What was Topman thinking?

How can T shirts as offensive as these be sold by one of Britain's biggest mainstream stores?

As anyone who's run into a full-flowing stag or hen party will know, slogan T-shirts aren't exactly known for their tact and subtlety ("all you can eat", with a fluorescent arrow pointing crotchwards, must be the nadir). But even by those low standards, the two Topman T-shirts that have today kicked up an internet storm pretty much take the breath away. One, in grey marl, reads "Nice New Girlfriend: What Breed Is She?"; while the other, in violent pillarbox-red, lists a series of excuses for an apparent act of domestic violence, including "You provoked me" and "I was drunk".

A campaign against the blatant sexism began on Twitter, where it was picked up by Tender, a London-based charity that works with young people to tackle the causes of domestic violence. They set up a JustGiving campaign, asking people to donate towards their valuable work instead of buying the shirts; and a Facebook group, sTopman, with the aim of raising awareness and ultimately asking Topman to withdraw the T-shirts from sale. The group quickly picked up 332 members before, just a few hours after the backlash began, Topman announced their decision to stop selling the T-shirts.

A spokeswoman said in a statement: "We have received some negative feedback regarding two of our printed T-shirts. While we would like to stress that these T-shirts were meant to be lighthearted and carried no serious meaning, we have made the decision to remove these (sic) from store and on-line as soon as possible. We would like to apologise to those who may have been offended by these designs."

But how on earth can T-shirts as offensive as these have been designed, manufactured and sold by one of Britain's biggest and most mainstream stores? Unfortunately, the store has refused to expand on the statement, to say when T-shirts first went on sale or how many have been sold.

Doireann Larkin, campaigns manager at Tender, is all too familiar with the sentiments expressed by both shirts. "The 'I'm so sorry' T-shirt," she says, "reflects exactly the kinds of excuses used by perpetrators of domestic violence and their friends – they say, 'maybe the girl nagged him', or 'maybe she'd been cheating'. And as for the 'breed' shirt – that's a classic case of objectifying women; of comparing women to dogs." And there was Topman thinking this could be fashionable.