Boston College denies knowledge of licensed lingerie deal

Boston, Mass., Nov 16, 2008 / 13:43 pm

A Boston College merchandising deal with the lingerie company Victoria’s Secret is being attacked by alumni as “disgraceful and appalling” as the Jesuit-run school insists it never authorized the undergarments which bear its name and logo.

Victoria’s Secret has been selling university-themed clothing from 33 schools since July. Stores are selling hot-pink Boston College tank tops for $19.50 and Eagles “short shorts,” the Boston Herald reports. The company’s Newbury Street store displays its items bearing the college’s name next to life-sized photographs of nearly naked women dressed in lingerie.

The Collegiate Licensing Co. is a partner in the program and passes some sales revenue on to the schools.

“It’s disgraceful and appalling,” C.J. Doyle, a Boston College graduate who runs the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, told the Boston Herald. “This is just one more example of the university’s callous contempt for Catholic sensibilities and its complete indifference to what remains of its Catholic identity.”

“There is no way that we want that (BC) logo to be interpreted as ‘We OK the sexualization of women,’ ” Sharlene Hesse-Biber the director of the Women’s Studies Center at Boston College said to the Boston Herald.

Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn told the Boston Herald the school was “very selective” when it agreed to let the lingerie company sell Boston College sweatshirts, sweatpants, T-shirts and flip-flops as part of the chain’s youth-oriented Pink Line.

“We thought it was a tasteful line of clothing that college students wear,” he said, denying that the college had any knowledge of the “short shorts” bearing the name and image of the college’s mascot, the Eagles.

“We never authorized undergarments,” he said, adding that the university does not disclose how much it makes from sales of licensed apparel.