blahaj, a stuffed animal sold by a company that is the number one consumer of wood in the world. it becomes extremely popular because of memes, more people buy it. i dont get it comrades, it seems like pandering to me. ikea isnt like boeing in terms of awfulness but its existence is resulting in increased deforestation around the world. the ikea stores act as cultural embassies for sweden, they provide a sanitized commodified disneylandesque experience of sweden which really helps their public image on the world stage when they are allowing hate crimes against muslims to occur in their country, but hey, buy the toy shark, trans rights, consume treats, all being trans is is buying useless shit with the pride flag on it from corporations that wouldnt have hired you ten years ago but now want your money. in conclusion blahaj is a class traitor, embrace neopets, i sure hope theres no weird shit going on there like a christofascist owns it and is donating money to trump, and no i didnt look up anything about neopets, im just assuming theirs something bad there too. i wonder how right i am about that?
Idk but the one I’m hugging rn is so cute and cuddly and comfy
World hard and cold
fluffy shark soft and warm
I bought mine for the meme and quickly found out the toothy friend is just amazing for emotional support. You get a decent-sized plushie for a good prize and the overall shape is very huggable,
just works very nicely as a comforter. Mine got me through a lot of rough patches in that critical timeframe before i could start HRT, the one where every day is a war against your own body and the wait list simply crushes you.Also sharks are misunderstood, stigmatized beings. They are often portrayed as predatory monsters, but actually play a vital role as a keystone species in marine ecosystems, exactly like trans folks.
Counterpoint: I’m hugging one right now and it’s great.
I’m cis though.
For now.
Lol. Apparently being on hexbear means I’m statistically trans, so we’ll see.
Homie, you got “any” listed as your pronouns… That shark full of hormones and gay agenda.
Yo can you elaborate? I have “any” listed because I don’t have a pronoun preference or really think of myself in terms of gender. Is that the sort of thing where I might need to get a shark? I’ve been confused on that one for a while.
I’ve seen that flag dozens of times but I never actually knew what it stood for. Agender, huh? I do like the sound of that.
buy your blahaj from AliExpress. not only does it come with more stuffing and a zipper, but you’re helping china export shark-shaped socialism
Potential struggle-session topic: If you’re going to complain about misrepresentations of Sweden, please use the å: Blåhaj (and not say “blah hadge”; “blaw high” would be much better). :cat-trans:
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its existence is resulting in increased deforestation around the world
as much as I hate to defend a massive corporation, I don’t think this is actually true. IKEA claims to use 99.9% FSC-certified wood, so it’s coming from forests where the trees are planted at the same rate that they’re harvested. it makes sense for companies to do this even from a profit-driven perspective, since it would be quite bad for their business if there weren’t enough trees
the main cause of deforestation is agriculture, especially animal agriculture. 80% of de-forested land in the amazon rainforest is being used to rear cattle
80% of de-forested land in the amazon rainforest is being used to rear cattle
can you cite that?
you should look up what they’re doing in romania
Blahaj is innocent! The trans community just adopted him because he has a pink mouth, white underbelly and blue surface. These resemble the colours of the trans flag. To the best of my knowledge, Ikea is not behind this. They might be capitalising on it now, but it’s not really much different than when Subaru noticed that a not-insignificant number of their customers were lesbians and started marketing specifically to them.
There’s quite a bit of misinformation and assumptions on the trans-shark connection. The real deal of Blåhaj is actually rooted in the tragic rejection many of us face. I would argue actually that it is a currently developing piece of our culture and heritage. Blåhaj became popular with the trans community because it’s a cheap stuffed animal from a cheap furniture store. Since so many of us get rejected and have to start our lives over sans financial supports, housing, or furniture, many folx have found themselves getting some basic furnishings at IKEA. So as they get the stuff they need, they pass by a bin of cute plushie sharks that are cheap. Small comforts like this can make a big difference in such a difficult time. It’s a symbol of starting new, healing, and growing.
I don’t know whether that’s your personal narrative or a more widespread piece of the blåhaj canon, but I really like the interpretation either way. I was going to make some cynical comment about consumption as identity, but that sort of misses the mark by erasing the personal stories that people have attached to the blåhaj as a symbol. I appreciate you sharing.
Someone on
shared it with me several years back and that was their personal experience as well as that of a few trans friends if my memory serves correctly.
But even if it’s not the average experience, we can collectively decide that that is the story and symbolism that we share. Sort of a modern oral history so we can have some semblance of community and belonging, and a piece of humanity in our collective stories. Lord knows corporate media isn’t going to speak our truths.
I choose to believe that it is because trans people, like sharks, grow rows of teeth
the hormones give us shark teeth yes this is well known
Must be nice to have undending tooth-faory money
Can you explain how Ikea is helping with camouflaging any hatecrimes? More-so I haven’t heard any news about hatecrimes against muslims in Sweden, they have people burning their religious book. But that is far from a hatecrime. Perhaps I missed something.
