Could Some Gay Charity Now Be Expecting A Pay Out Also?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/epic/tsco/10339449/Tesco-withdraws-inflatable-gay-best-friend-doll-from-sale.html

/// The figure is the second product Tesco has withdrawn from sale in as many days, after the supermarket said it was "really sorry for any offence caused" by a bright orange adult costume called "Psycho Ward" with the word "Committed" printed on the back. ///

/// It also said it would be making a private donation to mental health charity Mind. ///

[sandyRoe]

I think they'd stonewall at the prospect of making any more donations.

[Baldric]

Oh dear, another non-story!

[woofgang]

Why is the word "Gay" asterisked?

[anotheoldgit]

woofgang

/// Why is the word "Gay" asterisked? ///

Perhaps it is yet another word that we are not allowed to say in case it offends someone or other?

[Gromit]

I have one, I call it sp :-)

Not sure how the gay best friend stigmatises gays or is derogitory to homosexuals? It is a stereotype, pink jumper and a tash are not a reliable indicator that someone is gay.

Is it gay people who have been offended by it or religous zealots?

[Gromit]

A question about the inflatable gay friend if you have one AOG.

How do you blow it up?

[douglas9401]

The professionally outraged seems to be a growth industry. I'd be tempted to let the market decide myself.
The lack of taste of large sections of the public is plain for all to see.

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

/// A question about the inflatable gay friend if you have one AOG. ///

/// How do you blow it up? ///

I don't have one, and to answer your question, ask the experts, and I am not referring to those who own such a doll, if you get my gist.

[VHG]

Must not offend gays or people with mental illness....

But rather unusual that Tesco (and all supermarkets) are still happy to sell cigarettes with "This product can kill" in large letters on them.

In fact I find it strange that when we get a "product scare" (on say eggs or meat) and somebody says there is a very small chance you can catch something from the eggs or meat they whip them off the shelves and put adverts in the paper asking people to return the product to the shop.

Yet day after day they sell packets of cigarettes with huge warnings on them about catching cancer or that they can kill you.

Strange.

[jackthehat]

No.

[boxtops]

why call it gay, anyway, why not just "inflatable best friend"?

Many years ago a colleague had to drive a lonely road at night, and she bought a blow-up bloke and sat him in the passenger seat, so any would-be assailant would think she was accompanied - now that did seem sensible :-)

[andy-hughes]

'Expecting'? - I doubt it.

Hopeful? Why not.

There is a difference between the two types of costumes - and the messages they send out.

One is a stigma against the mentally ill, which is an illness.

The other is potentially offensive to gay people - basing a sex toy on a social stereotype.

[Kromovaracun]

I don't really see that the 'Psycho Ward' costume is offensive. "Escaped lunatic" is a staple of horror fiction - and it was released in the run-up to Halloween. It's a bit like calling a Frankenstein's monster costume an offense to scientists because they don't actually make walking monsters out of corpses.

The gay best friend thing... I'd seen the story before but had assumed it was just some internet joke. I am astounded that it's real and have absolutely no idea how to react... I just think it's really, really weird.

[wolf63]

I saw the 'doll' somewhere and have to say that it was pretty tacky looking. I don't think that it would have been a best seller.

I sometimes think that the world has gone mad. Some folk should just chill out and get a life. Complain about something when there really is something to complain about not in case it offends somebody else.

I am Bipolar and I didn't find the mental patient thing offensive. There used to be a comic strip thing called "Fat Sl@gs" and even though I am fat I was not in the least upset by the cartoons.

[FredPuli43]

Tesco thinks it is bad public relations to stock or sell such things. Do you agree that it is, AOG ?

[Gromit]

//... Some Gay Charity //

Nice research there AOG :-)

[anneasquith]

he is one ugly gay man :)

[wolf63]

I am almost sure that Mind doesn't operate in Scotland. Do you think that I should complain to Tesco that we will not be getting our share of the money?

Scottish Association Mental Health - SAMH - do the same work.

[anotheoldgit]

andy-hughes

/// The other is potentially offensive to gay people - basing a sex toy on a social stereotype. ///

I fail to see any reference of it being a 'sex toy', are you letting your own imagination run away with itself Andy?