T-shirts with playful and suggestive writing and images have long been trendy on campus but have only recently been met with controversy.

Keri Haluska (junior-secondary education) said she owns some of these shirts because she thinks they are fun.

However, she said that while retailers such as Abercrombie & Fitch are probably not trying to offend their customers, their new line of T-shirts, brandishing messages across the chest that include, "With these who needs brains?" have gone too far.

"They crossed the line," she said.

As a result, last week, a group of high school students began a "girlcott" that received national attention. The group, Allegheny County Girls as Grantmakers, was worried about the messages Abercrombie & Fitch's new line of "attitude" T-shirts might send to teenage girls, said spokesman Cathy Renna.

"Their original idea was that they were going to protest local malls, but they decided to take it bigger," Renna said.

Last week, Abercrombie & Fitch agreed in a statement to pull two of the more offensive T-shirts from their shelves.

The group and the retailer are currently in the process of arranging a meeting in the coming weeks to discuss concerns and the possibility of creating T-shirts that are more empowering to women.

"There's an interest in creating something more empowering for girls," Renna said.

Abercrombie & Fitch's spokesman did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.

The shirts that Renna says Abercrombie agreed to remove said, "Who need brains when you have these?" and "All Men Like Tig Old Bitties."

Women's studies lecturer Brian Jara said that while the girls' activism is admirable, he does not favor censoring the shirts.

"We have free speech and the choice to buy what we want," he said.

However, he added that he feels that the situation is different when minors are wearing the clothes.

"I don't think the solution is to remove it," he said. "Hopefully, in a perfect feminist world, people would stop buying them."

Tara Roulis, manager of Metro, 320 E. College Ave., said the store makes many of its own T-shirts, and they decide what is on them. She said some of the shirts do have messages that are sexually suggestive.

"But I wouldn't say any are particularly offensive to women," she said.

She said that while she thinks the more suggestive T-shirts are in fun, they are not appropriate for young girls to wear.

Meghan Ochs, vice president of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, said the T-shirts are offensive.

"It demeans women and puts them down," she said.

She said the issue is important because many young people who wear the shirts are at a point in their lives when their self-images are developing. One of the T-shirts she found most offensive was the one that says, "Who needs brains when you have these?" she said.

"I feel like if you're going to plaster something across your chest, it should have meaning to you, instead of putting people down or offending others," Ochs said.

Ochs added that the group will discuss the issue at its meeting Monday and consider the possibility of protesting the local Abercrombie & Fitch store, 138 S. Allen St.