theJeff wrote:
Yeah sure jeff wrote:
But why these particular shoes Jeff? Of all the shoes that all the shoe companies promote, what is it about these shoes that you find so fascinating?
Mainly, that they have taken a stance on a hot-button issue by taking the time to produce a product, nominally to support it, but not indicate that they plan to donate any portion of the proceeds to said cause.
I think a Blue Lives Matter shoe or a Protect our Borders shoe by a major manufacturer would have caught my eye just the same. I wonder what the reaction would have been had I posted one of those on here. Do you think people would be saying I dislike one of those causes?
I think you might be taking too narrow of a scope on this issue. First of all, you have been attempting to focus on answers to your original question in the OP, but this is message board and every thread is vulnerable to veering off topic into many directions. Attempting to keep the conversation limited to the OP is always a losing battle.
Second, as I have stated before, pandering is rife in our economy as a sales tactic, including pandering based on identity, political issues, social issues, hot button issues, whatever. Adidas is by no means the only company to do this and probably not the first shoe company to market a shoe based on a social movement or issue. The examples are nearly endless and have been described in this thread and I don't think that I need to add anymore.
Viewing Gay Pride as a hot button issue is a matter of opinion and perspective. Large parts of our society has transformed to recognize and celebrate individuals that have been treated as second class citizens and even subhuman throughout the history of our country. Where I live, it's not even a hot button issue, but another event for celebration and a mostly positive experience. I see it as a celebration of people that have historically been marginalized. And none of it is my face unless I seek it out.
I have seen you reducing this issue as simply being a glamorization of sexual preferences. The LBGTQ community is not just a sexual preference, but a culture, because they had to form a distinct culture after being ostracized and marginalized and persecuted, similar to how black culture formed and flourished in the absence of mainstream acceptance. To reduce it to a sexual preference is an unfair representation and perhaps misunderstanding of the issue at play here. Members of the mentioned communities are celebrating their culture and putting it in the open, rather than
And celebrating Gay Pride typically is not threatening, expect maybe a threat to someone's values and beliefs and sexual mores. LBGTQ folks are more likely to victims of crimes rather than threaten others. Supporting individual rights for the LGBTQ community has not led to a decline in quality of life, whereas celebrating loose gun rights and separating immigrants from their parents cause unnecessary suffering. Now if we compare this Pride shoe to a Blue Lives Matters shoe and Protecting Our Borders shoe, we would be celebrating issues that lead to many negative experiences, injustices and even deaths for many people in our society.
So really, the scope of the argument is too narrow and doesn't account for the various other factors at play when discussing the issue presented.