M&S launches porn star martini in a can

[amandadecabernet]

Keeping it classy, M&S.

Anyone use the M&S live chat successfully? I've waited to live chat and before anyone answered they ended the chat saying it's not available.
www.marksandspencer.com/MSContactUsCmd?storeId=10151&langId=-24&catalogId=10051&categoryId=282501&byEmail=8

Gah 'empowerment' obvs. Typing while doing other stuff.

I really don't understand the issue with this. It's a really nice cocktail.

myusername Cocktail = nice. Name of cocktail = not nice in many people's opinion.

Sorry PaulHollywoodSG that was aimed at PPs accusing us of silencing them!

myusernameisnotmyusername have you rtft or do you want a special personalised explanation?

I really don't understand the issue with this

Read the thread. You’ll see the issue and either agree or not, but the issue is clear if you rtft

For future reference if you don't understand the issue then maybe try a little to understand it. There's no shame in not understanding something, but it's more efficient to ask a specific question.

Your comments are welcome but ??? in a thought bubble over your head makes me wonder why you took the time or if maybe you're trying to be provocative.

Read it through, I'll wait. (For a while anyway, then I have to go out.)

I really don't understand the issue with this. It's a really nice cocktail.

With a completely unnecessarily nasty name.

Tesco got it right - passion fruit martini. There's nothing to stop you calling it whatever you want when you serve it, if you are under the mistaken impression it makes you sound more sophisticated.

Not that anyone asked for a reading list no one ever does but this article is very good if you're having difficulty understanding or articulating issues around feminism and choice.
If your feminism is I-choose-my-choice-based that may be the root of the disagreement here.

I admit my initial reaction was oh ffs.
But once I thought about it, yes I also think language is important and shapes much of societal attitudes towards things. It can lead to normalising and glamourising (as a recovering alcoholic I'm thinking of alcohol in general here too).
In the media it can lead to dehumanisation (illegal immigrants referred to as swarms etc)
So seeing 'porn' on a can in M&S does go some way to making the concept more 'acceptable' I think.

ashtrayheart had I not seen this on a feminism fb post it might have passed me by too. :) It's the boiling frog thing, it's easy to sleepwalk into it.
Normalisation, glamorisation, dehumanisation, collusion. The waters are always being tested to see what we will put up with.

That article nails it Amanda but I am actually already on side here so it just encapsulates what I already thought but couldn't quite say articulately enough.

It's the same as the empowerment bs. "I think being a stripper/wearing a full burka is empowering" because a woman chose it and therefore it must be feministy. Both of these "choices" are born out of women's lack of ability to own their own bodies and be free from the male gaze but let's call them choices and suddenly they have empowered women . Whilst at the same time making it a matter of women's choice that the sex trade and the erasure of women in the public sphere exists.

That's what gets me about it really. Seems to want to take away the right to choose

You have completely failed to grasp the point. No one is taking away your right to buy tinned cocktails.

Unless of course you think buying a "pornstar martini" means you are a more glamourous, sophisticated person than say a shopper in Tesco buying a "passionfruit martini" and we are trying to deny you your inalienable right to be oh so cool.

and we are trying to deny you your inalienable right to be oh so cool.

😂😂😂

Oh I'm so sorry op. I didn't realise nobody was allowed to make an interesting aside so  yourself.

I actually only mentioned it because you said that passion fruit was being marketed as an aphrodisiac. Is it? I've never heard that. So I thought I'd point out that the passion that you mentioned wasn't if the sort you implied.

But yeah, I'll leave you to hectoring people (even though fwiw I agree with you largely)

rightreckoner same here, I'm prone to purple waffle so I admire clarity and concision.

LassWiADelicateAir how will everyone know what a cool girl you are if you're not down with porn?
I'm not even taking the piss, you can see how awful it is not to be cool with it, people tell you you're crazy (tin foil hat), diluting the message of feminism by applying it to trivialities (this is not important, I don't care, I will not die on this hill), naive (or whatever is meant by 'you should get out more'). They use the language of feminism ('the right to choose') against you. About a cocktail, which can be sold under literally any name. But sure, I'm trivialising the message ffs.

So seeing 'porn' on a can in M&S does go some way to making the concept more 'acceptable' I think. Yes definitely, it changes something from being a bit of a "dirty" word into an everyday word, and then the new "everyday" word or phrase equates to something that is normal and acceptable. And if it's for sale in good old, dependable, British values M and S it must be alright.
M and S the store that offers a child size hijab, modesty clothing, a porn star martini and boring stuff like shepherd's pies - providing for the full spectrum of shoppers!

I'm tolerably sure really cool people don't buy premixed cocktails in a can. I mean, they're pretty much just pretentious alcopops, aren't they?

I wouldn't change the name if I were in the M&S product team, it's be a PR disaster.

BitOutOfPractice sorry, you've lost me. What were you not allowed to do here? I'm sorry if I inadvertently hurt your feelings, your comment did read very eye-rolling to me but maybe I got it wrong. My feet of clay have been exposed!
Yes, I had never heard of passionfruit being marketed as an aphrodisiac either, it's a made-up marketing thing.
Thanks for your support though, I'm glad we're on the same side.
Quite right, so much hectoring and it's almost 2. Off out. :)

Really? Any decent PR could spin it for brownie points.

*I’m not taking a survey
I don’t mind having a discussion
*
People will reply as they see fit. I also think this is a complete non issue and another boring thread about nothing relevant. It’s a drink aimed at adults. If your little darlings will see the word pornstar and know what it means then that is perhaps your issue, not M&S’s.

Please get a grip.

Please get a grip

Please stop being a patronising, dismissive, misogynistic jerk 😬

Any decent PR could spin it for brownie points.

Doubt it. Because virtually everyone would think it was a dick move.

Thisname - yes, I also think that if they changed the name there'd be uproar - can just imagine the media having a field day.