This Shirt For Missouri Interns Is Outstanding

In response to several issues of sexual harassment of interns perpetrated by legislators, Missouri lawmakers proposed this week an intern dress code, because somehow someone thought that would be a good idea. The sexist plan was quickly shot down by other, more reasonable politicians, but alas, the damage had been done. There has, understandably, been a lot of backlash against the asinine idea that put the onus of preventing sexual harassment on young adults who are being harassed at the beginning of their careers instead of on the grown adults (mostly men) who are doing the harassing. But you know, maybe there could be better outfits interns could wear if they really, really wanted to make it clear that they didn't want to be sexually harassed. Take, for instance, this t-shirt about sexual attention from Missouri state legislators.

Raygun, a t-shirt company with several Midwest locations, including one in Kansas City, Miss., developed a brilliant (and, I must say, totally appropriate) shirt design for interns to wear to their jobs. It reads: "This is my not wanting sexual attention from Missouri state legislators shirt." I don't think you can get more clear than that (though some legislators likely still won't get the message).

Coming in at an affordable $21 (these poor interns are getting paid, right? Right??), the t-shirt was introduced by Raygun in a hilarious blog post titled, "Mo interns, mo problems." The post brought attention to two lawmakers who recently resigned, Republican speaker John Diehl and Democratic Sen. Paul LeVota. Diehl resigned after a sexting scandal with a college intern, for which he apologized, and LeVota resigned during sexual harassment accusations, which he denies.

And since the intern dress code proposal won't be passed, "removing one more distraction will help everyone keep their focus on legislative matters," as Rep. Nick King put it, if interns really want it to be understood that they're not into unwanted sexual attention, this shirt might be their only hope. In the post, Raygun writes:

Great men like John Diehl and Paul LeVota have had their lives turned upside down by the actions of female interns who decided to wear clothes to work — clothes that may have left exposed clavicles or knee caps. You expect men to work in those conditions?!? These fathers, husbands, Christians — pillars of the Missouri community! — are forced to look at uncovered bare shins. ...

If ladies working in government don't want sexual attention from elected officials, they need to really spell it out. Without rules like this, more extreme measures will need to be taken: like expecting elected officials and men in general not act like sleazy f*cking assholes.

Image: Stefan/Flickr (1); Raygun (1)