How do you feel about the current trend of peace signs on clothing?

I don’t see a problem with it. What’s wrong with peace? We might need another hippie uprising soon, anyway lol.

I get exactly what you are saying. I’m wearing peace sign earrings right now. I grew up during the 60’s so the peace symbol has a very important meaning to me. It does seem a little odd to see little kids and tweens wearing the symbols (although it doesn’t really bother me so much as it makes me sad that most of these kid and even their parents don’t really understand what it’s all about) A lot of these kids and parents are probably all excited about “patriotism” (whatever that is) and love the fact that America is known for kicking arse, but the peace sign is really about preventing war and protesting war and trying to come up with alternatives to war and not kicking anyone’s arse. Most of the kids you see wearing peace signs have no idea about the Vietnam war or that era and just wear the signs to be fashionable and retro. So it doesn’t really disgust me, it just kind of makes me a little bit sad, only because they really don’t know what the sign is all about.

@Blackberry Nothing is wrong with peace. My thinking is the mass production for trendy purposes kind of makes it lose meaning. This was a strong symbol of peoples’ beliefs and values at one time, now it is just “cool.”

@Kardamom Yeah, I guess sad is the word. I’m not offended or disgusted. Maybe disappointed?

I like it.

I think I know what you are feeling. The Peace symbol is more like a kitchy/retro trend/commercialized “design” right now than when you were a kid.

@Supacase Indeed. Although I haven’t seen the up rise, it’s better than graphic tees with sparkled crosses and angel wings people wear here.

I guess I hadnt really thought abouy it that way, my daughter asked me what it meant and I told her, but if she hadnt asked I wouldnt have thought to tell her, which is quite sad. I think I would prefer/feel more comfortable? meeting someone with a peace sign on their t shirt rather than someone who chooses to wear rosary beads as a necklace, thats a fashion I dont understand, especially when the people wearing them are not Christian but more importantly dont understand what each bead represents and what they are used for.

I just can’t see anything negative about someone wearing a peace sign, no matter what the history of the sign is. What it stands for now is peace and that’s what matters the most to me. I can’t see negativity in something positive like that. Sorry. :\

@Supacase – I understand your unease. For me it’s the corporate nature of it. I get the same queasy feeling when I see shirts or other mass-produced products with “Go Green!” on it. I know I should probably just accept the fact that the message isn’t bad, but I can’t get over the image I have of a bunch of suits in a board room trying to figure out what they should put on the 2011 line of shirts. It is not a decision based on the message. And these t-shirts are probably manufactured in some less-than-perfect country we support because it provides us with a cheap non-union workforce with little or no worker protection. “Going green” probably means not buying the “go green” t-shirt. Same goes for the peace sign.

I think @sakura touched on how I thought about this, but I had not explained what I was thinking in my previous answer. If it causes a child to ask what the sign means, and sparks a conversation about peace, about the history of the symbol, about what you believed in as a young person and still do, that sounds good to me. Much like @DominicX said, how can that be negative?

When more parents or schools start doing tie dye again with their kids and drawing their own peace signs on shirts, then I will worry about the corporate people making money off their calculated decision to produce shirts with peace signs. Since most families buy shirts off the rack, and for that matter young girls are the trendiest group; they are typically way ahead of the adult population on trend for many reasons, I am happy they have peace on their shirt and not some sort of swear word that they think is cool.

@JLeslie: “When more parents or schools start doing tie dye again with their kids and drawing their own peace signs on shirts, then I will worry about the corporate people making money off their calculated decision to produce shirts with peace signs.”

Tie dying tshirts has been huge here for a long time. We do it all the time. In fact, even my daughter’s Girl Scout camp did it this summer.

@tom_g Good. Then you don’t have to feed the corporate monster. I like that. I like that young people are still doing arts and crafts. Are you drawing the peace sign on your tie dyes, or even just writing the word peace? Not a bad message. I still can’t see getting upset about a peace sign, and getting all philosophical about with it, and winding up at a negative conclusion. The kid is buying a shirt at the store, she chooses what she likes, it happens to have a peace sign on it. She has no idea possibly what it means, just thinks its cool and her friends have it. Hopefully she eventually learns what it means.

I know. I should just be ok with the peace sign and not read into it too much, or worry about where it came from.

My children are 19, 17 and 7. I’ve been clothes shopping for children for 19 years now. The peace sign has been around this entire time. It really isn’t something new. Like @DominicX, I don’t see the bad in a symbol that has a positive message. My daughter wore a cute shirt to school today with a peace sign on it. I’d rather she wore that than a Justin Bieber or skull and cross bone shirt. ;)

I certainly don’t see a positive symbol as being a negative thing, but what about when that symbol of peace and hope deteriorates to a meaningless adornment along the lines of a star, heart, rainbow, rhinestone or flower? (Apparently, I think we’re pretty much at that point already.) The more commercialized things become, the less significance they hold. The few kids who ask and the few parents who care enough to explain are not the majority.

It isn’t going to hurt anything. I just don’t feel it is doing justice to the peace movement of the 60s and 70s – it wasn’t all about “groovy, man” like so many kids now think. Like I said in my original question, it isn’t a big deal. Just a thought.

As for tie-dye it is getting popular here as well. Everything 80s is back and I think kids identify with tie-dye more along those lines than anything else. We did it when I was a kid in the 80s and there were no connections to peace in our minds. It was a cool craft our moms knew how to do – and that is exactly how my daughter, nieces and nephews view it today. I won’t explain differently to my child, because I don’t see the connection. I’s just a cool hippie thing as far as I know – and the hippie thing wasn’t about peace any more than it was about free love and drugs from what I understand. Maybe it was too commercialized when I was a child of the 80s for me to know any different.~

@jonsblond I can’t make the leap to Justin Beiber other than to say his of type tweeny-bopper merchandize demands the exact same amount of respect the peace sign will soon. Difference is, JB was never meant to be anything more.