Balenciaga is Just the Tip of the Iceberg
I haven’t said much about the #Balenciaga fiasco because it’s already been so well covered and because, for once, enough people are taking it seriously enough to demand change.
For those of you who missed it, Balenciaga is a luxury fashion house that recently found itself in hot water for publishing grotesquely inappropriate ads featuring young children posed among bondage gear whilst holding BDSM teddy bears. Just what every 5-year-old needs: it’s kink for Christmas!
In a somewhat surprising turn of events, celebrities like NFL superstar Cooper Kupp publicly condemned the campaign and demanded accountability, stating, “For those of us in positions to create change in the way that companies manipulate people and advertise evil, please stand up!”
Balenciaga responded with a formal apology, and someone inevitably got fired over the ordeal, though the rot with this company goes a heck of a lot deeper than an isolated designer. The CEO of Balenciaga’s parent company owns a site that sells child sex mannequins with erect penises on their faces. And no one blinks an eye. The parent company, Kerig, also owns Gucci, Alexander McQueen, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, and more. What do you suppose happens when the very people who determine what’s fashionable for the entire universe are funded by people who think it’s cool to sell child sex mannequins? It’s not rocket science, and it’s not conspiracy theory; it’s reality: powerful people are working to intentionally sexualize children.
While I’m extremely grateful and encouraged to see powerful people requiring accountability in this isolated case, and while I’m cautiously optimistic that maybe this signals the beginning of a much needed overhaul, the truth of the matter is that the Balenciaga scandal is only the tip of the iceberg.
If we are truly serious about refusing the prematurely sexualize kids, we’ve got a LOT of work to do. We could start with mainstream sex-ed curriculum in public schools across the nation. I’ve personally spent hours leafing through some of the content of both the FLASH and 3Rs curricula, which include lesson plans and resources that do the following:
how 12 year olds can masturbate each other or bathe together for STD-free pleasure
how to engage in bondage, fisting, and blood/body fluid play
how men can have babies
why parents and religious groups are to be distrusted
why it’s mean for girls to exclude boys from their sports teams
how to get an abortion without telling your parents
how to get cross-sex hormones without parental consent
how to get an HPV vaccination without parental involvement
And let’s talk about drag queen story time and basically drag queen everything targeting kids. I wrote earlier this week about how drag is male supremacy, but even if that weren’t the case, and even if you disagree with me about that, it’s still inherently sexual. Sex is for adults. Drag is not for kids. One must ask oneself what, in God’s green earth, a grown man in fishnets can possibly contribute to the healthy development of children. Let’s call it like it is: Drag queen story time and “family friendly” drag events aren’t about nurturing children; they’re about validating grown mens’ sexual fetishes. Here are just a few photos from recent drag events involving children. A picture is worth a million words, no?
So my next question is this: If the Hollywood celebrities are willing to condemn kids with BDSM bears, are they willing to similarly use their influence to say maybe stripteases for kids are out of bounds, too? This shouldn’t be hard, guys.
And speaking of drag, a Facebook friend sent me a photo from the toy department of her local Fred Meyer last week; for the bargain price of $14.99, your toddler can have her very own set of Fisher Price Little People Collector drag queens. I kid you not. The toy is listed as appropriate for kids aged 1-101. And this is mild compared to some of the other crap out there. Anyone else remember the Troll doll with the button in its crotch that made it giggle, gasp, and moan when pushed? Or how about those horrid LOL dolls that magically reveal nipples and lingerie when dipped in ice cold water? Anyone remember those?
Or how about TV programming? A recent report indicated that as much as 81% of family tv comedy shows kids being exposed to sexual dialogue. We’re just so desensitized to it that we don’t even notice anymore. A few years ago, while nursing a migraine, I turned on a Netflix kids’ show called “Home: Adventures With Tip & Oh” on to occupy my kids so I could hide under a pillow. They couldn’t have been more than 10 minutes into the episode when I heard the main character proudly declare, “The Boov are having seven magnificent genders. There is boy, girl, boygirl, girlboy, boyboy, boyboygirl, and boyboyboyboy.”
I wanted to throw something at the TV. This program was in the “safe zone,” the section that was supposedly safe for kids. There is no reason under the face of the sun that my then 5-year-old would need to be exposed to the concept up multiple genders except to invite her to be confused about her own so they can sell her down the river to big pharma as their newest cash cow and lifelong dependent. How about no? Hard pass. Will we see A-listers speaking up about this anytime soon?
And maybe someday soon I’ll tell you what I found prominently on display in the teen section of my local library. But this blog is already long enough, and by now the point should be pretty clear: the rot is deep. Sex sells, and if they can hook kids young, they will. It’s demonic to the core, and I’m happy to see people of influence taking action to defend children. I hope what happened with Balenciaga is a tipping point. I pray it will be. In the meantime, we need to continue to sound the alarm and adopt Cooper Kupp’s marching orders as our own:
“For those of us in positions to create change in the way that companies manipulate people and advertise evil, please stand up!”