Forever 21
Last year, Nick Gillespie clued us in to Forever 21's "Unstoppable Muscle Tee," which allowed purchasers to boast to the world with (a variant of) Ayn Rand's words: "The question isn't who is going to let me, it's who is going to stop me."
That shirt may have hit a chord, because it's sold out even as New York magazine belatedly discovers the phenomenon after returning from an extended wait for Sunday brunch. The garments apparently sent bloody marys a-churning among compilers of that magazine's Approval Matrix, which plots current happenings prominent and obscure along a Despicable/Brilliant axis and a Highbrow/Lowbrow axis. They found "Ayn Rand, misquoted as a feminist, now featured on belly t-shirts for teenage girls" more highbrow, but also more despicable, then "Bill Cosby rape-as-meme," referring to graphics passing through social media referencing the controversy-dogged funnyman who faces a laundy list of accusations of very bad behavior.
Perusing New York media really can be an enlightening peek into a very strange world.
If you want to see the full approval matrix and find out what qualifies as Brilliant and Highbrow, see here. You can still find the Rand sort-of-quote on the apparel of your choice from other vendors.
NY Mag
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