Converse shoes promoting Desmond is Amazing

[GeordieGenes]

Converse shoes (in America) have brought out a range of shoes to celebrate 50 years of Pride:

www.converse.com/c/pride

So far, so good.

Except that one of their models is Desmond, who is labelled on the Converse website as an 11-year old "Drag Kid"...

Converse have been called out by "An Open Secret" on Twitter are are getting a surprising amount of support:

twitter.com/i/web/status/1126091839596105728

It absolutely baffles me that a big company like Converse would choose to be associated with this. I will never buy from them now, which is a shame, as their "Pride" collection is quite cool otherwise!

I think his mum shows up on that thread agressively defending "her son's right to be his true self" or something. Everyone can see it for what it is. Putting your son in the gaze (and company) of paedophiles because you gain $$$ for it. She's pimping him out

Slightly different context, but does remind me of the two mothers of the boys abused by Michael Jackson. Overlooking that which got in the way of the larger picture of what association with Jackson brought.

Are they really saying he's gay? At 11? Yes, still very dodgy. I'm trying to think of an equivalent with children being used as icons of heterosexuality but I can't. Children's sexuality usually remains their business until they are a lot older. It's certainly not for public consumption with someone making an actual career out of it.

M&S have an LBGT sandwich on their shelves now Motheroffeminists. With rainbows.

A fucking rainbow sandwich?! Just when you think you've heard it all. It's cringeable how companies are falling over themselves in their desperate attempts to be woke.

Are they really saying he's gay? At 11?

I think a large number of people will accept this. I remember Oprah very passionately teller her audience that her gay guests knew as small kids that they were gay, and that it was out of touch to think that there was any need to hold off on judgement with children. This was back in the early 90s I think.

I'm sure children do know they're gay at an early age but using his sexuality as a publicity and money-earning device is horrific.

It's not that he may or may not be gay that is giving everyone the heebyjeebies. It's the fact that, with the backing and encouragement of his parents, he is being so overtly sexualized, dancing in front of adults in a sexual manner and frankly, appears to be more emaciated every time I see him.

No 11 year old has a 'true self' as a sexy dancer in clubs where men go to find sex partners. Anyone who thinks they do needs to have a visit from Plod.

My feeling has been that knowing your sexuality as a child is often about looking back when you are older, and understanding what you were thinking and feeling from a more mature perspective.

But it's one thing to look back, and another to still be the child, or an adult looking at someone who is still a child, and defining what they are in these adult terms. Because there are people that look back as adults and realise their childhood interpretation was wrong.

appears to be more emaciated every time I see him.

I wonder if they might be trying to keep him younger looking?

Of course that is speculation, it could be all kinds of things.

I think someone up thread pointed out that autism can often limit someone's diet, which would explain a bit, but none of us know really.

If you have an autistic child who eats a limited diet then you find ways of getting calories into them, you get medical advice.

You don't get them involved in advertising, dancing in strip clubs and working with bondage gear designers