Stuff You Can't Have: All the Rage: Political Fashion

Photo transfer onto cloth

There comes a time when it is incumbent on citizens of good conscience to wear their politics on their sleeve—literally. This is the first in a series of upcycled political fashion titled All the Rage.

Say them loud, say them clear:

"Transgender, fetus, evidence-based, science-based, entitlement, vulnerable, diversity.

These are the seven words highlighted in a memo and follow-up meeting at the Centers for Disease Control under the Trump regime, advising staff members not to use these words in any official documents prepared for the budget. Follow-up on this story indicates this wasn't so much a ban originating at higher levels of the CDC as a strategy to avoid trigger words that might reduce chances of getting funding from a right-wing, reactionary, Republican-controlled government. (Meanwhile, references to climate change have been removed from the Environmental Protection Agency website, but that's a censorship shirt for another day.)

What better way to provoke conversation among the populace about these seven words than to don a forbidden words protest shirt? The words, along with vintage black and white photos of Laurel and Hardy making shushing gestures, were printed onto photo-transfer paper, ironed onto cloth, and stitched onto a linen thrift-store shirt.