Costa Coffee was today accused of glamourising ‘complex and dangerous surgery’ by covering a van with a cartoon image featuring mastectomy scars. The Mail has more.
The U.K.’s largest coffee chain defended its use of the image to promote “inclusivity and diversity” but was branded “crass and irresponsible” and “absolutely bonkers” – and there were calls for a boycott of the company on social media.
The image, depicting an androgynous-looking character wearing long shorts with scars below each nipple, is taken from a mural designed by the chain for Brighton and Hove Pride last year.
Use of the image on a mobile coffee van used at events around the country was condemned by feminist campaigners and people who had breasts removed due to cancer.
Tanya Carter, spokeswoman for child safeguarding campaign group Safe Schools Alliance, said: “It’s almost unbelievable that Costa would do something so crass and irresponsible as to use this image.
“The executives clearly have no idea what message this conveys, that irreversible surgery on healthy female breasts is to be applauded. Is this really any way to sell coffee?”
Feminist writer Julie Bindel, who is concerned about the impact of trans activism on ‘vulnerable’ girls and young women, said: “I remember stories about when a woman was thrown out of a Costa shop (in 2018) because she was discreetly breastfeeding.
“Are we not allowed to breast feed but you are allowed to celebrate a woman having breasts removed for reasons of social contagion and vanity? It’s absolutely bonkers.
“What’s really scary about it is the actual mastectomy scars are seen as a badge of honour, as cool.”
Ms. Bindel said she feared the promotion of breast removal was targeting young women unhappy with their bodies who did not identify with mainstream femininity.
She said: “I think back to how I was as a teenager, how I didn’t like my breasts. Had I been able to lose them, I would have gone down that route.
“This dangerous ideology that you can mix and match your body by undergoing complex and dangerous surgery is horrific.
“We used to be appalled by cutting healthy parts of our bodies off. We have a duty of care to those young people, often under-18s, who are children legally.
“I want to see the surgeons, scientists, those who advocate and profiteer from healthy breast removal criminalised.”
And Stephanie Davies-Arai, founder and director of Transgender Trend, which campaigns against the increase in children being referred to clinics for gender dysphoria medical treatment, said she believes “teenage girls are the target” of the cartoon.
She said: “It’s caught up under the Pride flag, being inclusive and celebrating diversity but, actually, you are encouraging children to think they need to undergo unnecessary medical treatment affecting them for the rest of their lives.
“Companies who want to appeal to young people are presenting trans as cool, as do the trans lobby groups.
“This is being pushed on children as if having a major operation is just the same as changing your clothes.”
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: According to the Telegraph, a boycott against Costa Coffee is brewing.
Stop Press 2: Doc Martins, the shoe company, is also using an image of a trans-identifying cartoon women with breast removal scars to promote its brand. The Mail has more.
Stop Press 3: Laura Dodsworth has written a piece pointing out that breasts are not single use coffee cups.
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Can’t help feeling this is all to make humongous amounts of money from shorting stocks just before these “inclusivity campaigns” are let loose…
Follow the money.
While everyone is busy getting indignant about yet another divide and conquer routine, no-one is examining stock movements.
…agree totally..
get us fighting with each other about this stuff, that isn’t an organic movement in any way shape or form..but a totally political one being forced on us from above..so that we don’t notice the coming financial crash..and their shenanigans to bolster their wealth…..
…enjoyed this Jimmy Dore interview with the author Carol Roth, who talks about the incoming financial crash…easy to watch and both entertaining and illuminating…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiEkmDH3PLc
YOU Will Own NOTHING!” – The Global Economic War Aimed At YOU!
I’ve just sent this to:
costa@mbccfoodsireland.com
“As a husband who lost his wife to breast cancer, even after a double mastectomy!, Iam fucking disgusted that you would even consider using this depraved illustration on the side of your express vans just to sell coffee! Imagine the mental harm women having to see this lewd offensive box ticking tripe on the side of your vans after having to have such surgery to save their lives! You low life’s!
I WILL NEVER TOUCH YOUR FILTHY SHIT COFFEE EVER AGAIN! GO TO HELL!!!!”
Please feel free to contact costa coffee in your jurisdiction and inform them of your feelings!
Ditto!
Awesome, love it! I totally concur. I went into Dr Martin today but they didn’t have that design in, so perhaps they’re only sold in certain branches. A tiny, crappy little shop that makes Clarkes’ look exciting.
I also contacted them, but was a bit more polite. I’ve drunk my last Costa’s.
And don’t forget who owns this company. – Coca Cola. Cut off the head of the snake!
More than one in ten women in the U.K. are diagnosed with breast cancer. Many, like me, require a mastectomy to save their lives. Less than 0.5% of the population is transgender.
I am deeply offended by this trivialisation of major mutilating surgery by a company with at least two reported episodes of turning out a woman discreetly breast feeding an infant in one of their shops.
It’s time for people power to register the views of the silent majority in this country who are sick to death of this inane virtue signalling.
Looks to me that this is just the latest example of the grubby fingerprints of the politicised, powerful American investment banks all over it.
https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/commentary/larry-fink-blackrock-and-his-global-crusade-advance-identity-politics
For the sake of true inclusivity, let’s level the playing field and start showing a young person with their male genitalia removed next to one with their breasts cut off – get both sets of gender dysphoria mental illness properly represented.
So the Pride flags have gone but I wonder if we can expect to see more of this BS everywhere now. Along with all the clothing brands having men model dresses, make-up lines advertising men wearing their products etc. It could just go on and on couldn’t it? And you can’t boycott everywhere. I think this is what’s going to happen. Saturation of the market with this mentally ill, damaging and hugely influencial to the young and impressionable woke sh*te.
We cannot monitor every company for their woke capitalist activities, but when we do see what they are up to it is up to us to purchase NOTHING from them.
You’re right, but the rot is so deeply entrenched that it is difficult to avoid everything woke. Which is what they want. I’ve already closed my account account last week after 46 years of banking. My list now includes Proctor & Gamble (who have an extraordinary number of household name brands including Gillette) Nike, M&S, NatWest, Burger King, and so it goes on…
Well I agree. There’s always an alternative after all. It’s a bit like shops/cafes that only accept card. If they don’t want my custom by accepting legal tender then f*ck ’em!
How about some high resolution colour images of the limbs of young women whose skin has been harvested by scumbag medical professionals to construct non functioning penis like appendages. Or the appendages themselves. Or what about the infected, suppurating wound like newly created ‘bonus holes’ that have to be repeatedly opened because they keep trying to do what nature intended, ie close up and heal.
How about not displaying any images of the outcome of these sick (undrage!) teenager mutilation fantasies in public? Did this revolutionary idea ever occur to anyone?
How can you even think up any kind of justification for this? Whoever thought of this, for both Costa and Doc Martins, should be sacked. I wonder if it occurred to them that women who’ve undergone mastectomies due to breast cancer might not want to ”celebrate inclusivity” and appreciate this tasteless and sick attitude from these majorly successful companies. Somehow I think these women won’t be dropping by Costa for a coffee any time soon. Me neither. Absolutely frigging vile!
”Update: Costa has defended its decision to feature a transgender ‘man’ with double mastectomy scars on one of its Costa Express coffee vans after intense backlash.
“At Costa Coffee we celebrate the diversity of our customers, team members and partners.
‘We want everyone that interacts with us to experience the inclusive environment that we create, to encourage people to feel welcomed, free and unashamedly proud to be themselves. The mural, in its entirety, showcases and celebrates inclusivity.”’
https://twitter.com/OliLondonTV/status/1686167312892600321
My mother died of breast cancer, and her body was mutilated by surgery in an effort to save her life. When I look at Costa’s image the first thing that comes to my mind is my mother showing me what her chest looked like after breast removal.
I really don’t think they’ve thought of that aspect. I find it offensive and upsetting for that reason alone.
Edited to add – I know quite a few women who have had breasts removed because of cancer. I do not know a single woman who has had them removed in order to look like a man.
Yes precisely. We all know someone. The thing is they can celebrate inclusivity without any of this offensive and tactless symbolism. Now they’ve gone and lost a huge portion of customers, because there will also be many, like us, who find this repellent even if we haven’t personally undergone this type of surgery ourselves. That’s not the point. We stand in solidarity with those who must have this ill-thought out advertising shoved in their faces and send the message that in no realm is this disgusting sh*t acceptable. I’m in town later and if I see these boots in the Dr Martin shop I’m going to go out of my way to say something to the manager. Fortunately we have no Costas here ( their coffee is crap anyway, always mega strong ) and I much prefer Starbucks. Please don’t cave to the insanity, Starbucks!
Why does “inclusivity” need to be celebrated.
I think it’s all about subliminal messaging and social conditioning now. This symbolism will be everywhere soon but it might be quite subtle a lot of the time so that it is implanted into your subconsience. Just like how advertisers have utilized psychology for years to nudge and influence us to buy stuff, the whole point being that this warped nonsense is to be widely accepted and normalized, with more confused and troubled kids/vulnerable people questioning reality and jumping on the trans bandwagon.
This is just one example of what I’m talking about. It’ll be coming at us from all angles soon. In what realm would anybody, let alone women for whom this category of product is aimed at, find this appealing and be motivated to go buy this? If anything it’d work as a flipping repellant! But we are expected to play along with the fantasies of the mentally ill regardless? Pff, sod off!
https://twitter.com/OliLondonTV/status/1686328383108435968
I’m glad you have written this. My own sister underwent this sort of surgery for cancer years ago and it didn’t manage to save her life.
She certainly was in no mood to celebrate her mutilation while she lived, and I find this Costa image stomach- churning.
Trans mutilation Costa Coffee boycott brewing
—‘taken from a mural designed for Brighton and Hove Pride.’ Say no more squire!
Why does Sodom and Gomorrah spring to mind at the mention of Brighton and Hove?
You missed a ‘y’ off Sodom!
Much of the general public will be unaware of this or its significance for their freedom moving forward. These companies like Bud Light and Unilever etc are seemingly prepared to take a temporary hit to their sales in the gamble that eventually they will profit because they have ticked every ESG box.—— I guarantee that 95% of people sipping 2 quid cups of coffee in Costa that they could make for 5p in their house won’t even know what ESG is.
Another example of the inclusion for the minority to the exclusion of the majority. The image for me, indicates an example of body mutilation which was used as a weapon of war in more violent times only now has been weaponised into the new war of if you are not inclusive you must be excluded or cancelled.
Some may even draw parallels with the clergy of the medieval period castrating themselves to prove their worth, or some may consider these promotions as trying to get more people to adopt these mutilations so these people are not alone in their regret and dismay in undertaking an action that removed a part of who they were, never to return.
We used to promote who we are to form what we could be, now it seems, it is what we could be, determines what we are.
I’m certainly not one of the professionally offended brigade but as a breast cancer patient who has had a mastectomy this is a step too far. Many women are very badly affected emotionally after surgery and some can wait years for reconstruction. I can only imagine how this would make them feel if they go for a coffee and are confronted with this nonsense. To say I’m furious is an understatement.
Just read your post so I’ll reiterate what I’ve said further down this topic:
My wife lost her breasts to cancer and it still didn’t save her life! I hope these self endulging f%£#ers get their comupence!
Costa Coffee bought by Coca-Cola in Jan 2019 for $4.9bn.
Now that boycott would send a message.
As always this starts from where the money is.Those sicko’s with the real money power, you know who they are, have nothing but contempt for the cattle that they purport to care about.. hence more garbage like this.. and it ain’t gonna stop..
It’s a coordinated. All designed to achieve your subservience to the cult.
My wife lost her breasts to cancer and it still didn’t save her life! I hope these self endulging f%£#ers get their comupence!
Transman, transwoman, transgender. No such thing. Made up words, made up to normalise the ideas that people can change their sex. There are men and women. Some men and women suffer, or pretend to suffer, from the delusion that they are not really men or women, or that they can be the opposite sex of what they are. I suppose we need a term for these people, but they are fundamentally men or women and shall remain so. Please stop using the language of the enemy.
Some lowlives (eg, Mulvaney) do this because they’re getting paid for it. And a lot of underage girls and boys with unrelated mental health problems suffer from exposure to adults telling them that must really do this because their bodies are not really theirs and ought to be surgically adjusted.
And I wonder how many teens go down this route to make themselves seem ‘different’ and a bit mysterious. I can’t be alone at cringing at some of the things I did as a teenager to try and start a trend, or just jump on the same bandwagon as others so as not to seem an outsider. Our influences then were few and far between. It must be mind blowing now with all the utter carp that is available on the Internet.
” I suppose we need a term for these people,”
mentally deranged!
Yes they are but it’s not specific. “men who think they are/can be/are pretending to be women” is a bit of a mouthful. Prizes available for anyone who can think of a snappier term.
Twats!
I win, Yeayyy!
hebeshebies
Female-identifying enemies of naturally designed species aka fiends.
I like that one
Better: Female-identifying enemies of naturally derived species.
Yup, perfect.
So, how precisely is telling women that they don’t really exist, except as fantasy concepts invented by men, furthering inclusivity, Costa?
Of course, such surgical self-harm should not be promoted, but:
Do not take your eye off the ball !
This nonsense is perpetuated to achieve precisely the sort of outcry we are engaging in! All the time we squabble, we sap ourselves. The global tyrants become more and more powerful over divided populations.
So, yes, boycott such organisations – but don’t waste energy. Get on with the job in hand! Don’t comply through provoked engagement. Spend your time and resources on creating a Better Way!
And let’s not forget, you can vandalise any van you like so long as you use orange paint!!
All that you need to know is that Costa is owned by Coca-Cola
Damn! I really like the Costa Coffee machines! No more Costa Coffee for me! So that leaves me with what? Nero? I don’t recall seeing any trans crap from them so far!
Reading many of the comments here about the effect on women. I think that is only a part of it. I lost my wife’s breast, and then my wife to cancer 24 years ago. I cared about the breast only insofar as it affected my wife and her view of herself. I care more for the fact that it took away my friend and lover; someone who made my life a wonder. The effect on those who are left behind is oft ignored even if it crosses the little minds of the garbage who push this appalling shit. Apologies if this is a little rambling/incoherent. Not too sure how to put it all into words.
“the garbage who push this appalling shit”
I think you’re perfectly coherent.
Spot on mate
They can try their damndest to shove this in our faces but they’ll never normalize it or force acceptance as far as I’m concerned. And I’m happy if these people are happy with their choice but just stay in your own lane and keep you mental illness and mutilated body to yourself. We do not need this promoted and advertised as a legit health choice. For the vast majority surgery will never provide a cure for body dysphoria, no matter how much it is broadcasted from far and wide.
https://twitter.com/CartlandDavid/status/1686343092872318976
Lloyd Russell-Moyle taking on Julia Hartley-Brewer. He’s obviously in favour of this disgraceful nonsense. The comments below the vid say it all.
https://twitter.com/TalkTV/status/1686274582959828992