The Rush to Keep People Out

 

In a Salon interview in 2006, recently recalled in Business Insider, Mike Jeffries, the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch said about looks:

It’s almost everything. That’s why we hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don’t market to anyone other than that. In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely."

Abercrombie & Fitch does not stock clothing for women sized XL or XXL. They simply do not want these women in their stores. They do stock these sizes for men as Jeffries acknowledges there are bulked up athletes who need the larger sizes. Abercrombie & Fitch is there to serve consumers who are good looking, popular, and hopefully buff. Business Insider wrote this piece because Abercrombie & Fitch is rapidly losing market share to other companies that are more expansive in their client base.

As of now, however, Abercrombie & Fitch leads the rush to keep people out.

In Jesus’ day there was a rush to keep people out.

Sinners were rejected by society. People who were sinful in any way, shape, or form, were given the boot.

Tax-collectors were seen as the worst of sinners. They received the boot.

Lepers were people considered to have been cursed by God. They received the compassion of a size 10 boot.

And better than half the population, women, were excluded. They were marginalized, used, and abused and had no rights and no voice. For many of them, the boot would have been better than what they received.

Mike Jeffries was born in the wrong era. He is a bully in the classic sense of the word.

People who are the least bit overweight are left out.

The unpopular kids in high school and college are left out. These are the kids who are the head of the Science Club or the Computer Club. They are the main characters of The Big Bang Theory, but Mike Jeffries does not really want them in his stores. The kids in the band? Give us all a break. Mike Jeffries wants the football players and the cheerleaders only. Of course, the football players and the cheerleaders SHOULD be welcome as should everyone else.

I cannot shop at Abercrombie & Fitch. Jeffries has made that perfectly clear. Frankly, I never could shop there. Even when I could fit into his clothing (I can’t now) I was never cool. During study hall in high school instead of hanging out in the cafeteria with the cool kids, I tended to read in the library with the rest of the nerds. I do not believe any of us actually wore Abercrombie & Fitch as we were never cool enough to go there.

I keep thinking that Jesus was all inclusive. Are all churches? I’m happy to know that my church, like most churches in the United Church of Christ, welcomes everyone, no matter what. We are the opposite of Abercrombie & Fitch. We have no rush to keep people out.

Frankly, sometimes this makes us odd. Frankly, however, the odd folks are always the most fun. And none of us actually can shop at Abercrombie & Fitch.