By Tkingdoll (aka Teek)
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I am a big fan of the humble t-shirt, owning around 40 girly-shaped tees with designs ranging from Bruce Lee to Blythe dolls, and from Zappa to Pokemon. I love them because they say “Look at me! I’m quirky and into cool/obscure/eccentric stuff and if you like the same things then you will automatically warm to me!†Hey, at least I’m honest. In fact, some folk say I’m too honest, and wear my heart on my sleeve.
They are wrong. I wear it on my chest.
You know what bugs me though? Girls who wear geeky t-shirts to impress guys with stuff they’re not really into. I once got talking to a girl in a club who was wearing a very cute Spider-man t-shirt.
ME: “Hey, nice shirt!â€Â
SHE: “Oh, thanksâ€Â
ME: “So, have you read any of Brian Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-man stuff? How about that neat twist on the Venom storyline eh?â€Â
SHE: “Uh, I just got this cause my boyfriend likes it.â€Â
I’ve noticed a recent upsurge in geek culture and skeptic t-shirts, which can only be a good thing. From a marketing perspective, it’s a great way of advertising critical thinking and inviting people to engage you in debate. There is a potential down side, I suppose, in that some nut job might want to engage you in debate with the sharp end of their woo stick, but the risk is worth taking in my opinion. Skepticism needs to get cool, and fast, and t-shirts have been one of the best ways of penetrating popular culture since the 1970s. The rise in skeptic shops shows that people are not just coming out of the woodwork as skeptics, but it’s beginning to cross over into the mainstream.
And who knows? Perhaps one day, skepticism will be so popular, I’ll get talking to a guy in a club who is wearing an ‘I Get Randi’ t-shirt and he’ll tell me he wears it cause it impresses all the chicks :D
Some cool online Skeptic t-shirt shops:
http://www.skepchick.org/6.15.06/shop.html
http://www.ukskeptics.com/shop.php
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my favorite bruce lee shirt:
http://www.planettonyhawk.com/mods/skins/shirts/B…
Giant robot is awesome!
Hear here for the girly geeky shirt!
My wife has an excellent one. A pig a cow a chicken and the words Animals Taste Good.
Nice, um, shirt by the way. nyuck nyuck!
I hope you don't mind a bit of blatant self promotion, but I have a few designs you might like.
Gary
http://www.cafepress.com/what_it_is
Gary, plug away! I was hoping people would post links to more ace t-shirts, I'm always on the lookout for good ones (although I can't buy anything at present as I am utterly skint :( )
I was planning on printing a t-shirt that reads on the front:
Evidence?1?
Back:
We don't need no stinking evidence!
msd
Hey Teek (or do you prefer Miss Tkingdoll?)—
I bet you just have to promise to model the shirt and you'd be able to convince some generous skepgents to buy you some T-shirts.
Hi nsetzer, you can call me Teek or Tkingdoll, or, if you have the Skepchick calendar, Ms January :)
I don't work for t-shirts, I'm afraid (I'd rather have the cash :D), although the link to the Star Trek/Skeptic parody photo I posted in the article above was part of a promo thing for the UK Skeptics shop launch. I had to pay for the tee myself though :(
T 'clotheshorse' Kingdoll
Nice one, Matt.
Niice picture!
…
Um, I vaguely recollect having more to say than that.
Oh, right. This site has some of my favourite geek designs: http://www.dieselsweeties.com/shirts/
Teek! You had to buy the shirt? That's tragic!
Incidentally, if I wanted to suggest something that you or bug_girl might want to write about, where should I send it? [The topic for today is a lesson in correlation]
Love the picture. I did see a T shirt once that said:
"Vegeterians taste like chicken."
Personally, I've been fond of CafePress.com when hunting for apparel and what-not that express my sentiments. Typing skeptic/atheist/agnostic into the search box and looking through the hundreds of results has kept me amused for many minutes if not a few hours.
Showoff.
First of all BUG and TEEK you're doing a great job for Rebecca!!!
I flew to Florida this spring and on the way down I had on a skeptrix's T shirt "Evolution is just a theory, like um, Gravity". In Logan (Boston's airport I got several "Hey cool shirt where did you get it.?". In Atlanta I had two people look and smile as they read it and their countenance changed with their eyes narrowing and looking at me. I expected their mouths to open and a high pitched sound to emit as they pointed at me like in The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Nothing against Atlanta, it just happened to take place in the airport.
When're we going to start doing skeptical slogans on burqas?
I love girly shaped t-shirts. That is a wide range of taste…going from Bruce Lee t-shirts to Pokemon t-shirts.