Calvin Klein, which has featured racy ads for years, was blistered online after someone posted a photo from the company’s Pride 2022 Campaign showing a man wearing a bra.
In the promotional photo, Bappie Kortram from the Netherlands, who claims he is a woman, wore jeans and a sports bra. British Zebedee Talent, which represents Bappie, describes him as “a trans man who has not had top surgery yet.”
“Calvin Klein wants to go broke,” Danish physician Dr. Anastasia Maria Luopis tweeted, eliciting a viral response.
Calvin Klein wants to go broke. pic.twitter.com/6pOBKKNMx3
— Dr. Anastasia Maria Loupis (@DrLoupis) May 23, 2023
Social media ripped Calvin Klein with comments such as these:
- What a great way to “Bud Light” themselves.
- What do they think they are achieving by replacing unrealistic beauty standards with unrealistic ugly standards Just more evidence that we don’t live in a ‘free market’ as our rulers say, but in an ideological oligarchy
- In a bid to appease a very tiny minority the west is carefully alienating the HUGE majority
- Well, there goes Calvin Klein!!! Personally, I have always found furry men in bras repulsive but that’s just me!!
When the photos were first posted, Bappie wrote on Instagram, according to The Daily Mail:
“There aren’t enough words in any language to describe how much I love Jamilla and how much this shoot means for us both. The fact that we were selected for the pride collection of Calvin Klein makes us proud on many intersecting levels. We were both about to enter new chapters in our life. Jamilla and her gastric sleeve and my upcoming top surgery. These are beautiful memories ( and mammories! lol ). To showcase unapologetic fat love, fat pride, fat cis bodies, fat trans bodies, fat joy.”
In May 2022, Calvin Klein ran an ad campaign for Mother’s Day showing a pregnant woman who claimed she was a man. The photo was accompanied by a quote from the company which stated, “Today, in support of women and mothers all over the world, we’re spotlighting the realities of new families.”
After backlash on social media ensued, the company responded, “We embrace this platform as an inclusive and respectful environment for individualism and self-expression. At Calvin Klein, we tolerate everything except intolerance— any intolerant commentary will be removed, and any accounts issuing hateful statements may be blocked.”