Dear Old Navy,
You went under fire for the toddler shirts you unveiled last week on your site. In your quest to market to the people who are behind encouraging girls to pursue interests that are typically male-dominated, you have consequently dismissed the value of artists. Your shirts make it seem like being an inspiring artist is frivolous and unrealistic, while the replacement occupations are more difficult for anyone to hold that title.
As more and more girls are encouraged to get into the math and sciences departments, we are continuously neglecting the arts. Don't get me wrong, I want girls who are interested in those areas of study to be encouraged to pursue their dreams and to never have a thought looming over their heads that boys are better suited to study it. However, I never want to see any kid—male or female—discouraged from pursuing the arts because society deems it unworthy because we have correlated profits as the only measure of value to a degree or job.
So while you have listened to your customers and discontinued the shirts, you have deeply offended a large community.
So, to the young aspiring artists out there,
Go for it. Draw, sculpt, record, capture, and design it. Whatever your medium is, keep working on it. We need you. The world needs your art that comments on society to challenge our view on life. We need your art to remind us how beautiful the world is when all we can see is evil and wrong doings. Even if it confuses the crap out of while it hangs in a gallery, and we say we don't "get" it, we still need it.
The war between arts and sciences needs to stop. Both are equally important and valuable, both are needed in our world, just in different ways. There shouldn't be any hierarchy, yet we see it again and again in schools across the country, the math and sciences are poured into, while the art and music departments struggle to keep afloat. If we were to see the artists and their crafts as holding just as much intellectual stimulation—just from a different side of the brain—we wouldn't see these patronizing fashion statements anymore and would be on our way to seeing equal attention and investment in both areas of study.
