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The other day, I saw a teenager in the supermarket with a t-shirt that said, ‘When I’m God, Everyone Dies.’ I wondered what made him pick it out at the shop and decide that he wanted to buy it, that he wanted this slogan to represent him in public. Does he hate the world and wish we would die? Was he just being ironic? (There’s nothing indicating irony in the design.) Or did he not particularly think about it? Later, a google search revealed it’s a line from the Marilyn Manson song, “The Reflecting God”. Which doesn’t really answer the questions.
What does it mean to wear a t-shirt with a message?
For a time in my early twenties, I would nearly only wear t-shirts with messages. I was a billboard of anti-war and anti-capitalism messages as well as bands I liked. It showed the world what kind of person I was, I suppose. Maybe I thought it would also convert some people.
I don’t have too many t-shirts-with-messages. I have a Clash t-shirt, but that’s an accident, because I didn’t pack enough clothes for my honeymoon and when we got to Christchurch on a Sunday, it was the best option from the markets. I feel dishonest, as these days I don’t listen to the Clash, as the very low play count of their songs on my itunes will prove.
I didn’t consciously turn away from t-shirts-with-messages. But these days I’d rather be more anonymous. Maybe it’s a part of being old.
I should be understanding of people who do wear t-shirts-with-messages. But many of them are disturbing. Not usually in the way of the ‘When I’m God…’ example. More often in their banality. What does it mean to wear a t-shirt saying, ‘I can only please one person per day. Today isn’t your day…and tomorrow don’t look good either’? There’s quite a few of these kind of t-shirts with a standing joke, often postured slightly against the world or against women, or against men. I can understand a t-shirt promoting a cause, or a band, but what do these do? Is this as close to an ideology as a certain kind of person goes? Perhaps people are actually wearing their philosophy of life and they just wanted to share it with us. I don’t know.
Nathan Hobby, a biographer in Perth 
When I worked in a bookshop years ago, employer’s “guidelines” explicitly forbade staff wearing t-shirts with messages. I didn’t have one anyway, but I always thought it was a curious rule. Did it mean customers had complained in the past? Was it for fear of the public confusing the slogans with the opinion of the proprietors?! (A bit like those disclaimers you see in publications.)
I find them puzzling too. I saw one the other day that said, “My liver is evil and must be punished”. So, not directed expressly against the world, but maybe an attempt to fend off criticism, to preempt remarks, to turn excess drinking into a self-deprecatory joke?
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I wonder if what makes some t-shirts disturbing is the indifference towards them, from both the wearer and from observers. There’s something disturbing about the saturation level of messages you encounter when you go out into a modern community. It can feel like nothing important will be able to rise above the babble.
One particularly bad one I’ve seen said “Global Warming Is So Hot Right Now”.
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Tracy – I guess businesses don’t want employees to be showing opinions? At the video store a few months ago, the video store guy was arguing passionately about the Iraq War and Bush against a pro-war customer. I think he lost that customer forever, but good on him. I guess that’s what they were trying to avoid? Luckily the video store guy owns the place.
Patrick – that example you gave is horrifying! Unless it’s a devastatingly understated Bret Easton Ellis type comment…
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