Anti-choice advocates were up in arms this week when they opened the gingham-and-khaki-filled pages of their Lands’ End catalogue to discover cardigan-clad feminist Gloria Steinem reclining on a beige chaise. CEO, Federica Marchionni, conducted an interview with the legendary activist for women’s rights to appear alongside photos of Steinem in the spring catalogue. It was part of a series the company is doing to feature legends in their field who “[pave] the way for the many who follow.”…. Yet, anti-choice activists found a way to lose their minds with calls for boycotts and social media shaming of the company for featuring a known abortion-rights activist in its pages. They alleged the catalogue was no longer “family friendly” and promoting the new-ERA which anti-choice activists claim will expand abortion.
It would be difficult to fully do justice to the degree of inflexible self-righteousness inherent in someone who’d read an interview with Gloria Steinem and interpret it as an endorsement of abortion. In what was a well-meaning attempt by Land’s End clothiers to broaden their appeal among millenials, the company CEO’s interview with Steinem was spun by ninnies and zealots into a corporate endorsement for the widespread genocide of the unborn.
Why, the next thing you’ll know, they’ll be selling baby parts to support Planned Parenthood….
Never mind that the interview never mentioned abortion. The discussion covered Steinem’s lifelong efforts to advance the cause of equality and her current project, the Fund for Women’s Equality, a UN-sponsored project dedicated to ending discrimination around the world.
It all seemed pretty benign: no talk of abortions rights, no calls for women to burn their bras and deny sex to their men until they’re granted equal rights. Land’s End isn’t exactly known for undying fealty to Left-wing causes, so you’d think that any reasonable person would be able to take the interview for what it was: a conversation between two successful women.
It didn’t take long for the UNreasonable in the audience to overreact and go from zero to OUTRAGED in a heartbeat. Take a moment, if you would, and let the stupid wash over you:
One angry Lands’ End lover wrote about the company, “I just received a clothing catalog from Lands End. OK - good so far, nice clothes, modest, feminine - wait - what the ! A three page spread in their latest catalog on Gloria Steinem ‘Legend.’ Has this country come unhinged? I can’t even shop for clothes without being exposed to agitprop?”
“Has this country become unhinged?” Why, yes…yes it has; though the commenter’s question displays an astonishing lack of self-awareness. The overheated, intensely ignorant reaction of so many Land’s End customers serves to demonstrate that this country has indeed become unhinged…those not in the way our anonymous commenter might be thinking.
“Those of us who love family, love children, are completely puzzled why you would promote a very vocal pro-abortion celebrity,” one customer, Maureen Donnelly, commented on Facebook). “If you want to promote and subsidize abortion, which is responsible for the deaths of over 1 million babies in America each year, we will be returning all Lands’ End clothing.”
“Lands’ End was always my go-to for clothes for my children, my girls especially. Now that you have aligned with Gloria Steinem, there is absolutely no way that I will ever order from you again,” commented Melissa Naasko. “Your catalog is going right into the shredder.”
What also seems to have gone right into the shredder is a sense of reason. Rather than actually think about what Steienem has done for women and reflect that women enjoy the rights they do today in large part because of pioneers like her, they see a picture of her and their lizard brains immediately default to “ABORTION!!!!” Nothing else matters…because once the brain’s righteous outrage center kicks in any chance for reasoned, rational discourse goes out the window.
Because “ABORTION!!!!” “PLANNED PARENTHOOD!!!!” “BABY PARTS!!!!” “BABY KILLERS!!!!”
[D]espite Steinem’s age, their discussion about the struggles women face both as mothers and in the workforce fit that mold; they also talk about fashion and Steinem praises the company for offering “authenticity and simplicity.”
Once the forces of righteousness heard the cries of “TO THE BARRICADES!!” it became impossible to have a rational discussion about what the interview was actually about; it became a cause celebre because it was PROMOTING ABORTION!!!!
Cue the screaming ninnies, zealots, and hyper-religious Conservative culture warriors who could care less about having a calm and reasonable discussion…about anything, because their normal modus operandi is to generate volume, rigghteous outrage, and the DEMAND that SOMETHING BE DONE RIGHT NOW to assuage their considerable butthurt and righteous outrage. Shout loud enough, long enough, and with enough obvious, undeniable rage, and they’ll win…in this case, because Land’s End displayed the moral courage of the Cowardly Lion.
The Stream declares: “Once Family-Friendly Lands’ End Catalog Celebrates Abortion Radical Gloria Steinem.” LifeNews (come on, they wouldn’t miss this party) goes into great detail about the dreadful dangers the ERA would pose to anti-abortion legislation.
Land’s End could have done the right and reasonable thing by explaining what the interview was about and confirming that it nothing to do with abortion. Not only that, the company could have reaffirmed clearly that in no way was Land’s End attempting to subtly advance the cause of baby killers.
Sadly, Land’s End caved to the ninnies, thus reaffirming the precedent that if you scream loud enough (see Brooks Brothers Riot) and proclaim your righteous outrage and butthurt long enough, you can get what you want. In the end, Land’s End insulted Steinem and their customers by caving in to misplaced rage, disinformation, and propaganda.
It doesn’t get much more pathetic than that.
“We understand that some of our customers were offended by the inclusion of an interview in a recent catalog with Gloria Steinem on her quest for women’s equality,” said the statement, which was issued to The Stream and other press outlets. “We thought it was a good idea and we heard from our customers that, for different reasons, it wasn’t. For that, we sincerely apologize. Our goal was to feature individuals with different interests and backgrounds that have made a difference for our new Legends Series, not to take any political or religious stance.”
“For different reasons, it wasn’t?” In what rational universe is interviewing a woman who’s dedicated her life to the cause of equality not “a good idea?” How is it anything approaching reasonable to cave to those who refuse to think critically because they’re far more comfortable (over)reacting emotionally? There was nothing close to inflammatory about the interview with Steinem; the problem is with their low-information customers who see “ABORTION!!!” and “BABY KILLERS!!!!” lurking around every corner. They couldn’t be bothered to understand that the interview was not Land’s End’s attempt to (not so) subtly advance the cause of abortion on demand as ordered by the butchers and purveyors of baby parts at Planned Parenthood. They couldn’t drop their butthurt long enough to recognize that nowhere in the interview is there to be found an endorsement of (anything even faintly redolent of) baby killing.
Remember, when you lay down with snakes, you can’t claim to be surprised when they bite. In the case of Land’s End, they then apologized for making the snakes bite them. Way to stand up for yourselves and show a bit of moral courage, eh?
Man…sometimes people really, really suck.
