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Original poster

Mermaids - sinister photo

117 replies

IrishMumInLondon2020 · 02/07/2021 06:29

What are they trying to do here with the photo of ‘Jennie’ and her friend on the bed? Makes me extremely uncomfortable.
mermaidsuk.org.uk/news/mermaids-tales/

OP posts:
Rhannion · 02/07/2021 10:05

There is a classic 1960s black and white photo of wee boys in Glasgow trying on their mums shoes , and playing in the street, it’s sweet and innocent and something most children have done. Now is wee boys in drag standing next to full grown men in make up, nothing sweet or innocent about that, in any way.

AsTreesWalking · 02/07/2021 09:43

Yuck. Nothing to add, really.
But I do wonder how someone can 'use the right pronouns ' when serving a person coffee. Unless it was a "does he take sugar?" incident, which is a whole other problem...

JustcameoutGC · 02/07/2021 09:28

Beware the G word. I used it to describe naked males hanging around in female spaces to desensitise women and girls to the presence of their genitalia. Got a deletion and a scold.

Naked males in female only spaces acclimatising women to their presence (i. e. Training them not to sense danger)
Grown men, dressed as dead child doll draped over 11 year old child on a bed

In the open. Plain sight. Parents and charities colluding. Celebrating. Wtaf.

WarriorN · 02/07/2021 09:21

I'm making out "dying" and "nine lives"

Something "kitty."

On those books

AnyOldPrion · 02/07/2021 09:21

The picture is awful, but the extreme stereotypes also struck me as I scrolled through. Female children trying so desperately hard to be boys, male adults and children dressing up in extremes of femininity that leave me cold. All I see is unhappy people living lives that look fake.

RubyGoat · 02/07/2021 09:14

Those two on the bed look like manga dolls. This is part of what bothers me about drag, & some (but obviously not all) TW. The makeup seems so cartoonish, they don’t seem to be attempting to actually look like RL women. But so many do demand the verbal affirmation that they pass & are indistinguishable from born females.

And yes, I’m never spending money in Starbucks again unless they stop supporting this rubbish. Medicalising troubled children is not ok.

GoodbyePorpoiseSpit · 02/07/2021 09:10

Jesus that’s disturbing

PiffleWiffleWoozle · 02/07/2021 09:07

Does anyone recognise the books on the shelves? They don’t look like kids’ books.

BraveBananaBadge · 02/07/2021 09:01

@PurpleHoodie

The first picture and words trouble very deeply in a different way. It's insidious - the use of Social Media.
That's what I thought. Picking the 'boy' name by social media poll because they couldn't decide spoke volumes. A need for outside approval and validation. A sense of uncertainty being drowned out for the likes.

And I agree with toffee this is about a lasting digital footprint as much as the trans issue. How can children consent to being case studies like this? Can only assume with regards to GDPR and all that that Mermaids would have to take this down if requested. But we're here discussing it now and this blog post isn't new.

Tibtom · 02/07/2021 08:58

Even the name on the coffee cup is pretty flimsy as a way of trying out a name. I remember reading about an autistic boy who bought his first starbucks and was asked for a name to write on the cup - and thought it was pretty cool how you got to give your drink a name. So when he goes there he names all his drinks after pokamon characters....

ChiefInspectorParker · 02/07/2021 08:53

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NotMeekNotObedient · 02/07/2021 08:52

That picture is horrid.

InvisibleDragon · 02/07/2021 08:52

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Tibtom · 02/07/2021 08:45

Reminds me of those photos a while back of a child in drag with naked drag artists. Think the child was that 'is amazing' one.

PurpleHoodie · 02/07/2021 08:43

The first picture and words trouble very deeply in a different way. It's insidious - the use of Social Media.

AlfonsoTheMango · 02/07/2021 08:42

Disturbing.

toffeebutterpopcorn · 02/07/2021 08:39

I haven’t had one of their crappy coffees since they stayed this nonsense. Someone had stickered one near my office and that did make me smile.

PurpleHoodie · 02/07/2021 08:38

FUCKING HELL!!

What were Starbucks playing at?

toffeebutterpopcorn · 02/07/2021 08:34

When ds was small (and very cute) he modelled for a kids activity book (so sweeeet).

I can’t imagine his reaction if I was to whip out the book in front of his pals. And he is just making a flipping pancake!

Can you imagine if I’d dressed him up as tinkerbelle and sat him next to a drag Queen?

Helleofabore · 02/07/2021 08:32

11!

The people organizing the meet and greet knew kids would be there. That cutesy bedroom as a prop is deliberate.

And Mermaids don’t see it!!!!

BraveBananaBadge · 02/07/2021 08:31

@toffeebutterpopcorn

When they grow up - what then? The parents need a kick up the bum for exposing them.
Exactly.
irresistibleoverwhelm · 02/07/2021 08:30

@adviceseekingnamechanger

Amazing how all these trans children coincidentally feel really validated by... Starbucks. What gross,manipulative advertising. And a totally inappropriate photo to boot.
Yeah, just look at how often all these narratives revolve around shopping and buying. Kid wants the “girl” clothes on a shopping trip, kid feels “validated” by a corporate brand. The quite literal buy-in of all of the whole ideology to corporate consumerism and capitalism goes completely unquestioned.

Whatever happened to the ideology we used to have, the one where you teach your child to feel “valid” (god I hate that usage, you validate tickets not people) in him or herself as a human person with intrinsic value and selfhood, not because they are getting a shallow self-construction of “identity” reflected back at them by other people/consumer society?

BraveBananaBadge · 02/07/2021 08:29

Thought so @Justwalkyourfineassoutthedoor, couldn't remember the name.

toffeebutterpopcorn · 02/07/2021 08:25

Social media. ‘Culture’ created on tik tok by teens in mums garage.

Zeev · 02/07/2021 08:24

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