Britt Baker ‘very surprised’ by backlash to black eye AEW T-shirt

Britt Baker is very surprised by the backlash her latest t-shirt has generated. 

A t-shirt featuring a picture of the former AEW Women’s Champion with a black eye was produced shortly after an attack by the Outcasts left her with facial bruising. 

Although similar t-shirts featuring Baker with a bloody face have been marketed as well, some critics online have argued the shirt makes her look like a victim of domestic abuse. 

Sports Illustrated recently asked Baker if she is surprised by the criticism the shirt has received. Baker responded: 

I was very surprised. When it started, when I actually posted the picture of my black eye just on social media, it got almost 100,000 likes, that I’m tough, that I’m a badass, and wow this girl, she’s strong and it was empowering. But then when it went on a shirt, it was really problematic and that was so confusing to me, because why?

Baker continued to say that the reaction to the shirt would have been different if she was a man.  

If I’m on a shirt with a black eye, why does that make me weak? Why does that make me a victim? But if a man, or like Chris Jericho, had a black eye, they’d be tough and they’d be a badass. And to me, it’s showing the internal narrative that people are saying about women, and that’s that we’re not as strong or as tough as the men and that’s the real problem here, it’s not a black eye on a t-shirt. 

Our own Bryan Alvarez stated on Wrestling Observer Radio that it was the top-selling shirt of the weekend. 

Baker went back and forth on social media recently with a few people who posted critical remarks regarding the shirt as well. 

She also spoke about reactions to wrestling t-shirts from people unaware of the context. 

Similar issues regarding wrestling merchandise being taken out of context have occurred in the past as well. Examples include Walmart shoppers being concerned about “New World Order” t-shirts or when action figures featuring Al Snow and Head were pulled from store shelves in 1999 after parents felt they were promoting domestic violence.