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Original poster

Mermaids ‘stories’ - disturbing

90 replies

tabbycatstripy · 23/04/2022 14:41

If you copy this link and you go on the Mermaids website, and look down at the story of an 11 year old child (“Jenny”), you will see it.

mermaidsuk.org.uk
/news/mermaids-tales/

What is going on there?

OP posts:
FemaleAndLearning · 23/04/2022 17:59

Could be this thread
www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4027375-Starbucks-advert

DrDetriment · 23/04/2022 17:58

That's a seriously disturbing photo. How the hell have we come to a world where this is in any way ok?

FemaleAndLearning · 23/04/2022 17:57

Starbucks were also selling mermaid biscuits or something and giving some of the money to Mermaids, it's on that other thread.

MrsOvertonsWindow · 23/04/2022 17:54

Those children seem so lost. And it's unutterably sad that someone calling out a name on a plastic coffee cup is seen as validating - the generator of confidence and sense of self worth.
Of all the things in the world that should contribute to a child / young adult's sense of identity, character, personality, development and self worth, these poor children are reliant on a fucking plastic coffee cup. And it's pushed by an ideology and "charities" so profoundly ignorant of child welfare, safety and development. They deserve so much better.

Original poster
tabbycatstripy · 23/04/2022 17:50

Starbucks did a partner thing with Mermaids. I don’t know if it’s still going on.

OP posts:
GandTfortea · 23/04/2022 17:47

Is Starbucks funding mermaids?
every child’s story mentions Starbucks playing a positive part in their life
how odd
it’s just a coffee shop

Original poster
tabbycatstripy · 23/04/2022 17:46

‘The drag Queen is dressed like a little girl. The 11 year old is also in young girl clothing.’

This isn’t actually an 11 year old male child presenting as a girl (whatever that means and whatever we might think of it). It’s an 11 year old male child being taught to ape a misogynistic stereotype that’s fetishised by people with questionable intentions (whether the drag queen is ‘well known’ or not is irrelevant).

OP posts:
Lastsecondfail · 23/04/2022 17:44

The whole thing is a bit baffling.

does remind be of when a friend and I use to give fake but hard to spell names in Starbucks 😂 Siobhan is a favorite… or confuse them with the spelling…

”that Helen with a W”

I can no longer look at the Starbucks cup names in such innocence.

Original poster
tabbycatstripy · 23/04/2022 17:43

‘The photo I guess everyone is talking about is with a well known drag queen who was on rupauls drag race I imagine photo was taken at a meet and greet’

So whose is the bedroom? Is it like some sort of film set?

I still have deep misgivings about it. The creepy expression. The bed. The baby clothes.

Thoroughly disconcerting, and calls into question the parents’ judgment as well as - obviously - Mermaids’s.

OP posts:
WhereTheBodiesAre · 23/04/2022 17:24

littlefirecar · 23/04/2022 17:08

The photo I guess everyone is talking about is with a well known drag queen who was on rupauls drag race I imagine photo was taken at a meet and greet

The photo is in a bedroom, FFS. The two of them are sitting on a bed. The drag Queen is dressed like a little girl. The 11 year old is also in young girl clothing.

littlefirecar · 23/04/2022 17:08

The photo I guess everyone is talking about is with a well known drag queen who was on rupauls drag race I imagine photo was taken at a meet and greet

KittenKong · 23/04/2022 16:57

Oh and I had to go into a s**tbucks today (no flipping public loos) with a child who couldn’t wait to pee! Luckily it was single sex loos and I looked over the offerings and posters - hmmmm no fishy stuff (they definitely used to have it as I could see it when I used to walk by).

KittenKong · 23/04/2022 16:55

I wonder how these stories will date… wondered what happened to Desmond (daren’t search online).

RogersOrganismicProcess · 23/04/2022 16:48

How on earth did that get past a) Jennie’s parents, b) the people who put the stories on mermaids website?
It has safeguarding written all over it.

PrawnofthePatriarchy · 23/04/2022 16:30

That Mermaids think this a sweet story and don't see how wildly inappropriate that image is simply confirms my profound disquiet about the organisation. It's grim.

SierraSapphire · 23/04/2022 15:56

That is shocking and reflects badly on funders, who often ask to see charities' safeguarding policies (or ask about them in the application - the National Lottery Community Fund asks about this in the second stage of the application) but perhaps treat it superficially and don't dig any further nor make it an ongoing process for subsequent years.

yestheyhavethesamedad · 23/04/2022 15:42

Infact , when try and access the mermaids site via other methods , it will not let me , states its an 18+ site only

yestheyhavethesamedad · 23/04/2022 15:39

I cannot actually view the pic , as the settings on my phone class it as restricted under the parental controls on it , they class it the same as porn sites 🤔

Original poster
tabbycatstripy · 23/04/2022 15:37

‘But they’ve come so far that little boys in sexualised costumes dancing for men in gay bars, or posing cuddled up to men with both in drag, don’t pose any problem to them because it just seems normal. Just like a surgeon celebrating cutting girls’ breasts off is normal.’

The argument would be that it’s dreadfully prejudiced to think there might be any risk of harm, as if the only issue one might have would be the pink clothing or the sex-incongruence, rather than the clear interest in young children on display next to a sexualised presentation.

OP posts:
EmpressaurusWitchDoesntBurn · 23/04/2022 15:32

tabbycatstripy · 23/04/2022 15:21

Even if this child continued to feel more comfortable in a female identity, it doesn’t explain why Mermaids can’t recognise a CSA risk when they see one, or why they think it’s part of a nice story.

I think at least part of it might be boiling frog syndrome. For Stonewall and Mermaids. I bet both Nancy Kelley and Susie Green would say that they’d never condone any form of child abuse & they’d mean it. But they’ve come so far that little boys in sexualised costumes dancing for men in gay bars, or posing cuddled up to men with both in drag, don’t pose any problem to them because it just seems normal. Just like a surgeon celebrating cutting girls’ breasts off is normal.

I wonder how many reports this post will get?

WhiteFire · 23/04/2022 15:27

Or it may well have been deleted for mentioning the S word.

WhiteFire · 23/04/2022 15:25

There was a previous thread on this (quite a while back) Maybe someone better than me at searching might be able to find it.

#inplainsight
#soopenmindedtheirbrainsfellout

Original poster
tabbycatstripy · 23/04/2022 15:21

Even if this child continued to feel more comfortable in a female identity, it doesn’t explain why Mermaids can’t recognise a CSA risk when they see one, or why they think it’s part of a nice story.

OP posts:
ResisterRex · 23/04/2022 15:18

This reminds me of the Desmond is Amazing incident, which came just before rubberwankman booked Bergdorf. There was a lot in the public domain about Desmond, and yet it was all brushed aside in favour of glitter and rainbows and validation.

IMHO Mermaids is highly irresponsible with that page. Once you publish any story about yourself online, it's there forever. Highly, highly personal moments about children are now there forever and for everyone in the whole word to see, whether the child stays on that path or not. As we know, it's more than likely most children will not stay on that path.

Original poster
tabbycatstripy · 23/04/2022 15:16

‘And yet Nancy Kelley is furious at the idea any grooming might be going on.’

She’s disgusted by the word ‘groomer’.

I’m disgusted by grooming.

OP posts: