Asda Children's T-Shirt Deemed Too Hurtful, Petition Demands Removal

A petition is demanding that the British supermarket Asda stop selling a children’s T-shirt featuring a picture of a snowman and the words “I’m having a meltdown” on the grounds that it’s insensitive to the mentally ill.

“Anyone suffering with ASD and similar spectrum disorders or mental health conditions that involve having melt downs [sic] as a symptom deserve understanding and acceptance,” states the petition, titled “ASDA remove this t shirt that makes fun out of people with ASD/mental health conditions,” written by a woman named Jennifer Dunstan.

“Under equalities act 2010, disability is a ‘protected characteristic’ we put out to Asda that they’re breaking the guidelines set out with this awful slogan,” the petition continues. “We request that all stock be immediately removed from shelves, without question or hesitation.”

What’s more, according to an article in the Daily Star, concern over the wording on the T-shirt goes far beyond just this single petition — the director of external affairs at the U.K.’s National Autistic Society, Jane Harris, has come out to condemn the shirt, too.

“Autistic children and adults can struggle with loud noises, strong smells, bright lights and new places and become completely overwhelmed,” she told the Star.

“This can mean people lose control of their behaviour – a lot of families and people on the autism spectrum call this a ‘meltdown’ or ’shutdown,’” she continued.

Okay. But the thing is that mental illness is actually not what most people think of when they hear the word “meltdown.” It would be one thing if “meltdown” were a term that people used to describe incidents involving mentally ill people exclusively — or even usually — but that just isn’t the case. In fact, neither Merriam Webster Dictionary online nor Dictionary.com even mentions mental illness in its definitions of the word, but both sources’ definitions feature example sentences using the word to describe a cranky “toddler.” Clearly, the word “meltdown” is commonly used in relation to an out-of-control, temper-tantrum-having kid, and a company putting it on a shirt for kids was pretty clearly a tongue-in-cheek reference to this interpretation rather than some kind of sinister insult to the mentally ill community.

#related#People use the word “meltdown” all the time. They use it to describe screaming toddlers. They use it to describe financially failing companies. I’ve used it to describe a reaction I had after having waited more than two hours for my delivery pizza, only for it to arrive without the extra marinara sauce I had ordered. It can be used to describe a football team falling apart in the fourth quarter, and it can be used to describe the way that a 14-beers-deep fan of that team starts acting when that happens. Words can have many different meanings, and insisting on latching on to only the most offensive interpretation of a word in any given situation displays nothing but a lack of understanding about how language works.

Thankfully, Asda has demonstrated a commitment to the ever-more-rare value of common sense and refused to stop selling the item.

“Our snowman t-shirt is intended to be light-hearted and we’ve received great feedback from customers,” a spokesperson told HuffPost UK. “We’re sorry if anyone is offended by it — that is never our intention.”

At the time of publication, the petition had nearly 250 signat ures.