape culture on the UO campus and among UO fans.