A petition to remove two T-shirts from Gadzooks clothing stores has been started by a woman in Ames because of what she has called demeaning messages on the shirts.

While shopping with her daughter at North Grand Mall, Deb O’Brien, children’s program director for ACCESS, saw two T-shirts that read, “If at first you don’t succeed, get her drunk” and “The only thing better than one drunk girl in a bed is two drunk girls.”

She said the T-shirts sparked a discussion between her and her daughter because O’Brien wanted her daughter to be aware that alcohol is the No. 1 date rape drug. She said she believes the shirts at Gadzooks are normalizing rape.

“It surprised me to see the T-shirts there,” she said.

Steven Puterbaugh, vice president for Human Resources at the Gadzooks headquarters in Dallas, declined to comment on the story. Ty Lake, Gadzooks manager of marketing operations, could not be reached for comment.

“What they’re saying in these T-shirts is a crime in our state. We’re trying to get that across to them,” she said.

Penny Rice, director of the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center, said she has signed the petition circulated by ACCESS. She said she would like to see the two T-shirts removed from the store.

“I don’t think there’s a place for that kind of clothing anywhere,” she said.

Rice said the shirts are targeting a specific group of people in a derogatory way. She has two teenagers and has been in Gadzooks before and seen other clothing she didn’t like.

Not all the stores’ T-shirts are bad, Rice said. She said she has seen some in shirts in Gadzooks she found humorous, but believes it is possible to be entertaining without harming a After the visit to Gadzooks, O’Brien began the petition. She said she wanted to do it at a national level because Gadzooks is a national chain store. O’Brien is hoping to get Gadzooks to reconsider selling the shirts.

Rice said the petition represents and personalizes the number of people who are opposed to offensive clothing.

“It gives individuals who oppose [the T-shirts a chance] to give themselves a voice collectively,” she said.

O’Brien said she received 60 e-mails Tuesday from people wanting to add their names to the petition. She said there are women’s studies groups circulating petitions on campus as well.

“We’re getting responses from all over,” O’Brien said. She has gotten e-mails from as far away as Oklahoma City.

She is collecting signatures through the end of April. The petition will then be sent to Gadzooks corporate headquarters.

Gadzooks at North Grand Mall is currently phasing out their men’s clothing. A manager at the Ames store declined to comment.