Just when you though the backlash against Bud Light would have been a wakeup call for American corporations to stay out of the social justice business, Adidas is illustrating how its own woke mindset is impacting how it’s viewed by Americans, and women in particular.
Strangely, Bud Light and Adidas seem to think that ostentatiously using biological men to portray women in advertising somehow reflects support for the transgender community. But it doesn’t. Instead, it signifies a complete disconnect from the average consumer while fetishizing and politicizing transgenders in an effort for political and social justice credits.
The latest example of this canceling of women comes from Adidas, which recently unveiled its “Pride Swimsuit 2023”— a $70 women’s bathing suit modeled by a flat-chested biological male with a prominent telltale bulge in his crotch. The male model is photographed in a way to highlight the crotch and sweeps across the chest so you’re sure to see it may be flat, but at least it’s hairy! This swimsuit is the first choice under “All Women’s Clothing” and Women’s Sportswear.
And never fear, to hide that unladylike bulge, Target is now helpfully marketing women’s swimsuits with “tuck friendly construction” and “extra crotch coverage.” The perfect Father’s Day gift!
“No real woman would be caught dead in that swimsuit, it’s hideous,” comedian Chrissie Mayr told Fox News Digital of the Target creation. “The only thing I’ll be tucking is my money back into my wallet and shopping elsewhere.”
Riley Gaines, former NCAA swim star and women’s rights activist, Tweeted her concern: “I don’t understand why companies are voluntarily doing this to themselves. They could have at least said the suit is ‘unisex’, but they didn’t because it’s about erasing women. Ever wondered why we hardly see this go the other way?”
No civil rights movement in this country, whether it be for blacks, women, or gays and lesbians, was predicated on the notion that some other group had to be subsumed or cancelled for success to be achieved. Being who we are as women, or as people of color, isn’t just about our appearance, it’s about life experiences, from childhood on.
My friend James Golden, (aka Bo Snerdley) was Rush Limbaugh’s radio producer for years. He now informs and entertains audiences weekdays at WABC Radio here in New York. He also happens to be a Black man. I mention this as I was on his show speaking about the issue of the left disappearing women under the guise of transgender activism. He asked me what the reaction would be if during Black History Month an American corporation hired a white person (who identified as Black) to promote a product or an issue. We both agreed it would cause outrage.
Bo’s scenario brought to mind immediately the infamous Rachel Dolezal who masqueraded as a Black woman and even became the head of an NAACP chapter despite the fact that she is white. Dolezal eventually acknowledged that she was white but self-identifies as Black, resigned from the NAACP, and faced accusations ranging from cultural appropriation to fraud.
When it comes to portraying women, seeing men sashaying in dresses and struggling to walk in high heels has long been a source of humor on stage and screen, there is nothing funny about males with all their original equipment who claim to identify as transgender women threatening the safety and privacy of biological women and girls. We all know about biological males being allowed to compete on women’s sports teams, destroying the concept of fair play. But there’s more.
For example, a 15-year-old boy wearing a skirt who was described as “gender fluid” was found guilty in juvenile court in 2022 of sexually assaulting a girl in a girl’s restroom (which he was allowed to use because of his professed gender identity) at a school in Loudon County, Virginia. The boy was initially transferred to another school after the assault, where he was later found guilty of inappropriately touching another girl.
Also, at a spa in Los Angeles, a man self-identifying as a transgender woman was allowed into the women’s locker room and spa and promptly exposed himself. Customers vociferously complained, and the suspect complained everyone was being transphobic. The suspect, Darren Agee Merager, was finally arrested after going on the run and was revealed to be a “registered sex offender in California for two prior convictions of indecent exposure, identifies as a woman, but law enforcement sources said that’s a ruse to get into women’s-only areas…” reported the New York Post.
Most recently, seven members of a University of Wyoming sorority house decided to sue their school and sorority after a biological male who identifies as a transgender female student, was allowed to join. “In their lawsuit, the seven sorority members said they ‘live in constant fear in our home’ with the student… in their presence at their sorority house. The women say [the student], who reportedly stands 6’2″ and weighs 260 pounds, sits in the house starring at them and often becomes sexually aroused in front of them,” reported Breitbart News. And that’s only a small part of their complaint.
A Pew Research Center survey conducted last year found that only about six-tenths of 1% of U.S. adults consider themselves transgender. The transgender people I know have gone through a great deal to address their gender dysphoria and the subsequent dramatic surgical changes they undergo to feel completely themselves. What woke progressives and their political lapdogs are doing to the reputation of genuine transgender people is horrible. But it serves a higher purpose for the left—more division, chaos, suspicion, and fear.
But something is very wrong with our society when the tail wags the dog and the rights of any man who says he identifies as a woman are considered more important than the rights of tens of millions of biological females to privacy, safety and opportunities to compete against other females in sports.
Being a woman is more than putting on a dress, a women’s swimsuit, or lipstick and eyeshadow. Women and men are equal and should have equal rights, but we’re not identical. Let’s respect our differences and not insult women by telling us that men are better at being female than we are, and that we have no right to be free of their prying eyes and possible assaults in female spaces.