MANILA (AFP) – The Philippines’ biggest mall operator said Tuesday it had withdrawn from its shelves a T-shirt that made fun of rape, following social media outrage.
A photo of the dark blue T-shirt with the slogan: “It’s not rape. It’s a snuggle with a struggle”, was posted by writer Karen Kunawicz on her Facebook page on Monday and quickly went viral.
SM Supermalls said in a statement the message on the T-shirt was “unacceptable”, and that it only found out about it through social media.
“We have immediately pulled out all the T-shirts of the consignor that distributes them,” it said in a statement.
“Appropriate action will be taken to ensure this does not happen again. Thank you for informing us.”
SM Supermalls, owned by the Philippines’ richest man Henry Sy, operates 46 malls locally and has expanded to China.
Kunawicz’s Facebook photo of the T-shirt, which was displayed in the teen boys’ section, was shared almost 3,000 times and liked by close to 1,000 people by Tuesday afternoon.
“I’m angry not just with SM but with the group of idiots that envisioned and actually produced this,” one Facebook user said in a comment to Kunawicz’s post.
“A big company has an even bigger social responsibility to control what goes through their stores,” another person on Facebook said in a separate comment.
Twitter user @Photoworldmanila said: “If you are a woman, you will be disgusted with #SM.”
SM Supermalls said it was investigating how the shirt got into its inventory.