{"id":2997,"date":"2015-06-22T19:02:28","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T18:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bisexualblogs.wordpress.com\/?p=186"},"modified":"2015-06-22T19:02:28","modified_gmt":"2015-06-22T18:02:28","slug":"lush-has-got-it-wrong-with-their-gay-is-ok-soap-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/2015\/06\/lush-has-got-it-wrong-with-their-gay-is-ok-soap-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Lush has got it wrong with their \u201cgay is ok\u201d soap"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0link to a Gay Star News article<\/a> popped up on my Twitter feed this morning with the announcement\u00a0that Lush has launched a brand of soap with the words\u00a0“gay is ok” on. The money raised from the sale of this product will go to global LGBT charities via AllOut, and\u00a0the article also mentions the soap cannot be sold in countries such as Russia or Qatar. I felt really\u00a0frustrated and angry with Lush, and the way that Gay Star News (and probably many others)\u00a0are reporting this new product for several reasons.<\/p>\n

The first is, unsurprisingly, its focus on the word gay. Why just gay!? Why can’t Lush make a “bi is ok”\u00a0bath bomb\u00a0or a “trans is ok” shampoo? Why not just a bar of soap with “LGBTQ+” on? Or how about they donate\u00a0the profits\u00a0of an existing product? (This would be less harmful than just selling a soap labelled “gay is ok”.) That way maybe money could still be raised from sales in countries with anti-LGBT laws such as Russia? What Lush has done\u00a0is damaging\u00a0and erasing. It makes me want to throw all my toiletries at them and yell “Bisexuality is ok too!” or even “Bisexuals exist!”. The use of a “gay is ok”\u00a0product and social media campaign whilst making statements about how important LGBT issues are to Lush really bothers\u00a0me as well.\u00a0Gay does not hold the same meaning as LGBTQ+. People need to stop using them as if they are interchangeable.<\/p>\n

Secondly their bi erasure on their website is painful:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you can’t see the image, the text on one picture link reads “Homophobia and transphobia: get your facts straight”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

They also use language such as “The fight against homophobic prejudice…” and “International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia”. (IDAHOT was officially changed to IDAHoBiT this year to include biphobia.) Gah.<\/p>\n

Thirdly\u00a0I feel angry and frustrated that Gay Star News (and others)\u00a0are also using bi erasing language in their articles and headlines.\u00a0For example here’s the headline to the article I linked to earlier:<\/p>\n

\n

Lush launch #GayisOK soap bar to help scrub away homophobia<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

*Waves “I exist” sign.*<\/p>\n

Finally the\u00a0article also mentions that:<\/p>\n

\n

Lush will also be encouraging customers to post selfies of themselves holding the #GayisOk soap, to spread the message over social media to all corners of the globe.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Friends, can we try and hijack this Twitter hashtag\u00a0with messages like “Bi is ok too!”, “Trans is ok too!”, or messages\u00a0to Lush asking them to make their website more bi friendly and bi inclusive.<\/p>\n

Thanks for your help!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A link to a Gay Star News article popped up on my Twitter feed this morning with the announcement that Lush has launched a brand of soap with the words “gay is ok” on. The money raised from the sale of this product will go to global LGBT charities via AllOut, and the article also mentions the soap cannot … Continue reading Lush has got it wrong with their “gay is ok” soap<\/span> →<\/span><\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":1211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}