Imperialism? Domestic Abuse? Ugly orange plaid? Yeah, none of those things are really okay. WWE recently launched new shirts for NXT wrestlers Hideo Itami and Becky Lynch. Because lazy and uninspired apparently weren’t enough for whomever it is at WWE they let design shirts, I guess they decided to add some controversy into the mix.
In case the name Hideo Itami wasn’t adequately indicative of them employing an Asian wrestler, WWE put out the following shirt:
WWE has now pulled the shirt, saying that they had made a mistake in the Japanese characters in the design. When it was released, the shirt was lambasted on social media for use of the Rising Sun flag design. The design itself is seen in a lot of Japanese imagery, but it does have a considerably less than favorable connotation. The flag, featuring a red sun with 16 rays represents Japanese imperialism, and was a militaristic symbol for decades. The sun with eight rays was also the common identifier of the Japanese military in the 1940s. I mean, I dunno if WWE have heard of World War II, but it was kind of a big deal. The flag was actually banned by the United Nations after 1945, however the 16-ray version was brought back by the Japanese seven years later during the Korean War.
While most will say that the time of the flag being viewed as offensive has passed, there have been numerous examples in sports alone that illustrate how that is not the case. During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Japanese government warned citizen traveling to China to not use flags or iconography featuring the military flag as a safety guideline, saying it might cause trouble for them while they were there. Olympic controversy occurred once more at London 2012 when Japanese gymnastic athletes competed in rising sun-inspired designs. The Olympic Charter says that “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.” It was argued by the Japanese, however, that complaints about the uniforms were only made in retaliation to the investigation and temporary ban of South Korean midfielder Jong Soo Park. After the bronze-medal match, the soccer player held up a banner that read “Dokdo is our land,” referring to a group of islands that are claimed by Japan but administered by South Korea. He was banned from the award ceremony, and his medal was temporarily stripped, but it was reinstated later after the IOC determined that it was not premeditated, and was done in the heat of the moment.
In 2013, Korean fighter Chan Sung Jung wrote an open letter to fellow UFC competitor Georges St. Pierre on his Facebook after GSP wore entrance gear emblazoned with the Rising Sun design:
…many westerners like to wear clothes designed after the symbol under which so many war crimes and so much tragedy happened, which is ridiculous.
I know most of them are not militarists. I know most of them do not approve unjustified invasion, torture, massacre, etc. They’re just ignorant. It’s such a shame that many westerners are not aware of this tragic fact. Wearing Rising Sun outfits is as bad as wearing clothes with the Nazi mark on it, if not worse.
Since you’re influenced by Japanese Martial Arts, your wearing a headband designed after Japanese flag is understandable. But again, that huge ‘Rising Sun’ on your Gi means something else.
Both GSP and sponsor/maker of the gear Hayabusa Fightwear quickly apologized, promised they would not sell the gear, and said they would make an effort to be conscious of the imagery in the future.
WWE has used the design previously in imagery for former employee Yoshi Tatsu, so this isn’t the first foray into unapologetically using a foreign symbol without consideration of the ramiifications. While the designers employed by WWE may not be specifically thinking about things like the political denial of the Rape of Nanking or Japanese fascism, the simple fact is that it took 0.48 seconds for Google to return more than enough links that would educate anyone on the history of the flag, and the implications and associations of Rising Sun imagery. If WWE — especially under NXT, the “future” of wrestling — is going to look for praise for their “diversity,” taking things like this into account instead of just throwing together whatever stereotypes they associate with countries they’re only familiar with on a tertiary level is absolutely necessary.
As you can see from the screenshot, they received enough preorders to already sell out one of the sizes. WWE says they will still ship all preorders of pulled merchandise, and a fixed version of the shirt will be returned to the shop shortly.
And then there’s this. It says a lot that WWE believes in the women of NXT to put up shirts for their female athletes in men’s sizes, when most women’s wrestlers shirts are only made available for women and children. Trusting that they can make money from men off of women’s designs is damning with faint praise, yes, but it’s still a huge leap forward from where they were. That said… uhhh… really? This made it far enough to get pulled down?
WWE has removed the men’s version of the shirt above, again after many complained online that the shirt sent the wrong message. The idea is that Becky Lynch is an ass-kicker, but specifically girl asses. That’s the joke. That’s it. The joke is lame for sure, but they again did not take a few things into account. One: Becky Lynch is Irish. “Lass” is a Scottish word. Mixing up two entirely different countries because they’re both in the same part of Europe and use plaid is already ignorant enough to look at the shirt and again go, “Uhhh… really?”
Two: nowhere on the shirt does it say Becky Lynch. In theory, that’s totally fine. However, there’s also no real indication of what the shirt is meant to represent to those who do not specifically watch NXT. Ergo, when a dude who decides that he wants to support Lynch and what she does dons the shirt, it ends up having the opposite of a message of support and fandom, and basically proclaims him as a guy who physically assaults women and is proud enough of it to put it on a shirt. Like, this isn’t one of those things where you can comes at it and say no, no, you’re overreacting. It literally says “Lass Kicker.” It advertises the wearer as one who likes to “kick lasses” (or “lick asses” if you look too quickly, but still).
On the surface, that’s more than enough to make the shirt a totally garbage design, however it’s also completely tone deaf. WWE recently drew flak (and rightfully so) for it’s unabashed support of serial domestic abuser Floyd Mayweather. ESPN’s Michelle Beadle has been a prominent fan of WWE for years, however very publicly renounced this fandom after Triple H was very vocal in promoting and congratulating his longtime boxer friend. And if you think WWE is the only one being tone-deaf in this situation:
I didn’t know @FloydMayweather was a @BeckyLynchWWE fan! pic.twitter.com/57Xxr8zkGb
— Connor (@Connox94) May 20, 2015
Everyone is ? https://t.co/JxI3htLMQU
— Becky Lynch (@BeckyLynchWWE) May 20, 2015
Oh, honey.
The Mayweather situation always seems to come down to cross-promotion and money over morality and the reality of his battering of women. Controversy creates cash, after all. But maybe also consider this: If WWE wants to be viable in foreign markets and also promote and make money from their female athletes, maybe… don’t do this? It seems pretty simple. If Lynch is an Irish woman, don’t give her a Scottish phrase that turns her fans into supporters of domestic violence. If Hideo Itami is Asian, don’t give him a bunch of ignorant clip art and also offend an incredibly large portion of non-Japanese Asians. You can’t excuse them for being an American company who simply didn’t know it’s unacceptable when this company makes millions internationally and is constantly trying to court markets in other countries. It is bad business to hurt your potential profits. It’s also bad business to pay people to design shirts for international wrestlers when they can’t even be fussed to do, again, less than a second of research about what they think is a good design idea. They have one job, and they’re failing spectacularly at, as is anyone in place to approve these designs before they go to print. Remember, their excuse is that they didn’t get the Japanese characters right before they first put it up. Say that out loud, and then take a second to consider how appalling that for someone to use something in another language and not even have it proofread.
People get mad at things that don’t personally offend them, and then relegate things like this to cases of people looking for things to be offended by. It’s important for those of you who do this to remember that it’s WWE’s actual job to look at any prototype merchandise and assess potential risk of loss. That’s what you do when you run a business. They failed to do that, and, in the process, they failed the wrestlers they want to promote and make famous, and they failed fans who shouldn’t have to do the job of an international corporation and point out that there are multiple things wrong with using these phrases and imagery.
If WWE wants a cookie every time they do something to support “diversity” (read: do the bare minimum and hire someone who isn’t a white male and then let them wrestle), then they’ll have to make more of an effort in making that diversity matter. This does not happen by only paying lip service to the concerns of fans by posting pictures of Uhaa Nation. Real change takes effort, and if your actions don’t back up your words, then sorry your words mean nothing.
