I took a picture of these a while back on my cell phone. If I recall correctly, it also had it written on the bum.

The overview that Kmart gives the product reads something like, "Whether she's lounging around the house, or doing her chores, she'll be comfy..." seems odd. Who is she? I guess they are marketing directly to parents? If the pants are about making a bold statement, shouldn't that statement come from the wearer, not mom and dad?
Oh, and since abstinence is so important, I am assuming they make these sweats for boys, right?

Because nothing says "I plan not to have sex until marriage" like plastering text across your ass.

Silly silly silly, why would the boys wear these? They can't choose abstinence. They're slaves to the almighty Penis. When it's sex time, it's sex time. Don't you know the girls are solely in charge of guarding their diamonds until marriage?

This is completely wrong. K-Mart has no right endorsing this kind of overzealous belief that unfairly hands back the whore/virgin dichotomy to young girls.

Odd. Much opposition to this 'wait' stuff.

Is 'wait' not a viable option?

Is 'wait' simply not another ~choice?

Or, perhaps, it's really not about ~choice.

Naaah. ~That would imply hypocrisy.

for what it's worth, I emailed them and let them know I am a regular visitor at the Astor Place store and I will not continue if these pants aren't pulled. I can just as easily go to Target, even though KMart's much cheaper

help@customerservice.kmart.com

Odd. Much opposition to this 'wait' stuff.

Is 'wait' not a viable option?

Is 'wait' simply not another ~choice?

Or, perhaps, it's really not about ~choice.

Naaah. ~That would imply hypocrisy.

I find the statement "True Love Waits" to actually be incredibly patronizing and derogative towards couples that choose not to wait. "Waiting" is a perfectly legitimate choice, but honestly it annoys the hell out of me when people say that "true love waits" because it's just reinforcing the idea that abstinence -- or waiting -- is the BEST choice, and any other choice is inferior / stupid / ignorant.

locomotivebreath1901, I could not possibly care less if someone* chooses to wait until marriage. I have a problem with it being elevated above other choices and pushed on girls more than boys, but if someone individually wants to wait. More power and all that.

However, I would suggest that pants with words strategically designed to draw attention to the ass are perhaps not the best way to send that particular message.

*Exception would be my daughter. Her I would encourage not to wait because I think sexual compatibility is important to a relationship, and I would encourage her to find out if she and potential partner are compatible before they need lawyers to split.

"Silly silly silly, why would the boys wear these? They can't choose abstinence. They're slaves to the almighty Penis. When it's sex time, it's sex time. Don't you know the girls are solely in charge of guarding their diamonds until marriage?"

To be fair, I tend to think that wearing any clothes from Kmart drops my odds of having sex by a fair (unfair) degree.

K-Mart has no right endorsing this kind of overzealous belief that unfairly hands back the whore/virgin dichotomy to young girls.

With incredibly ugly pants at that.

Because nothing says "I plan not to have sex until marriage" like plastering text across your ass.

Posted by: Lucy Gillam

And on the crotch, too.

locomotivebreath1901 --except your choice isn't much of a choice at all, is the thing...

"Wait" is a viable option, and an important component of comprehensive sex education. It's the "true love" part that bothers me.

I'd have just as much problem with clothes saying "True Love F---s" as with "True Love Waits." So nope, no hypocrisy here! I'm just not so fond of loungewear making moral judgments for me.

locomotivebreath1901: It's obvious you don't get why we're so ... weirded out by these sweats, so I'll explain:

Of course it's about choice. But items like these imply that "waiting" is the RIGHT choice, and the BETTER choice, regardless of the person or circumstances involved. Also, if you notice, this stuff is ALWAYS directed toward girls and not boys.

Also, it's just an odd product and yet another way that sex sells. It's creepy.

If you want to wait, AWESOME! That's your personal decision. But why the need to flaunt it? Why does it matter? Why sould anyone *care*? That's the point. That and, again, to have it plastered all over your ass is creepy.

Are comments still being moderated? Because mine is not being posted, and I'm not sure if it's just disapearing into la la land like they sometimes do.

I can't wait 'til the new site is ready!!

Oh, man, I am conflicted. I don't want to support this in any way. Yet, being 38 and never-married, I am tempted to rock a pair just for the irony.

Deleted the pic from my phone, but here's a picture from Flickr of the proof it is indeed across the seet of the pantspic.

locomotivebreath1901- I understand what you're saying and I totally feel that abstinence as a choice for everyone (i.e. wait until you're ready, not creepy abstinence only education) gets thrown under the bus sometimes. But these pants are made for girls and only girls, since the focus of the abstinence movement as a whole overwhelmingly targets girls. Also, these are for juniors, so parents are buying these for girls, not the girls themselves. And when parents come in to play, generally abstinence becomes less of a choice and more the only option.

FWIW, LifeWay sells their own clothing, and the logo is different than appears on the K-Mart clothes. Also, Radiohead has a song called True Love waits, I'm sure a lot more adolescent girls are familiar with the song than with the ministry.

I'm not one to generally jump to the defense of the big K (and never of the abstinance crowd) - just sayin, don't jump to conclusions. And check out Radiohead.

Yea, Target all the way. Screw Kmart- I don't even know if we have any up here in MA, I haven't seen one.

Oh my gosh. That photo of the "True Love Waits" on the seat of those sweatpants is the PERFECT representation of America's twisted attitude towards sex. Is there anything more absurd than those pants?

It's a great symbol of what we do, which is sexualize young girls, while simultaneously telling them that their sexuality doesn't belong to them. When I see things like that, I just want to laugh and say, "Does no one else see this absurdity!??"

Do they come with attached chastity belt?

What bothers me is the lack of privacy involved with wearing these pants. Having autonomy over our bodies is based on the right to privacy. Whatever happened to saying, its none of your business?

Peepers: I'm with you on the irony train, but I wanna get a pair and save it for the next time I get knocked up and walk around with a HUGE belly hanging out and my wedding ring left at home. Good times.

I don't think anyone is wrongly jumping to conclusions: Kmart called it an abstinence print, and Piper&Blue is one of their labels.
So, yeah- eew.

What's LOVE got to do with it?

@locomotivebreath1901
I'm not opposed to waiting. Just this weekend I attended the wedding of a couple who waited for marriage and I could tell that choice gave them a lot of joy because it aligns with their beliefs. I am not making the same choice, but that's ok.

What I have a problem with is that these are only being marketed to girls, the complete double standard, and the fact that abstinence education has been a complete failure that has done nothing to curtail teen pregnancy or STD.

I hate messages on clothing and accessories, whether it be t-shirts, sweatpants, or those annoying keychains.

HOWEVER, I find this message less offensive than the majority of the things I see printed all over people's clothing ("juicy" accross a junior's butt, for instance, or "who needs credit cards?" accross a crotch is much more disgusting IMO).

However it's not for me to find those messages offensive or endearing. I try to ignore them all. But I don't have a problem with the message on these pants or the fact that parents might be buying them (if the girl doesn't want to wear them, she won't, as I'm sure we all can attest).

It's up to parents to instill values into their kids; you may not like this message, but someone else might not like the messages you're giving your kids. The waiting to have sex value is a good one for pre-teens and teens - of both sexes of course - to talk about. And if girls want to band together and broadcast a message of virginity at that age, then more power to them. I used to be one of those girls, and I was hardly brainwashed by my parents or my church.

Besides, it doesn't necessarily say "until marriage" on there - it could just as easily imply waiting until after middle school. I made it to senior year of high school and made the choice to amend my decision, but my initial one (which was initiated at home and at church) kept me from being taken advantage of or becomming promiscuous in middle school - a time when kids SHOULDN'T have the "option" of being promiscuous anyway.

"True love waits"...in ugly sweatpants. I suppose "True love" is waiting on the couch in front of the TV?

The irony of this is that the advertisement on my page while reading this article is for "Weddings Gone Wild."

Quite separate from whether or not these pants are creepy or fine...what in the world possessed KMart to think these were a good idea? I may be misguided as to how large the rabidly abstinence-only crowd is, but I'm pretty sure the crowd of offended, plus the crowd of scoffers, will dwarf the AO's.

Also, I'd have expected these to be at Wal-Mart, so I'm still a little confused by that.

"Besides, it doesn't necessarily say 'until marriage' on there - it could just as easily imply waiting until after middle school."

Very good point.

If billions of dollars of federal money and years of abstinence-only education have had little effect on the sexual activities of teens (except of course to make them less likely to use condoms), then a slogan on a pair of sweatpants is probably not going to start an abstinence revolution...

My co-worker Rose O'Malley has more on this.

Also noteworthy -- the ad copy on Kmart's site says that the pants "boldly proclaim just where she stands by pointing out that 'True Love Waits'."

Now, obviously, if billions of dollars of federal money and years of abstinence only education have had little effect on the sexual activities of teens (except of course to make them less likely to use condoms), then a slogan on a pair of sweatpants is probably not going to start an abstinence revolution...

My co-worker Rose O'Malley has more on this.

The page is just pure comedy. Bold abstinence, indeed.

I've got a little different take on this, though - I don't agree with the abstinence message, but, if I did, I might see these pants as a snappy reclamation of the Juicy-branded ass pants...much the way, say, Feministing reclaims the mudflap girl. "You want to look at my ass? Well, it's not gonna be yours."

that being said...I'm going to go out on a limb and say that butt messaging really just need to go away.

And K-mart has absolutely NO business carrying such an item, if they don't also have a True Love Fucks Hard next to it.

You may be waiting until you die for true love.

I was always told to tend my own garden and nourish my own soul and forget about the man doing anything for me. So far this has proven true in my life. Love yourself and take care of yo' self first!

Related and just as headdesky:

her first high heels. For infants.

I am unbelievably tempted to buy myself a pair of these, as well as a sharpie marker.

"True Love Waits For No One" might make a better statement.

Maybe "true love waits" just refers to waiting until the 3rd date to let one rip?

I plan to pretend really hard that those have something to do with Radiohead.

"I am unbelievably tempted to buy myself a pair of these, as well as a sharpie marker.

"'True Love Waits For No One' might make a better statement."

OTOH, some whiners out there think it's so unfair that girls don't consent to sex with them and that they're expected to wait until a girl does consent before they get to have sex with a girl...

Well, I'm planning to wait till marriage and I find these strange, indeed I find the whole abstinence movement strange.
Why is proclaiming your views on sex to the world a good thing? Every Christian knows what the Bible says about sex and are capable of deciding whether to follow it without a movement to tell them what to do.

However, I also dislike the secular "wait till you're ready." I'm an adult. If I don't want to have sex then being ready has nothing to do with it.

I think the actual desire to have sex is including in the "being ready" part.

Might I remind some of those denigrating virgins-by-choice that waiting is a valid option being chosen by other commenters? The insistence that waiting until marriage is absurd or a sign of unattractiveness is only marginally different from the opinions of mainstream youth culture. You're right to complain that young women are constantly bombarded with the message "you must be sexy but not control your sexuality"--but only a limited portion of that message promotes abstinence. Religious organizations, schools and parents advocate being a virgin; pop music, television and peers advocate being a whore. After a certain age or a certain length of time in a relationship, the default assumption is that a young woman is having sex anyways!

The problem with the True Love Waits program is the "True"--because it insults and alienates girls who did not wait. Choosing to wait is an acceptable choice. Don't fall into the trap of parroting the same insults that the TLW crowd uses against sexually active women. There is nothing wrong with being a virgin-by-choice; the problem arises from people imposing that "choice" upon adults.

I would like to see them produce some that say:

Condoms work!

don't you love how these pants promoting abstinence look just like the coloring/style best known from the PINK from Victorias Secret line? a lingere franchise?
hmmmmmmm...
this True Love Waits movement is of christian nature and I have this HUGE pet peeve about how these protestant christian companies use 'secular' copies of brand names to sell their ideas to brainwash their children.
way to be original, FOTF

Vodalus, some love can't wait. Some of us will never marry. Some of us are denied access to marriage by virtue of our sexual orientation. And yet, we are no less desirous of "love" or capable of "true love" than the folks for whom KMart produces the sanctimonious sweats.

The "true" is a problem with the message, but not the problem.

I saw the slogan wriggling along on a 20something woman's butt and used to seeing thing like "Juicy" I thought it meant true love was waiting inside her pants.

Odd. Much opposition to this 'wait' stuff.

Is 'wait' not a viable option?

Is 'wait' simply not another ~choice?

Or, perhaps, it's really not about ~choice.

Naaah. ~That would imply hypocrisy.

THE HYPOCRISY COMES FROM THE FACT THAT THESE CLOTHES ARE ONLY FOR WOMEN. WHY CAN'T I BUY PANTS THAT SAY 'SCREWING ONCE A DAY IS GOOD FOR ME'? HOW WAS THE DECISION FOR THIS CAPTION MADE?

At least it doesn't say something stupid like "Who needs credit cards?" or "Eye Candy." I actually had a TLW ring when I was a teenager. But back then all they really had was jewelry that could be worn by both genders. This is kind of annoying that it's now being geared towards young girls and not young guys as well. Even in the Christian world (maybe especially should be used) there is a double standard. As a Christian myself I've experienced this way too many times.

What I have a problem with is that these are only being marketed to girls, the complete double standard, and the fact that abstinence education has been a complete failure that has done nothing to curtail teen pregnancy or STD.

Flackette, repeating that tired canard over and over will not magically make it true.