#petco

I SAW WHAT I THINK WERE YELLOW BELLIED SLIDERS AT PETCO RIGHT

AND DUDE

THERE WERE 4 OF THEM JUST CHILLING TOGETHER

ONE OF THEM KEPT SAYING HI TO MY MOM AND APPEARED SUPER SOCIABLE

'King of petco'

dukedoesbork, 7 December 2018

Happy Pride Month! Let’s talk Rainbow Capitalism.

As a concept, it makes a lot of people very angry, and that makes sense.

If a company doesn’t want to acknowledge us 11 months out of the year, why should we give a flying shit if they want to acknowledge us for 30 days?

And I get it, I do, but I don’t agree.

Shocker, right? Ariella doesn’t have the typical reaction.

I agree that it’s fucked that these companies don’t acknowledge us any other time, but it’s incredibly valuable if they acknowledge us at all, even if it’s just for 30 days a year.

We all acknowledge that homophobia and transphobia come from a place of ignorance. It’s easier to hate something you’ve never seen, and don’t understand, right?

So why do we want to make it less visible to people who don’t try to get to know us?

The more visible the better, in my opinion.

That’s true all the time, but that’s ESPECIALLY true now.

Before, it mattered, but it was expected. If you were a company in June that wasn’t doing something rainbow, that was weird. You were side eyed.

But in the past several years, even before Trump took office again, it’s become a real risk.

Conservative organizations will create coordinated campaigns against you that aren’t just strongly worded emails but also bomb threats and other forms of violence.

So for a company to say “we don’t care, we’re showing our support anyway” is HUGE, and should be celebrated.

Before it benefited companies and their bottom line to have a Pride collection.

But now? With a president like Trump?

It’s a real risk to acknowledge Pride at all.

So I look at the new Converse collection and I am overjoyed. It’s not just rainbow, it’s the Gilbert Baker Pride Flag, and the progress flag with patches of the flags of most identities.

Abercrombie & Fitch also came back this year with a pretty inspiring collection. And they are still partnering with the Trevor Project. Their collection has a lot of progress flag hems, but there’s also a Brokeback Mountain shirt and a Stonewall shirt.

Levi’s is continuing the donate to Outright International and their collection is very targeted to the motorcycle and leather queer communities

In a year where it could just be slapping a rainbow on something and calling it a collection, and even THAT would be a risk, they did more.

And some didn’t, and that’s okay too. Petco’s collection is pretty much just rainbow. But they are also donating to the Trevor Project, as is David Yurman and Sky.

We WANT it to hurt a company’s bottom line not to acknowledge Pride. That’s a good thing, that shows progress, recognition and visibility.

But in a time when having a Pride collection can put a target on your back from the federal government, I can’t call any of these collections cringe. Even petco’s “love is love.”

Hamster