Britt Baker issues response to the controversy surrounding her AEW black eye t-shirt

While speaking to SI.com, Britt Baker addressed the controversy over her AEW black eye t-shirt…

“I was very surprised. When I posted the picture of my black eye on social media, it got almost 100,000 likes saying that I’m tough and I’m a badass and, ‘Wow, this girl, she’s strong.’ It was empowering. But then when it went on a shirt, it was really problematic, and that was so confusing to me. Because why? 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 Chris Jericho, had a black eye, they would be seen as tough and they would be a badass. 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. Sometimes I do get hurt. I’ve broken my leg, my wrist, my nose, and guess what? Now I have a black eye and I signed up for that. I’ve actually been telling the makeup artist, ‘Don’t cover up my black eye.’ Because I think it’s empowering, because I’m tough. You should see the other girl.”