Fighters + Lovers: Romaticizing Revolutionaries and Funding Guerrillas for Fashion and Profit

Did I just get put on an NSA or FBI watch list because I looked at a t-shirt website?  In this climate of domestic spying and terrorism paranoia it feels like I easily could have been (if I am not already being watched), especially when part of the purchase price of said shirts goes to one of two revolutionary/terrorist organizations of your choice.

Are you a lover of fighters?  See if I am...

An article on the BBC alerted me to Fighters + Lovers, the Danish T-shirt seller that puts the "fun" into funding guerrilla/terrorist groups with its offering of four, shall we say revolutionary, shirt designs, two each featuring the initials FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia) and PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) combined with catchy Kalashnikov rifle motifs.

F+L claims inspiration from photogenic PFLP violent femme Leila Khaled and the banana-republic-chic FARC commander Jacobo Arenas. The web site says a portion of the proceeds from each shirt will go toward buying "new equipment for radio stations and graphics workshops" for the two groups. The specifics of what this t-shirt money will buy for these hippest of revolutionaries/terrorists is of course irrelevant to the governments of many countries (Denmark included) which have laws which prohibit even the indirect funding of groups deemed to be terrorist organizations; so buying one of these shirts is not merely a fashion statement, it could land a person in prison.

I am both tickled and appalled by Fighters + Lovers.  The graphic designer, free thinker and pissed off liberal in me loves the hip designs, embraces the causes of these groups and delights in givin' the finger to "the man" and his War on Terrorism. As horrible as guns are, I am hard put to deny the utilitarian beauty in form of most guns and the Kalashnikov is a super star of the gun world, with its old-school Cold War cache', menacing ubiquity and mean, all-business looks contrasted with the sexy smooth curved wood above and below the barrel.  It is an obscene weapon and obscene is fun for those with a rebelious streak. The images on these shirts, the image of the company is that of empowering and romaticizing the underdog.  Two underdogs which our governments specifically oppose.  It is Che Guevara version 2.0.

Yet F+L's romaticizing of violence and exploitation of the very groups it claims to support is completely appalling.  Personally, I don't mind that these t-shirts are funding the communication abilites of these two groups, the causes if not the means of both organizations I generally support. But to pretend that the life of a revolutionary is glamorous and sexy is belittling. F+L is cynical in its exploitation of the very desperate, leathal and misserable reality of these two groups for the fun and profit of comfortable westerns.  The money coming from these shirts will most likely be relatively little and I doubt will seriously benefit either group - nor does F+L state how they will make certain the money will go to projects described. The messages on the shirt speak nothing of the struggle of FARC and PFLP but serve rather as just a hip brand lable: Associate yourself with real rebels! The shirts glorify the violence of the groups and only imply their causes without giving them real voice or treating them seriously.

Fighters+Lovers states their philosophy as this:

Fighters+Lovers is the brand that takes fashion beyond new horizons. We have a passion for change. In a world obsessed with envy and hate, Fighters+Lovers dare to speak up for brotherhood and the right to fight for what is right.

T-shirts don't change the world. The world is already spinning around and we simply make the clothes for the creative people who make it happen. People with an attitude.

Ultimately, for F+L, freedom fighters are merely "people with an attitude."