Spanish designer fashion house Balenciaga has apologized after a kinky, BDSM-themed ad campaign featuring little girls displaying teddy bears in bondage outfits ignited a firestorm of outrage that engulfed the virtue-signaling brand after it quit Twitter to protest the overhaul undertaken by new owner Elon Musk.
In the images that were shot by Italian photographer Gabriele Galimberti, the young girls were captured while holding the company’s plush teddy bear handbags which were dressed in fishnet and leather garb along with locks and chains, with one of the children posing atop a bed, drawing immediate criticism that the ads were exploitative and sexualized kids.
Also included in the offensive pics was an excerpt from a 2008 Supreme Court ruling upholding a part of a federal child pornography law that criminalized child abuse images, a bizarre inclusion that was confirmed by Twitter fact-checkers.
The Balenciaga ad is disgusting. Toddlers posing with BDSM sex toys and alcohol. Hiding in plain sight a Supreme Court case involving a federal child porn law… Stop sexualizing kids to sell your ugly overpriced crap. #Balenciaga pic.twitter.com/hTNJ4TD6od
— Alison H.Centofante (@AlisonHowardC) November 21, 2022
This is absolutely disgusting. Balenciaga features toddlers in ads, holding teddy bears in bondage outfits and with a court document about “child porn” partially hidden in the image.
This is criminal & sick. Sexualizing children must be a redline. @KimKardashian – speak out now. pic.twitter.com/lNIdywunlY
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) November 22, 2022
In a statement posted to Instagram, Balenciaga wrote, ‘We sincerely apologize for any offense our holiday campaign may have caused. Our plush bear bags should not have been featured with children in this campaign. We have immediately removed the campaign from all platforms.”
‘We apologize for displaying unsettling documents in our campaign. We take this matter very seriously and are taking legal action against the parties responsible for creating the set and including unapproved items for our Spring 23 campaign photoshoot. We strongly condemn abuse of children in any form. We stand for children safety and well-being,” the statement reads, suggesting that the company will be taking legal action against the photographer.
(Image: Screengrab/Yahoo News)
Conservative commentator Candace Owens discussed the Balenciaga controversy with Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Tuesday’s edition of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” where she tied it into the larger themes of the sexualizing of children, especially in the nation’s classrooms.
“Sadly, I expected this and I’ve been speaking out on this for a long time, I have been adamantly and loudly and strongly opposed to the transgendered movement because it was so obvious that this was the next step,” she said. “The normalization of pedophilia, the normalization of child porn pretending that it is just a sexual preference, that’s what happens when you add a whole lot of letters to LGB, this where you’re going to end up.”
(Video: Fox News)
“I’m a parent to two young children, this is scary,” she said. “There are mothers and fathers watching this program right now who are terrified, because they’re scared when they drop their kids off at school, they’re not at the gates anymore, they’re in the classrooms. There are groomers in the classroom that condone this kind of stuff, half of them are on TikTok openly talking about, calling them their kids, thinking that parents should have no say in what their children are being taught.”
“Children are being taught that it’s ok to mutilate their own bodies in this pursuit to some leftist ideology that’s never going to occur,” Owens added. “Parents are fearful, you just can’t leave the TV on anymore, that’s what it’s like being a parent. You can’t trust that a child’s program can be left on in the background and it’s not going to attempt to indoctrinate your child and to make them think that this overt sexualization is normal, that’s a scary thing.”
“Maybe even more frightening Tucker, is that like you said, the many celebrities and many people that have platforms, these weird people that are in executive boardrooms that are focused on children in this perverse way are silent right now,” she continued. “They weren’t so silent about Kyrie Irving, he got a list of six steps he had to complete, Balenciaga just gets to say sorry and that’s it?”
While Balenciaga’s brand may take a hit in the short term, the story will likely soon be forgotten by a media that is more interested in glorifying perverts than protecting children.
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