When specific washing instructions are needed, it might be best to stick with simply worded instructions, like “hand wash only,” “do not bleach” or “tumble dry on low heat.” Instead, an Indonesian company opted to go with “Give this jersey to your woman. It’s her job,” and is receiving criticism globally for its choice of words.
The labels are found on Salvo Sportswear’s shirts made for the Indonesian Super League team, Pusamania Borneo, a top flight football club, according to BBC. Many were labeling the tag’s washing instructions as sexist on Twitter over the weekend.
A gentle reminder from @SALVO_ID jersey pic.twitter.com/TsOLu1G9IK
— Viola | भिओला (@veeola) March 6, 2015
Salvo took to Twitter to apologize, according to BBC. In a six-part response, the company claimed the tag came to be after customers constantly ask how to care for its clothing.
“The message is simply, instead of washing it in the wrong way, you might as well give it to a lady because they are more capable,” Salvo Sports posted. “There is no intention to humiliate women. In contrast, [we want to tell the men to] learn from women how to take care of clothes.”
The tweets may have made things worse since Salvo never apologized for creating labels, but only apologized for how the wording was misinterpreted.
One Twitter user noted, “Don’t make it worse by saying that women are better at doing laundry, @SALVO_ID. Guess what? That’s also offensive.”
Salvo has removed the initial apology tweets as of this morning and replaced them with a four-part tweet that promises to replace the troublesome washing label on all jerseys not in circulation, and on ones already purchased, if desired.
“The replacement will be supplied no later than at the time of the kickoff [for Indian Super League] ISL 2015,” Salvo tweeted in Indonesian, noting the April 4 event kickoff.
2. Penggantian tersebut akan kami penuhi selambat-lambatnya pada saat kick off ISL 2015 (4 April 2015).
— Salvo Sports Apparel (@SALVO_ID) March 9, 2015
