Urban Outfitters' Latest Offering: Hillary Nutcrackers

Some are calling toy 'sexist,' 'misogynistic'
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 12, 2014 12:34 PM CST
Urban Outfitters' Latest Offering: Hillary Nutcrackers
Urban Outfitters is selling Hillary Clinton nutcracker dolls this holiday season.   (Urban Outfitters)

Urban Outfitters is no stranger to controversy, and with the midterm elections finally over, the retailer has decided to jump thigh-first into politics—using Hillary Clinton's thighs, specifically. It's offering a Hillary-themed nutcracker for $60, with all the requisite jokes you'd expect to accompany such an item. "Is America Ready For This Nutcracker?" the packaging blares, with callouts that boast of the item's "stainless steel thighs," claiming it "cracks toughest nuts!"; the promotional copy wistfully reads, "They don't make 'em like this anymore." As MSNBC points out, it's not the first time the nutcracker has made the rounds (it first showed up during the 2008 elections), though the official website is "temporarily closed" and expects "to re-open with the 2016 model upon the official announcement of her next Presidential campaign."

Not everyone liked the nutcracker then, and not everyone likes it now. Ezra Klein at Vox writes that the price "seems like $54.05 too much for something you might find in a very, very sexist Happy Meal," while Jill Filipovic writes on the Cosmopolitan blog that this "terrible Hillary Clinton joke" is "for the many people who collect misogynist plastic toys." Meanwhile, Twitter reaction ranges from flummoxed ("WHAT WHY") to ambivalent ("Kinda want") to gleeful ("I found my Xmas present!"). (Urban Outfitters' last debacle was a 'blood-smeared' Kent State shirt.)

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