#jeremys

Living out tired dreams

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg-y95RAV3c

She hadn’t even been back from her road-trip for twenty-four hours, before her house felt too small and too inside and she had to get out. Just out and about, whether it was raining or not - and luckily for her, the sun came out at exactly the right time. Grabbing her three pit bull rescues, she set out on the Devil on your Heels Trail first, walked, then ran, then skipped around, and the more they walked, the more her dogs pushed her to go further, go faster, go more. Eventually back in the town centre, Soph bought herself a coffee at Rose Tree and then lead her three dogs to the park, where, since it was still early, she let them roam freely. She was just about to plonk down in the grass and just enjoy the cool shade of the trees, when she saw from the corner of her eye that Frankie, her youngest pup, had spotted someone and was trotting, then running towards them. Setting off, she sprinted after her, and caught her by the collar just about as she was closing in on the pram. “I’m soooo sorry,” she panted, pulling Frankie back slightly and making her sit down with a tender press from her hand against her heck. “She’s only half a year old, and she just wants to play with everyone.” Looking up, she smiled at the young man in front of him, then down at the tiny girl in the pram. “I’m sorry, I hope she didn’t scare you.”

I know. This sounds like Broken Record Sunday. Or whatever day. It’s just that this has become such a recurring theme these days that I have grown weary of the bickering, the posturing, the reacting. And, of course, the boycotting. Because it is apparently the cool thing to do, a reflexive response that is usually done without much thought other than to poke back at whatever one finds offensive.



This week the victim—or is it perpetrator—is Hershey, who announced its chocolate bar wrappers for International Women’s Day (IWD) in Canada. One of the women featured on the wrappers is a trans woman, and, as you might suspect, critics are howling that four-letter “W” word. 

And since we live and breathe in the digital arena, it is all playing out on social media, as well as traditional media outlets. Lucky us.



But wait, there’s more. Jeremy’s, which sells a line of hair and body products, responded with their Chocolate Binary bars…Nuts and Nutless. As you might expect, Nuts has HeHim pronouns, while Nutless has SheHer. Cue the cheeky humor. In their loudest playground voice they boast, “Some chocolate companies don't even know what a woman is. But we do.”

Once again, I must point out that people are arguing about food. Or maybe I should be more specific and say just a wrapper. I don’t know if I can roll my eyes much more without them falling out.



I must note that the public scorn is selective. Or maybe they just missed it. It’s just that ABC’s Big Sky had a trans woman actress—Jesse James Keitel—for a couple of seasons, and I don’t recall any massive boycott of ABC over it.



Here are some simple rules for living: If you don’t like what you’re seeing, don’t look. If it doesn’t affect you in a significant way, such as altering the way you live your life, then move on. And when it comes to the temptation to respond to actions and reactions, don’t suffer fools gladly. Surely, you have better things to be doing. I know I do.



The sad reality, though, is that we have reached a point at which maybe some companies are doing things just to get a rise. Since I am an equal opportunity critic, I’ll go on record as saying that Hershey probably had a good idea this would happen, especially after the recent M&Ms debacle. And Jeremy’s response was about as juvenile as I could imagine. Poke and repoke.



Bam. Both of y’all go to your respective corners and calm down.

I’m sure that Hershey could show its support of trans women without it being quite so front and center. There are plenty of support groups that need some financial assistance, and putting it on your wrapper is little different from saying you are a member of a specific church or group without—you know—actually doing anything.



As for Jeremy’s, the nyuk nuks their response elicited were predictable. They are a conservative company, and the Daily Wire—a similarly conservative media outlet—ran with it on their Facebook page. 



Now please know that I am not suggesting that progressive companies be intimidated from supporting causes with which they agree. Not at all. It is also possible that some companies are doing it because it seems that everyone else is doing it. These things must be thought out well in advance, and likely conservative reactions must also be recognized. At the moment, it looks like both M&Ms and Hershey got caught with their pants—or maybe I should say skirts—down.

The sad reality, of course, is that no matter what you do, or how you do it, someone will find you out and expose it for what they think is a tragedy. Social media has made it so that every company resides in a fish bowl. You can’t hide anything, but it is possible to go about your business in such a way that heads aren’t exploding at every turn.

Alright, it’s time to bump the needle out of this groove. I’m just as tired of hearing that same line over and over as you are. Can we find a different song?

Dr “Just Stop The Madness, Please“ Gerlich

Jeremy’s 2018 Apple holiday shopping guide

The holidays are rapidly approaching, and when it comes to shopping for Apple products, there are few times of the year where you can save more than the annual Black Friday-Cyber Monday period. Since there’s a good chance you’ll be hunting for Apple deals over the next few days, I wanted to point you in the direction of the best Apple products to buy — and help you skip this season’s bad…