Hershey’s is facing backlash following the release of their International Women’s Day campaign, one which features a trans-identified male with a history of making disparaging comments about women. Many social media users are now calling for consumers to boycott the company.
Trans activist Fae Johnstone is being featured in the SHE campaign by Hershey’s for International Women’s Day, which is due to take place on March 8. Johnstone excitedly announced his participation in the advertisement through Twitter on Wednesday.
Women on Twitter did not react positively to the news of Johnstone’s participation, with some calling it “female erasure.” Many began tagging the company and expressing their disappointment in the campaign, launching a hashtag “#HersheyHatesWomen” and threatening to boycott Hershey products.
“Hi @Hersheys WHY do you let a MAN who hates women and wants to silence us, represent WOMEN on International Women’s Day,” one user wrote, including a screenshot of a tweet from Johnstone calling for “TERFs” to be silenced. TERF is an acronym which stands for “trans exclusionary radical feminist,” but is often applied to any person, especially a female, who expresses critiques of gender ideology.
“He is not a woman and should not be featured in an International Women’s Day ad. There are many inspiring women who would have been a great choice to represent women but they chose a MAN. What a vile way to teach girls and women about male privilege. #BoycottHersheys,” another Twitter user said.
This is not the first time Johnstone, who identifies as “trans feminine and non-binary,” has been selected to take a platform representing women.
In December of 2022, Johnstone was invited to give the keynote address at Durham College in Ontario, Canada for their National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women ceremony. The event was a memorial tribute held on the anniversary of the École Polytechnique massacre. During the horrific act of mass femicide, 14 women, 13 students and one university staff member, were killed by a lone gunman who claimed he was retaliating against feminism.
“You’re women, you’re going to be engineers. You’re all a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists,” the shooter said after telling all of the males to exit a classroom. He opened fire on the remaining women in a horrific act that has now been recognized as terrorism by the Canadian government.
After his keynote speech at the event, Johnstone was confronted by an attendee who questioned the University’s decision to platform him at the memorial ceremony.
Jennifer Anne, a woman’s rights campaigner, recorded her interaction with Johnstone, and uploaded the audio to Twitter.
“I am wondering why, on this day, we would have a man dressed in women’s garb to talk to us about sex-based violence and keeping women safe? How can women stay safe in this environment?”
Johnstone casually dismissed the question.
Despite identifying himself as a “feminist,” Johnstone has previously attacked various feminist groups for failing to include men in their activism or for using sex-based language.
In November of 2021, Johnstone made disparaging remarks towards the Canadian Femicide Observatory, a research and information centre which aims to prevent femicide and violence against women, for using “TERF rhetoric” on Twitter due to their overt focus on female victims of sex-based crime.
Johnstone also attacked the Declaration on Women’s Sex Based Rights, which advocates for women and girls on the basis of needing single-sex spaces and protection from violence, and has called for those who hold views critical of gender ideology to be “so vilified” that they are unable to publicly express their opinions on the debate.
Most recently, Johnstone advocated for the placement of a male rapist in a woman’s prison. Responding to fellow trans activist Peter Tatchell on Twitter, Johnstone compared segregating a transgender double rapist from the female general population to segregating lesbian inmates.
As well as attacking feminist organizations and those advocating for female only spaces, Johnstone is a proponent of “drag queen story hour” (DQSH).
In one article he published last month, he called the opposition to DQSH a rise in “anti-queer hate” and called for protection bubbles around “queer spaces,” similar to the protection zone around abortion clinics.
Johnstone has worked extensively with different departments in the Canadian Government, including Health Canada. One Twitter user attended a sex-education workshop led by Johnstone and expressed concerns over some of the subject matter being discussed.
In a short statement regarding the controversy, Johnstone said: “It was, and continues to be, an immense honor to be included in Hershey’s Canada’s campaign, as a young trans woman and feminist advocate.”
Johnstone also tweeted that the backlash he has received shows “just how far we still have to go in the fight for feminist liberation and trans rights.”
Despite the negative feedback regarding the campaign from social media users, Hershey’s has doubled down on their decision to include Johnstone in the women’s empowerment campaign.
Posting to Instagram, Hershey’s Canada said: “We value togetherness and recognize the strength created by diversity. Over the past three years, our Women’s History Month programming has been an inclusive celebration of women and their impact. We appreciate the countless people and meaningful partnerships behind these efforts.”
The comments made in response to their statement have been overwhelmingly negative, with women using the hashtags #STOPERASINGWOMEN and #BoycottHersheys in their replies.
This is not the first time social media users have called for a company to be boycotted for having men represent women.
Feminine hygiene brands Tampax and Always have both faced scrutiny from consumers for using trans-identified males to sell their products. Earlier this year, women on social media called for a Tampax boycott after Jeffery Marsh, a 45 year old man who identifies as non-binary, spoke about being paid to promote tampons and other feminine hygiene products for the brand.
Always, another feminine hygiene company, faced widespread backlash last year after transgender TikToker Dylan Mulvaney claimed to have received a sponsorship deal from them. Mulvaney would prompt yet another wave of anger from women after he was invited on an Ulta Beauty podcast to discuss girlhood and motherhood in October of 2022, resulting in #BoycottUlta trending on Twitter.
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