Kyndra Connor is part of a growing group of teenage girls across the country sporting one of the hottest new fashion trends.

The trend isn't the belly-baring hipster jeans, dangly chandelier earrings or even the feathered handbags that are all the current rage.

It's a line of T-shirts and accessories bearing slogans like "Boys are stupid; throw rocks at them," and "The stupid factory -- where boys are made."

The "throw rocks at them" shirts show a stick figure image of a bewildered boy with rocks sailing toward his head.

Connor, a freshman at Western Wyoming Community College, says she and many of her friends have purchased the T-shirts and other merchandise designed and manufactured by Clearwater, Fla.-based clothing company, David and Goliath.

Other items in the David and Goliath clothing line include slogans such as "Boys are full of it; fling poop at them" and "Boys lie; poke 'em in the eye."

"It's not meant to offend. It's meant to produce laughter; it's sarcastic. There's nothing serious about it," Connor said. "I think because when you're my age, dealing with boys in the worst way, having your heart broken every other week, saying all the time that boys suck and they're stupid, it's meant to be funny."

Not everyone is amused.

"These T-shirts have nothing to do with girl power," says Joe Kelly, president of Dads and Daughters in Duluth, Minn. "They are a cynical manipulation of faux 'girl power' designed primarily to generate corporate profit, the consequences be damned."

Demeaning Double Standard

Nicole Jarrett, a 23-year-old legal assistant in Decatur, Ga., said she was shocked when she discovered the clothing line on the shelves and catalog pages of Delia's, a clothing retailer geared to teen girls and young women.

"I remember being outraged the moment I saw them," said Jarrett, who has written a letter to Delia's corporate office to request the company pull the merchandise from its shelves.

"If this was on a guy's shirt, and the slogan was reversed, people would be all over it on the basis that it was demeaning and promoted violence against women," said Jarrett. "So why should it be tolerated when it promotes the same thing against men?"

That's a question many others are asking, too.

Glenn Sacks, a nationally syndicated men's and father's rights talk show host and columnist is using his radio show to wage a campaign against companies who carry the "Boys are stupid" merchandise.

At least two West Coast retailers, including Dapy's, a Universal Studios-owned clothing store, have responded by pulling the shirts and accessories from their stores in recent weeks.

The David and Goliath company, however, says it has no plans to halt production of the anti-boy clothing or accessories, which include posters, mugs, night-lights, mouse pads and house slippers. The "Boys are stupid" line is in fact the company's biggest seller.

Acceptance of Inappropriate Behaviors

Steven Zucker, assistant professor and school psychology program coordinator at the University of Colorado, Denver, isn't surprised about the success of the boy-bashing merchandise among teenage girls.

"It sounds like some of the normal teasing that may go on between girls and boys at that age," said Zucker, who worked as a school counselor for 18 years. "I think it's the girls saying, 'Geez, I wish one of those good looking boys would ask me out, but that's not happening so let's throw rocks at them.'"

Teasing or not, Zucker says with the prevalence of bullying and violence in schools, the anti-boy message is one that seems "quite unnecessary."

"There are many concerns about the social health of schools," said Zucker. "This wouldn't be something that promotes an inclusive or welcoming feeling in any school or classroom."

Some say fads like the "Boys are stupid" T-shirts point to larger problems in society.

"I see these types of fads as representing the pervasiveness of mean-spirited and rude behaviors children are demonstrating toward each other and adults beginning at younger and younger ages," said Marilyn Quisenberry, a school psychologist at Lindero Canyon Middle School in Agoura Hills, Calif.

"There has also been a trend toward increasing permissive parenting in which children are allowed to do and wear what they please."

Quisenberry does not see the trend as a "feminist" plot against pre-teen boys or even as intolerance of boys. Instead, it points to a general acceptance in society of inappropriate behaviors, she said.

Vivian Garlick, a school counselor at Tierra Linda Middle School in San Carlos, Calif., says she has yet to see any of her students wearing the "Boys are stupid" shirts. Still she knows what she'll do if she does.

"I think I would stop the person wearing that and talk to her about it," Garlick said. "We have a very low tolerance philosophy when it comes to offensive clothing, and we probably would not allow a girl to wear that here."

Too High a Price

Heather Johnston Nicholson, research director for Girls Inc., an organization devoted to the empowerment of young girls, says the T-shirts actually trivialize the real concerns of girls.

"We say at Girls Inc. that all girls are strong, smart and bold. Unfortunately that's a presumption that some communities still don't have," Nicholson said. "There are too many girls who are still being told they need to look stupid or act stupid to attract boys."

Nicholson also said she is disturbed that so many seem to find humor in the anti-boy shirts.

"I think it's funny when people take the 'Hooters' shirts and turn them around in ways that bring attention to stereotypes that demean women," she said. "But name calling isn't funny or acceptable no matter what group it's targeted at. These shirts are simply substituting one power message for another."

Garlick said she thinks such anti-boy messages come at too high a price.

"There's nothing wrong with girl power, but it shouldn't be achieved at the cost of boys," she said. "We shouldn't be putting down boys to lift up girls."

Migrant farmworkers in the Southeast are exposed to the worst living and working conditions of any region in the nation.

These workers are frequently housed in uninhabitable shacks lacking basic plumbing systems and exposed daily to harmful pesticides in the fields. They also are cheated out of the money they earn and held as prisoners under unlawful peonage arrangements.

It's a system of abuses existing right under the nose of the government and the law, yet those in seats of power continue to look the other way, says Greg Schell, managing attorney for the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project in Florida.

Schell's organization works to assist Florida's 300,000 farmworkers through legal reform, advocacy and class action suits.

"Farmworkers today resemble those discriminated against during the era of the Civil Rights Movement. They are not represented under existing laws," said Schell, who has worked on the issue of farmworker justice for the last 24 years.

"It shouldn't be open season on these workers."

Open season, however, is exactly what it appears to be in many cases throughout the Southeast. The region is home to about two thirds of all peonage cases prosecuted.

Schell described cases where workers are smuggled into the country for an exorbitant fee. A crew boss who hires them for jobs in the fields often provides a ride to the job site, a place to sleep and even a supply of drugs or alcohol. The workers then find themselves laboring 60 to 100 hours a week to repay this "debt," never seeing most of the money they earn.

Many are threatened with violence or harm to themselves or their families if they attempt to leave before working off their debt. Those who would brave the violence often remain because they aren't paid enough of their earnings to afford to leave.

Though organizations like Schell's exist to help seek justice for victims of such abuses, the practice continues largely unabated because there is little legal recourse for illegal workers. In fact, 70 percent of farmworkers are undocumented. And even those who are documented or who are citizens often suffer injustices in silence because they fear deportation or retaliation.

It's a cycle fueled in part by existing federal regulations that fail to provide the same labor protections for farmworkers as for other types of laborers -- protections including overtime pay, workman's compensation, workplace insurance and even the right to have access to bathroom facilities on workplace grounds.

To Schell, the inconsistencies are outrageous.

"The guy at McDonald's who puts the lettuce and the tomato on the burger gets overtime pay. But the guy who works in the fields to harvest it doesn't," Schell said. "Why? I'm still waiting on that explanation."

Part of that explanation lies in who wields the power in the agriculture industry; the other part, in how farmers and farmworkers are perceived. Schell says farmers -- those who own the fields and groves on which migrant farmworkers labor -- have power and protections while farmworkers do not.

"The government is never going to take the side of the people who have no power against the side of people who have substantial power," said Schell. "The farmers know they can't be sued. There is no one out there to sue them."

In addition, Schell said the American farmer has always been viewed as virtuous, wholesome and decent. In contrast, he says migrant farmworkers often are viewed as "happy wanderers without the same needs, goals and objectives as everyone else."

Schell also sees the lack of knowledge among the general public as partly to blame for rampant farmworker abuses. Many, he says, question why they should be concerned.

"I've seen juries stick out their chests and nod their heads when someone makes a statement like, 'What are these people complaining for? Aren't they better off here than where they came from?'" Instead of questioning the system that allows farmworkers to be abused, Schell says many question why the workers come here to begin with if conditions here are so unjust. It's a simple answer, he says.

"Only 10 percent of the land in Mexico is arable. These people want to support their families and they come here out of desperation. They want the old adage: an honest day's pay for an honest day's work."

Educating the public about what goes on in the industry stands to play a huge role in changing the culture of farmworker abuse. "We have to get people to recognize that once these protections erode for one group of people, what's to stop it from happening to another group?" Schell said.

In some areas like California, where large numbers of Latinos are registered voters, increased public education has led to the passing of state laws against farmworker abuse. As the Latino voter base grows in other areas and as people learn more about these issues, Schell says more states will follow California's lead and start to pass their own laws. But he acknowledges passing state laws is only one part of the picture.

Schell says if organizations like his are to ever make a real dent in the abusive practices within the farmworker industry, they will have to go after those who are reaping the financial benefits. He used the orange juice industry as an example.

An orange juice company doesn't own its orange trees, Schell said. Instead, it buys its fruit from farmers and grove owners via contracts to ensure the fruit it needs gets picked. The farmer hires a crew boss to find and oversee workers. It sounds like a simple enough operation. But Schell says these companies take great pains to make sure the right oranges are picked at the right times on the right days and delivered to the right plants, placing their people all over the groves to make certain this takes place.

"It's like fine choreography," said Schell, suggesting these companies are intimately involved in the day-to-day operations on these groves. "At the end of the day, we want to hold [them] responsible when these workers who are picking and providing them with this fruit don't get paid what they should."

Going after those who are making the most money, Schell says, will speak loudest. "We've seen that if you depend on human kindness and decency to change this, you are not going to get very far. We want to make it as costly as possible to send a strong message." said Schell. "When you win, it's not about the money. It's about empowering the workers to take control of their lives."