Sigh. Another day, another brand being gross and totally mismanaging customer complaints on Facebook. Just yesterday we chronicled how clothing retailer PLNDR perpetuates sexism via their brand page on Facebook, and today we have a more blatant and oppressive version of that.
A few days ago our Facebook supporter Jane reached out to the company, which commonly objectifies women to sell its products, to let them know how she felt. And while they did change their profile picture in response, they also revealed – through their interactions with Jane – that misogyny is deeply ingrained in their company culture.
Here’s a pro tip: never begin a response to a sincere customer complaint with “sorry if you find it offensive.” It’s condescending. Then again, pretty much everything about that first response is condescending.
If only it stopped there. It gets so much worse. After Jane (who is a biker and thus a potential customer herself) thanks GNAR for changing their profile picture but points out that she wasn’t alone in her discomfort with it, the brand rep chooses to get ugly. Here’s the entirety of their second response to Jane (grammar issues and all):
“if men think its in appropriate probably lying or gay. what guy doesn’t like a nic eset of tits be well, our lube is the best, we love tits and riding bikes, so ride on jane, and keep your body to yourself, but i bet somebody out there loves your tits. and yes we are weird we are men, love life it goes really fast.”
It goes without saying that Jane deserves more than an apology.
A stroll through the history of GNAR’s Facebook page and webpage already makes it pretty clear how proudly sexist they are, but thanks to this guy we know now just how oppressive their misogynistic view of women is and how it dovetails with homophobia.
GNAR, inexplicably (like so many others), believes that intentionally demeaning and excluding people from your online community is a smart business decision. It’s not.
One wants to believe the world is moving forward and hypermasculine companies like GNAR will soon be left in the dust, but unless we speak up, things just stay the same. And the GNAR guys think they’re winning.
So let’s let them know just how many of us are not buying it:
Written by Imran Siddiquee at MissRepresentation.org. Follow him on Twitter @imransiddiquee