Fashion retailers are causing a stir by using an LGBTQ term as a T-shirt slogan

A woman has called out four fashion brands for using the word “femme” as a slogan on their T-shirts, claiming it should only be used in the LGBTQ community.

‘H’ Beverley, a shop worker from Chelmsford, visited branches of Topshop, Urban Outfitters, H&M and Mango to snap pictures of the T-shirts featuring the word.

According to the Daily Mail, ‘H’ then sent online complaints to each of the stores, telling them that the word ‘Femme’ is an LGBTQ term for a feminine lesbian.

She also took to social media to tweet H&M and Topshop in order to express her views.

“The word femme has a history & meaning specific to LGBTQ+ ppl, it is ours to use – it isn’t yours to sell to straight ppl,” she wrote.

The 25-year-old, who is a lesbian, acknowledges that the word means ‘woman’ or ‘wife’ in French, but believes it is unfair for brands to use sexual identity into some kind of fashion statement for profit.

“I think the shops don’t realise what the word means or they just don’t care,” she told Daily Mail.

“They’ve just taken a word that has a specific meaning to a specific group of people and sold it to people that it has no relevance to.”

“I don’t understand why you would want to wear a word across your chest that doesn’t have a meaning to you,” she continued.

And though ‘H’ believed using Femme as a slogan didn’t necessarily diminish the suffering of the LDBTQ community, she objected to the word being used out of context.

She went on to suggest that designers question relevant groups before using a slogan they think might offend or upset.

“Designers need to just research the words they put on t-shirts in the future before they print them,” she said.

“I think by printing this on t-shirts, retailers haven’t thought it out well enough to be doing it to attract the LGBT community. They just haven’t thought about it.”

It’s not the first time fashion retailers have offended customers with the slogans on their T-shirts. Earlier this year Primark were forced to remove a range of tees from shelves after it was accused of being “fantastically offensive.”

The top emblazoned with a bloodied baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire and the words “Eeny Meeny Miny Moe” received complaints from some shoppers who accused the slogan of being racist.

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