Did you know that Mother’s Day is controversial?
I didn’t. Pretty sure nobody did. After all, everybody has a mother.
Corporate America, though, has for some reason decided that Mother’s Day is a “sensitive” time, a “challenging” time, or a “difficult” time, so they are inviting customers to opt out of emails related to the triggering day.
No, I am not kidding.
@Nespresso as well pic.twitter.com/ipnzYCwxMf
— Arizona Informer (@AZInformer) April 23, 2023
This is ironic in many ways, not the least of which is that a lot of us find going to our email boxes because facing 20,082 unread emails–not including what wound up in “Junk,” is “difficult,” “challenging,” and “sensitive.” Personally, I would be happy if they sent me fewer marketing emails.
How about just ones telling me that something I want is 40% off? That I can handle.
And ironically @Ancestry too pic.twitter.com/EUgooyjX8o
— Arizona Informer (@AZInformer) April 23, 2023
When I first saw this Twitter threat I thought it must be a joke, but no, it is real. Mother’s Day is apparently an oppressive thing to some people–enough that corporate America doesn’t find it “difficult” or “challenging” to be “sensitive” to your trauma and let you ignore the fact that you were born of a woman.
A deluge of Mother’s Day marketing emails flooded Michelle Levinson’s inbox year after year — sometimes 15 in a day, each reminding them of their estrangement from their mother.
Then last month, Levinson received a different kind of email: “We understand Mother’s Day can be a really difficult time for some of our #PashFam,” read the message from Passion Planner, a planner and journal company. “If you’d rather not receive emails from us about Mother’s Day this year, feel free to opt-out.”
The choice felt like a breath of fresh air for Levinson, who lives in Cleveland. They gladly clicked the button to unsubscribe, thankful for the option to get fewer unpleasant reminders of the holiday.
“I’m honestly very grateful that there’s even a step in this direction from even just one company,” Levinson said. “It’s heartwarming to know that somebody somewhere is trying to think of the people that they’re reaching out to.”
Given the choice of pronoun, I assume that Michelle is transgender, although he/she may simply be a weird pronoun person.
In either case, this is ridiculous.
@milkandhoneyspa too pic.twitter.com/GXrOVrDmGt
— Arizona Informer (@AZInformer) April 23, 2023
I could name a million things that “trigger” me if I chose to believe that the rest of society owes to me the privilege of dictating to everybody else what they can and cannot say. If you include all the potentially “difficult” or “sensitive” topics–ones that strike closer to home to most people than Mothers’ Day, you would get 20,000 potential opt-out emails–more than marketing ones.
. @stitchfix pic.twitter.com/E6zNjs3mIc
— Arizona Informer (@AZInformer) April 23, 2023
My wife’s mother just passed away. Clearly, that is sensitive. So are advertisements for Le Cruset pans, since Cathy loved those (but never used them for some reason),. It would never occur to us that society should tap dance around the topic of mothers. Recognizing that mothers are special should be something we acknowledge for at least the 300 days a year they don’t drive us nuts.
— Arizona Informer (@AZInformer) April 24, 2023
There is something particularly sick about a society where a company called “buy buy baby” is sensitive about celebrating mothers.
What’s particularly fascinating is that this is clearly coordinated somehow. Nothing like this arises organically.
So: who? I have no idea, except that it is likely some alphabet-person movement.
Why? This is easy: there is a widespread movement to destroy the family.
And, as you can see, corporate America has joined the fight. On the wrong side, of course.
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