Target has announced that it will only sell their Pride Month collection in select stores after suffering a backlash and boycott last year during the 2023 Pride season.
Look, this might be a controversial take, but I don’t think Target ever gave a shit about Pride Month, but there were a lot of people who WERE about it so they hyped it and wanted to sell to those people.
It’s like the Superbowl. Does grocery stores give a shit about the Superbowl and who is playing? No, but they’ll stock up on themed shit and make displays and hype it up because it makes money to sell to the people who DO care about it.
Getting mad that Target carries Pride Month stuff is as ridiculous at getting mad that a grocery store is carrying Superbowl stuff when you don’t like football. Who gives a shit? Don’t buy it.
Getting mad that Target doesn’t carry Pride stuff in heavily conservative areas is like getting mad at a grocery store in the UK for not having a big Superbowl display. They don’t have enough people into that, so why would they promote it there?
Does Target have good (or at least not bad) policies regarding LGBTQ+ employees? Do they support LGBTQ+ groups? That’s what matters.
If Pride stuff doesn’t sell in hyper-conservative areas, it makes no sense to offer them there. That isn’t a reflection on LGBTQ+ pride or a position taken about it.
Yeah, except that even in the swamp gay people live (or kids haven’t moved away yet) and it feels nice for a change that their existence is simply appreciated instead of fought against, even if it is rainbow capitalism 101.
I agree with the part about big corporations not actually caring about it, and that both the decision to stock and the decision not to stock are made cynically by a company like Target.
What I don’t agree with is that getting mad about not having Pride stuff is equivalent to getting mad about not having Super Bowl stuff. Football fans are not an oppressed segment of society that has feared harassment and violence. There is not a constant threat of legislation aimed at harming their community. It’s also not important that football fandom is normalized by society at large.
So even if we were talking about the Super Bowl, if 5-10% of people in the UK actually were American football fans, and were under constant threat by UK society, then it would be completely understandable to get mad at Target for being cynical about even that! Indeed, I guarantee in those places where Target isn’t carrying pride stuff, there are LGBTQ+ people living there.
Look, this might be a controversial take, but I don’t think Target ever gave a shit about Pride Month, but there were a lot of people who WERE about it so they hyped it and wanted to sell to those people.
It’s like the Superbowl. Does grocery stores give a shit about the Superbowl and who is playing? No, but they’ll stock up on themed shit and make displays and hype it up because it makes money to sell to the people who DO care about it.
Getting mad that Target carries Pride Month stuff is as ridiculous at getting mad that a grocery store is carrying Superbowl stuff when you don’t like football. Who gives a shit? Don’t buy it.
Getting mad that Target doesn’t carry Pride stuff in heavily conservative areas is like getting mad at a grocery store in the UK for not having a big Superbowl display. They don’t have enough people into that, so why would they promote it there?
Does Target have good (or at least not bad) policies regarding LGBTQ+ employees? Do they support LGBTQ+ groups? That’s what matters.
If Pride stuff doesn’t sell in hyper-conservative areas, it makes no sense to offer them there. That isn’t a reflection on LGBTQ+ pride or a position taken about it.
Yeah, except that even in the swamp gay people live (or kids haven’t moved away yet) and it feels nice for a change that their existence is simply appreciated instead of fought against, even if it is rainbow capitalism 101.
Yeah, but the LGBTQ people in those areas probably wouldn’t buy that stuff either for fear of being outed and ostracized.
I agree with the part about big corporations not actually caring about it, and that both the decision to stock and the decision not to stock are made cynically by a company like Target.
What I don’t agree with is that getting mad about not having Pride stuff is equivalent to getting mad about not having Super Bowl stuff. Football fans are not an oppressed segment of society that has feared harassment and violence. There is not a constant threat of legislation aimed at harming their community. It’s also not important that football fandom is normalized by society at large.
So even if we were talking about the Super Bowl, if 5-10% of people in the UK actually were American football fans, and were under constant threat by UK society, then it would be completely understandable to get mad at Target for being cynical about even that! Indeed, I guarantee in those places where Target isn’t carrying pride stuff, there are LGBTQ+ people living there.