Why are Primark promoting "Found Family"

[WandaWomblesaurus]

www.primark.com/en-us/a/inspiration/special-occasions/celebrating-found-families

"A Found Family Is About Finally Feeling Whole, Something That Might Be Absent In Your Biological Family, Like A Full Set Of Acrylic Nails Or A Good Pair Of Fake Lashes. It’s A Community You Choose, Whose Values And Honesty Speak To Your Own."
- Jude & Michael, Germany

What???

thank you Hag

When did chosen family become found family?

“Found family” is likely their marketing ploy to get children into their clothing range which will complement a “trans” (surgically altered/ multilated) body in the future.

similar to Target in the US with their range of binders, tucking shorts and “non-binary” clothing ranges.

They’re only in it to capitalise and make money from people, sell more clothing. A new market segment where “found family” advertising appeals and speaks to the young people being force fed this crap online.

Separating children from their parents with the promise of allowing things that parents wouldn't is grooming. We know this in other contexts.

Promoting this idea makes people more vulnerable to being recruited by a c#lt. Waco, Jonestown, etc. Especially making them susceptible to the ‘love-bombing’ stage - people feel like they’ve ‘come home’.

So many people feel lost in some way and this is very worrying, comparing friends to having similarly strong bonds to families when this simply cannot be the case. Your family is your family whether you like it or not - it will never change. Friendship groups will never be as solid.

The word ‘family’ has a meaning.

Because it's pride month and for lots of homosexual people, found family is a reality.

Yes, times have changed but there's still a lot of gay people who's parents don't support their sexual orientation etc.

I know you probably started this thread as a way to bash a company jumping on the trans bandwagon, and I'm as gender critical as most people on Mumsnet, but not everything about pride month is about trans people.

not everything about pride month is about trans people.

Perhaps then, Primark would care to do some research into ILGA? I'll go out on a limb and say Pride isn't about lowering the age of consent to 10.

I'll further. Normal well-adjusted adults, be they heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or transgender, find the idea of cosying up to organisations with that in their very recent past, abhorrent.

From a marketing / culture programming point of view I would make an educated guess that "found family" is preferred because it implies a lost person deprived of a supportive family being fortunate to find one, rather than someone assertively choosing one which would imply that they might be the one rejecting their family. The idea of some exiled innocent finding a new home and hearth carries connotations of rescue which "choosing" does not. Found is also a word that presumes things are already as they are - you have found your place, you have found what you were missing, etc.

Because they can choose to promote it if they want to?

Are you getting support for your anxiety?

This is pretty desperate stuff. Stick to no debate, honestly.

Exactly old
thanks athena and the worrying thing is, we aren’t the only ones.

I agree. I'm a middle aged lesbian who can attest to the profound loneliness and despair of coming out in a non-supportive family environment. Thank god for friends, for chosen family. I have no idea about the organisation behind this and I don't know what their intention is, but the concept of chosen family is not new, it's a tale as old as homophobia has made it necessary.

The coloured writing sends the messages that this is about gender ideology rather than simply being about LGB people being being subjected to homophobia and horribly rejected by their family in order for them to 'find a new family'. If only this was about a large corporate challenging homophobia!

The benign old saying, "you can choose your friends but you can't choose your family", still applies, but this repackages that sentiment and suggests you can go 'no contact' and find a new 'family' who will love you more than the 'old' one.

And again, the rainbow flag has been around since long before tq attached themselves to the lbg.

There are lots of things to oppose about gender ideology and companies jumping on the bandwagon, why not put our energies into them rather than jumping on this, which is about finding a group of people who you can be yourself with. That's not a notion that's limited to trans people, or even gay people. There's plenty of people who have left religions, or restrictive cultures, or abusive parents, who have "found their families" later in life.

This is going to be a very interesting Pride month this year. There is a lot of push back online so far.

Primark don't seem to have realised they are promoting something that actively encourages young confused children to go no contact with their actual family and be welcomed into the unknown, possibly with Ill intentions, strangers arms on the internet in the main.

Curious irony is that Primark, subsidiary of Associated British Foods, is still owned and operated by one family, the Weston dynasty . You can’t choose to join it, either.

I mean, continuing the myths and pressures that make it so much harder for people to walk away from abusive families and find support elsewhere seems like the antithesis of feminism to me but you do you.

Primark needs to concentrate on running it's business properly and focussing on health and safety and better working practices especially overseas.

Nothing wrong with acknowledging that not everyone has a close biological family, and even then families take many forms. But it is nothing to do with sexuality or gender conformity as far as I am concerned.

As far as the trans issue, not allowing any drugs or surgery until 18 should be urgently brought in. I know 2 young women who are now very happy lesbians but through their teen years insisting they were trans men (thankfully 8 years ago they couldn't get their hands on drugs). I have no issue with those who in adulthood wish to take medication after counselling about the long term implications, i know a very happy transman - but children cannot consent to something lifelong that is discretionary as they do not have capacity

I'm involved in a few different online communities through a hobby, which attracts a wide range of age groups, mostly women and older girls. Many of the younger ones identify as queer, enbyvetc. Over the past few years, the concept of found families seems to have mushroomed. Many girls and young women, whenever they have arguments with parents (for whatever reason), are told by their peers "you have us, we support you, we are your family".

The thing is, these girls and young women can't seem to deal with conflict in any shape or form. They don't have resilience or the capacity to deal with any negativity in their lives, no matter how small. So the idea of total acceptance must be very appealing.

Primark are cynically tapping into those feelings and amplifying it.

What has this got to do with selling cheap clothes?

How is Primark operating this programme of encouraging kids to go and find new families? Is there a triage system? Are they offering free impartial councelling prior to removing kids? Are they trained in this process? Have they got a set of adults ready to take the kids in? Is it a fostering arrangement or permanent adoption? What is the screening process for these new rainbow families? Can anyone join up? Can they have multiple kids or just the one each?

Surely people can see this is fucking dangerous territory to get involved with?

I think this kind of thing from childline is part of what makes people very worried about the found families narrative. The implication is that if people, like parents, don't agree with you quickly and completely enough, cut them out. A terrible message for conflicted or vulnerable young people:

https://twitter.com/JamesEsses/status/1660740816606842889?cxt=HHwWksC-3ai-kYwuAAAA

Whether it is or not and whether anyone at the store/ company believes it is or not, is immaterial; this way they can make more money in sales. It's not unheard of for LGBTQI+ people to have some difficult family members, and they may feel more connected to and accepted by people who are not related by blood - now they can spend money on these people, as can anyone wishing to support Pride, by going to Primark and making a purchase from the "found family" collection. Primark have no doubt weighed up good/bad publicity against rise/fall in sales and made decisions based on predicted profits.

'spend money on these people'...

Can you detail who is spending money on who exactly? What is the flow of money you talk about here?