Costa using Pride image of girl with breasts removed to support trans?

[Tryingmuchharder]

"Costa Coffee was today accused of glamourising 'complex and dangerous surgery' by covering a van with a cartoon image featuring mastectomy scars.
The UK's largest coffee chain defended its use of the image to promote 'inclusivity and diversity' but was branded 'crass and irresponsible' and 'absolutely bonkers' – and there were calls for a boycott of the company on social media.
The image, depicting an androgynous-looking character wearing long shorts with scars below each nipple, is taken from a mural designed by the chain for Brighton and Hove Pride last year."

I find the attempt to 'normalise' the removal of perfectly healthy breasts because someone feels more masculine is wrong. AIBU

Ouch.

😮

What's that got to do with fucking coffee? Just make the coffee already Costa, we don't need a woke sermon to go with it ff's.

I wouldn't mind but the coffee is crap, according to some of my family.

(I don't drink coffee)

https://www.costacoffee.com.cy/news/costa-foundation-changing-childrens-lives

Costa Coffee Foundation 'changing children's lives'.

Children again...🤔

@Tryingmuchharder no I don't think you are being unreasonable at all. My MIL had a double mastectomy due to breast cancer which was very aggressive and came back more than once.

She is really upset by this; her scars ache constantly and she struggles sometimes to lift heavy things and to move her arms right above her head. She got the final surgery before I met her when my DH was in his late teens. So more than 20 years ago and the pain is still there. Physically and emotionally.

To promote this as aspirational is very irresponsible, especially with young girls being a big part of Costa's target market.

This is horrifying. Anyone who has had such drastic surgery will know about the pain, discomfort and possible complications.
Girls are very often unhappy with their developing bodies. Cutting their breasts off is not an acceptable remedy.

Costa Coffees tagline is ‘The nations favourite coffee shop’. Not any more…

Costa coffee openly displaying their sexism (as well as misogyny and homophobia). Slow clap.

Have copied here a great tweet from a man on Twitter/ X:

The fact of the matter is that when you explain that you're a trans man because as a child you gravitated towards stereotypically masculine things like short hair, the colour blue, sports or whatever other thing you somehow fail to realise females can be just as into - you're telling me I'm not a man.

Because I wasn't into any of that. I loved having long hair, I loved pink, I didn't like sports etc. You don't know how it feels to be a man because you're not a man. You know how it feels to be into stereotypically masculine things and that's fine.

But if you're trans then I'm trans. And if I'm trans then what even is trans other than me owning a pink shirt? Because most men I know do. Even the straight ones (shocking, I know). And most women wear trousers (insane, omg, gasp). So are we all trans?

What if - and hear me out here - what if you're just sexist?

I think some people associate elective mastectomies as being like a nose job or another small cosmetic procedure.

I really don’t think some people understand the degree of scarring and persistent pain left afterwards. The attempt to leverage breast reduction as a comparator is a classic example. The fact that a full removal means fully detaching the nipples is just a start of the differences. The horror stories of nipple falling off or rotting away with infection is becoming common. Hence the nipples are often just left off.

And so it goes.

Yeet the teets is how it is celebrated, and dismissed.

I think it's wrong for several reasons.

1. Mastectomies are NOT simple operations, my sister had one for cancer, the recovery was very difficult and due to the site of the tumour she has never regained full sensation and strength in her left arm, which she believes hindered her career (nursing).
2. I don't think ANY surgery should be glamorised because they all come with risks. In fact I personally don't agree with the normalisation of cosmetic surgery on those for whom there is no medical requirement. Surgery is a big deal, it's not popping in for a fake tan in your lunch hour. Lots of things can and do go wrong, in any surgery.
3. Increasing numbers of detransitioned women coming forward to say they regret having the surgery, therefore we should not be glamorising a procedure on which the jury is out as to how much it really helps gender dysphoria.
4. I have read the experiences of many transmen online who are not able for whatever reason to have top surgery. They say that the apparent insistence on top surgery to be 'truly trans' is transphobic. After all, transwomen can have a female penis, so why cannot transmen have moobs. Lots of men have moobs after all.

So in conclusion I would say this is a bad move by Costa because

1. It glamorises and trivialises an elective surgery whose outcomes cannot yet be said to be worth the surgery based on the evidence we have;
2. There are clearly some gender non-conforming women who get this surgery and then later regret it;
3. Mastectomies can have permanent deleterious effects on sensation and movement
4. It's transphobic, as it invalidates transmen who cannot access or prefer not to access top surgery.

Exactly. I can remember Stephanie Davis Arai of Transgender Trend saying that these boys identifying girls in school were being celebrated with their lippy, long swishy hair and skirts and wall to wall pink.

She said girls, particularly nonconforming girls, were looking at these boys, then down at themselves, and thinking if that's a girl then what the hell am I?

As your Twitter poster says, the entire concept is conditional on sexism.

And these bloody companies, pretending that what they are signalling is virtue, when it is rank sexism.

I would agree with this if the UK had a privatised healthcare system, however, we do not, therefore I disagree with our taxes being used to fund a medically unnecessary surgery, and also with our taxes being used to provide the physical and psychiatric care that would be needed if there were complications or if the patient ended up in mental distress because they regretted the surgery.

Now 8% of doctors in the USA are doing trans surgery and medicine.
Just because they have lost their minds over this shit does not mean that they can impose it on us.
Costa was bought out by an American company recently and here we go, so I’ve deleted my Costa app, we do not want 8% of NHS budget to expand and be spent on harmful regressive experiments.

How many lives does trans FTM dysphoria take every year?
How does this compare with statistics in non trans groups or post-op groups?
Where can we get reliable statistics on this?

I'm not saying you are wrong but it's a statement I hear so often never linked to reliable statistics.

That is a quote, sorry, I should have made it clearer. I've copied and pasted Dr Helen Webberley's tweet.

She is a doctor who sells medecine to gender confused children and adults over the internet.

Rules here from ASA on 'cosmetic interventions'

https://www.asa.org.uk/news/strict-new-rules-for-ads-for-cosmetic-interventions.html

• 'Ads for cosmetic interventions must not appear in non-broadcast media directed at under-18s;
• Ads for cosmetic interventions must not appear in other non-broadcast media where under-18s make up over 25% of the audience; and
• Broadcast ads for cosmetic interventions must not appear during or adjacent to programmes commissioned for, principally directed at or likely to appeal particularly to under-18s.

... Children and young people are particularly vulnerable to body image pressures and negative body image perceptions are prevalent amongst those groups, which can have an impact on their self-esteem, wellbeing, mental health and behaviours. In particular, the period of adolescence has been highlighted in the evidence cited by consultation respondents as a life stage in which children and young people’s body image positivity may rapidly decline. Children and young people’s body image perceptions and their susceptibility to pressures to change their appearance, including considering cosmetic interventions as a potential means to address those concerns, are influenced by a number of social and cultural factors. Nevertheless, the evidence shows there is potential that exposure to different forms of media including advertising, particularly those that focus on body image ‘improvements’ such as cosmetic intervention procedures, is likely to exacerbate body image dissatisfaction and negativity during vulnerable stages of their lives. '

Thankyou for finding that from the ASA @ArabeIIaScott That's got the Costa van bang to rights!

Only if you could prove that under-18s make up more than 25% of the target audience.

Actually thinking about it, the cartoon on the van isn't even an advert for a cosmetic intervention. Costa aren't advertising this any more than they're advertising blue hair or surfing.

This is designed to target people selling botox etc, not coffee and cake.

That is true. However many of the points the ASA make about body image and pressure are very relevant.

If anyone is making a complaint to the ASA it may be worth pointing to those rules, as they seem very pertinent.

If you have to misgender a cartoon to feel better about yourself, you should reevaluate how you live your life.

It is a promotional activity portraying cosmetic intervention as a positive intervention.

I think it is still worthwhile complaining to the ASA as it is a promotional activity.

I wish Dr Webberley would actually show statistics of all these trans lives taken without her helping them out by popping them on puberty blockers and them getting surgery! The constant claims of saving lives are never actually backed up by any evidence.

What does this even mean?

What are you referring to

I see the promoter of gender reassignment claims that top surgery is 'completely routine and normal'. I beg to differ, it's surgery that comes with the side effects and potential hazards that all surgeries come with.

"Top surgery is a completely routine and normal procedure that helps reduce gender dysphoria in trans men - a debilitating mental health issue that sadly takes so many lives every year."