A lingerie company that peddles high-priced underwear for women is featuring a biological male wearing a bra and panties in their latest ad campaign.
Luxe outfit Honey Birdette showed a male model in its new “Ruby” three-piece lingerie set earlier this week.
In a post on the company’s Instagram account, male model Jake DuPree poses in a red bra, panties and matching stockings and garter next to a caption that reads in part: “We will continue to use our voice to support and empower the LGBTQ+ community, women and anyone who wants to feel fabulous in our lingerie.”
It includes a warning for those who don’t approve of a man wearing women’s underwear: “While thoughtful and constructive discussions are important to push culture forward, hate speech and bullying will not be tolerated on our channels. Comments of this negative nature will be deleted.”
But that didn’t prevent a wave of critics and former customers from blasting the company on its Instagram page, including one who wondered, “Can’t women just have nice things for themselves anymore?”
Another asked, “What client base is this directed towards? It wasn’t created to appeal to the 99.9% females.” The post garnered 796 likes.
Similar posts Saturday on Honey Birdette’s Instagram page included one, “Unfortunate decision you made.” Another read, “People just need to stop buying from company(sic.) like this…”
DuPree describes themself as a non-binary “international burlesque performer.”
Comments on their Instagram page next to the photos of them modeling the lingerie as well as Honey Birdette’s page were “limited” after DuPree’s snaps were posted Wednesday.
The company’s controversial advertising campaign comes on the heels of Nike’s recent decision to feature trans woman Dylan Mulvaney as a model in an ad for a sports bra and leggings.
Honey Birdette, which was founded in Australia in 2006, has 60 stores spread through that country, the UK and the US, and sells bondage wear as well as high-end lingerie.
The company used to market itself as “a luxury lingerie brand created by women for women,” but after the controversy surrounding its new campaign this week, it now uses the tagline: “A luxury lingerie company for all!”
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
