Many t-shirts featuring Sylvia Plath are available online. Two websites with a myriad of t-shirts are Zazzle and CafePress, each hosting shirts in many different styles and colors. In addition, some of the shirts display positive tributes to Plath, while others are more negative.
From Zazzle (click to enlarge): The first is an excerpt from Plath's 1953 journal; the second commemorates Plath's lifespan; and the third simply professes love for Plath.
From CafePress (click to enlarge): The first is a painting of Plath; the second is another profession of love; and the third is an excerpt from her poem "Lady Lazarus" which reads: "Out of the ash / I rise with my red hair / And I eat men like air."
Among the more negative t-shirts are the following (click to enlarge): The first is an with furrowed brows beckoning, "Helloooo Sylvia..." and the second is a shirt querying "Did anyone ever think that maybe Sylvia Plath wasn't crazy, she was just cold?"
Of note is that on both websites, t-shirts with positive connotations far outnumber t-shirts that are more mocking or unpleasant.
An interesting representation of Sylvia Plath can be found among a collection of famous author caricatures which are for sale at the graphic design company Literary Luminaries, Inc. Their website describes the project as follows:
Luminary Graphics, Inc., is a graphic arts product company that features the caricature art of Mike Caplanis of the world's most famous authors, applied to a variety of products. These products include note cards (in singles and boxed sets), bookmarks, coffee mugs, umbrellas and book bags.
Caplanis creates caricatures of English and American authors spanning the centuries, from Charles Dickens to Louisa May Alcott to, yes, Sylvia Plath. His representation of her can be purchased in the form of a note card (either Plath separately or a Plath card in addition to cards featuring a collection of other writers), a bookmark, an umbrella, a book bag, or a mug. The site also offers posters, journals, magnets, and playing cards which are not available in Plath's image.
In creating Plath's caricature, Caplanis has not only captured her beautiful, flourishing side: although Plath appears calm, her eyes seem a bit more fiery, as though she could explode at any moment into some sort of artistic or personal frenzy. This gives representation to her personality as well as her writing.
It is interesting that Caplanis has been able to use classic authors and market them in such a way as to make the products they are featured upon seem unique and almost trendy. He groups authors either singly (such as on an individual bookmark) or in a group (as in this umbrella, which features, clockwise from the top: Zora Neale Hurston, Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Louisa May Alcott, and Virginia Woolf). To be frank, Caplanis has made famous writers fashionable. While Plath may not need as much of a boost as some other authors, since she commonly garners a great deal of attention anyway, the Literary Luminaries project seems relevant to literature today.
There is a somewhat disturbing trend popular in present-day in Sylvia Plath merchandising: in an attempt to humorously spoof Plath's death, products such as Sylvia Plath ouija boards and even oven mitts are available to the diligent Googler. Meant to appear clever or cute, these products' actual effect is less than amusing.
Although it could be argued that this ouija board was inspired by Plath's haunting poem "Ouija" or the fact that she and husband Ted Hughes experimented with a ouija board during their marriage, the board is both offensive and tacky. Plath is portrayed in glaring neon colors, but the final straw is that the ouija board's planchette is, of course, shaped like an oven, making it a classic representation of her suicide.
The same can be said of these droll Sylvia Plath oven mitts, originally available from LitDead on Etsy. The sale listing stated that the mitts were meant to "memorialize" Plath-- and what better way to do so than by mocking her suicide?
Of course, this merchandise could be considered entertaining to a certain degree. However, in the field of Plath merchandise as a whole, the ouija board and oven mitts are representative of the dominant tendency to forget Plath's literary achievements and instead cement her as a figure to be remembered by her death. Plath is reduced from a great writer to a woman whose sole importance seems to be that she committed suicide. The suicide is lauded with a sense of glamour, and becomes part of the tragic romanticism that surrounds Plath in the present day.
This should further cement the glaring reality that Plath's presence today is largely composed of portrayals of her death. Though Plath is often treated with much more respect, this more playful vein of merchandise-- which includes the Plath paper dolls-- is nevertheless popular and very widespread.
Although Sylvia Plath has been dead for nearly fifty years, she is constantly referenced in popular culture. From music and television to independent sellers on Etsy and personal tattoos, Plath is very much a presence in today's society. Interestingly, however, her reputation outside of literary circles seems to be based more upon her suicide than upon her actual writing. A large part of Plath's legacy seems to be based on the fact that she died young, in the midst of her writing prime. This added mystique has often wormed its way into Plath's representation in today's media.
Take, for instance, this Sylvia Plath paper doll (closeup at right) featured by the Etsy seller Lisa Perrin at her shop, LeLapinTriste. At first glance, the image of Plath with a pen in her hand seems fitting. However, upon viewing the entire paper doll set, a much more alarming overall concept reveals itself:
Amid a few changes of clothing and a minuscule typewriter is the most prominent accessory of all: an open oven, symbolic of Plath's 1963 suicide. Rather than choosing to represent Plath by using a relic from her life, Perrin has chosen to represent her by using the instrument of her death. This is a perfect example of the fact that modern portrayals of Plath often pay more attention to the suicide than to her work as a writer.
Although unfortunate, this is interesting from a cultural standpoint in that Plath's personal life directly interferes with common perceptions about her writing. Not all modern references to Plath include such glaring allusions to her death, but this phenomenon is definitely very prominent and will be visible in many upcoming posts.
