John Lewis and it’s ‘gender relaxed’ ad

So many TRAs on Twitter claiming that what is depicted in the advert is just normal childhood behaviour.

Explains a lot I guess....

The best bit is that Scarpa thinks this is all normal behaviour from a child...... urm OK. Bet tidying up your house at the end of the day is fun.......

You're telling me nobody has seen a kid play dress up

Oh good straw man there given no one has said that.

or behave badly before?

And another good strawman there - as no- one has said that.

Tbh I can't recall my own son deliberately destroying another child's toys but if he had you could bet everything you own neither I nor his father would be sitting like a lump of wood going" oh well, that's just what children do"

I feel like people are taking this advert WILDLY out of proportion. You're telling me nobody has seen a kid play dress up or behave badly before?

Playing dress up isn't what this kid was directed to do though.

Did you read the description from Stop it Now?

The pouting, arm draped up the wall and hip jutting behaviour shown in the advert would definitely fall under ‘mimicking sexual flirting behaviour too advanced for age’ which is an amber category behaviour for the child in the adverts age group which they advise requires a response from a protective adult, extra support and close monitoring.

The kid was being told to mimic behaviour that irl constitutes 'amber category behaviour'.

It wasn't an accident. It was deliberately directed behaviour in an advert beamed out to the public.

You're telling me nobody has seen a kid play dress up or behave badly before?

Yes, I am pretty sure we have all seen men behaving badly. However I think this is the first time it has been celebrated in a John Lewis Ad as self expression.

I dont know what this means.

Do you not think it's weird for a load of grown ups to encourage a child to act like a sexy adult woman? I mean, that's weird? Come on?! If that's not weird, what is?

Oh I'm not saying it was funny, @KimikosNightmare - just that it's not remotely outside the boundaries of normal (if naughty) childhood behaviour, and comparing it to cases of women being strangled to death during sex is deeply, deeply weird.

I wouldn't call it 'bullying' either, to be honest - for a start, you see one instance of a kid being a little shit, which isn't bullying, and I can't think of a single kid I know who hasn't done something deliberately mean (and/or destructive) to their sibling at some point. I chopped my sister's Barbie hair off once cos she annoyed me. She coloured in Robbie Williams' eyes on my Take That diary. It wasn't bullying, it was just thoughtless, mean kid behaviour.

I feel like people are taking this advert WILDLY out of proportion. You're telling me nobody has seen a kid play dress up or behave badly before? I've got a photo of me and my cousin, about 7 years old - he's wearing a princess dress with his hand on his hip, posing, and some expertly applied blue eyeshadow (my handiwork) and I'm wearing a cat costume. We weren't a fucking safeguarding risk or a trans allegory, we were being children.

I will never shop at John Lewis or Waitrose again.

Bizarre advert. I see it as a perfect representation of everything that is wrong with Stonewall's side of the argument. However I doubt that that was their intention. Deeply uncomfortable how they've tried to make the poor child actor parody a sexy woman. Weird and pervy. Can you imagine what the director was saying to him during filming. Gross.

I'm not seeing anything funny there. I just saw a bully.

*What is funny about throwing your sister’s paints on the floor?

It’s all a bit close to the ‘sex got out of hand’ defence.*

merrymouse, that's one of the most deranged things I've ever read on this website. You think children deliberately making a mess is 'a bit close' to someone murdering someone? Genuinely?

This ad is misleading potential customers about insurance coverage.

Accidental damage is covered, deliberate vandalism of the type depicted in the ad, is not.

It’s all a bit close to the ‘sex got out of hand’ defence.

As others have said, this is not an ad showing a boy being feminine, it’s an ad showing a boy dominating his mother and sister.

I'm finding it increasingly sad that LGBT+ and women are things to be funny and controversial, and that angering and offending seem to have become the new cool way to get the hits and the product noticed.

Next week: a jolly good laugh at old people and the disabled while you're sold microwaves.

I wonder if everyone is aware that there never was a moose loose around the hoose, either. It was all made up to be funny and to get people talking and make them remember the product! Wild, isn't it?

I think they must have software deleting becausemine was deleted before I even saw it on the thread.

WTF mumsnet. You deleted my post?

All it said was that no group woud be happy about their protrayal in that ad. Not boys/men, not trans, not women. That was worthy of deletion? Who is reporting these posts and why are they seen as so sensitive?

Clymene that's interesting, did they specify an age limit for children?