Transphobia and MeUndies: Being an ally isn’t a trophy, it’s a commitment.
By: Noctis Cline
Tags: Transphobia, Meundies, LGBT, Harry Potter, Trans Rights

Let’s break this entire statement down on what really shines and what doesn’t work at all. Starting with the good, you can pinpoint when into account a timeframe of everything involving the situation between development and when things begun with Rowling, her mask falling off around very early June of this year. There have been signs of transphobic activity when she was caught favoriting tweets made by transphobes for a while now, but the issue of that never came up until she doubled down on her transphobia. By finding out that the collection been in development since early 2019 means we have a time frame of development and that this was very late in production that it might have been impossible to not go forward with this.

Other good points include them attempting to reassure their consumers with “yeah, we don’t agree with her” and that’s something I can sincerely believe given how they do promote the LGBT community and tries to uplift them often through models and showcasing them in advertisements. They also say that they’ve already brought in an internal Diversity & Equity team to prevent another situation like this to make sure that both our values as consumers and their values as a company are met. This is all the positives that they mentioned though.

The bad is basically the ugly; let’s talk about the elephant in the room. How they end this entire statement, saying “we get it if you don’t, but maybe pwease do buy our stuff 🥺”, is one of the worst ways to “explain” your product to people who’ve felt betrayed by this reveal. Even if it’s not what they intended, it reads as such. Reading the last point’s question, it is phrased in a manner that makes it come off very scathing to it reading like a “tantrum” rather than have it be more tempered. One way they could have wrote their last question would be as so: “The release of this collection has actively made me uncomfortable to support MeUndies, regardless of intent and situation. Why should I support MeUndies in the coming future?” Between the question and the response, the last question is the biggest red flag of this all. You don’t make your consumers sound like crying children not getting what they want. People are not as sensitive as you’d think and can just simply cancel and move on, as many already have.

Adding to the salt in the wound is their decision to include in the statement that they donate to LGBT charities to say “we’re not bigoted, we do good things” and it wouldn’t be another red flag if they hadn’t pointed it out. Pair that with comparing it with the Brennan Center of Justice sudden donation shift, it just reads like they’re trying to dodge the point of what’s being pointed out and hiding behind their good deeds. Funnily enough, omitting it would make for a stronger statement and they even had the perfect excuse! With their partnership with Warner Bros. Consumer Products, they had the perfect opportunity to say “due to terms in our contract, we were unable to donate/stop the project at this time.” Not only would it have alleviate them of some responsibility and passed it onto WBCP, it would at least keep a sense of consumer trust they were aiming for. I’m not the one to make excuses for or give corporations a pass though and MeUndies is no different, despite being small.

Where do we go from here?

You’ve made this far and you might be asking yourself “but what about this is transphobic? Spending money for clothing isn’t doing any harm!” but it’s not about buying clothes is transphobic, it’s is about who profits off you buying this particular set of clothes. To fully understand, let’s jump back to royalties. J.K. Rowling still profits off anything that is produced under Harry Potter because of royalties. She still owns the franchise, still holds rights to the books, games, amusement parks, and many other deals, which includes clothing. If it has the Wizarding World on it, it’s under her thumb and any sale pockets her money.

The point of this is by willingly spending money to support a transphobe, you are committing an action that is transphobic. It’s not that you have to be a transphobe too! Anyone can perform acts of transphobia unconsciously, from acts of accidental misgendering to enforcing gender roles without realizing. Accidently spending money on a transphobe can legitimately happen. You do not have to be a transphobe to perform any act of transphobia, no matter how incidental.

However, no matter how much of “too late” it was that this collection was in development, MeUndies made the decision to attempt to make money off this without any kind of reassurance and believing that their consumer base would trust them after having been burnt by other companies before. They actively decided the money was more important than their values and, to an extent, we don’t know how big the blow would be if they didn’t follow through. Would they face penalties from Warner Bros. Consumer Products for not going the full way through? We will simply never know. All we do know is that:

1. MeUndies saw this collection as a big break for big sales, regardless of what happened earlier this year.

2. Despite saying they don’t agree with Rowling, they decided to release this product anyways, saying that their deal is with WBCP and not Rowling, while dodging the questions of if it’s connected to Rowling when it’s clear she still own the franchise.

3. They released way too many copy & pasted statements to people who did send in anything on both twitter and e-mail as if they were prepared and aimed to pacify their audience than communicating.

It does seem like they do want to aim to get better, their statement does reflect that, but then again, it reflects not wanting to be held accountable for what they did with that last part and the e-mail. The idea they keep asserting “the values of the Harry Potter story (acceptance, diversity, equality)” among the statement and responses sent would be enough to secure their own safety when the story of Harry Potter doesn’t fully even reflect those qualities, especially when the author herself doesn’t and you cannot use death of the author, an argument that claims author holds no weight in their works, to try to justify this when she has tweeted far long after about how “Dumbledore is gay” and many other facts after the stories have closed, going forward to work on other linked projects such as Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. You cannot actively argue for a point that doesn’t reflect its own values and that’s what makes this a moot point to try to convey to others.

You can’t claim to be for the trans community when you are actively supporting a product, that in the end, is funding someone who actively holds contempt and disgust against us. Holding the fact you supported LGBT charities as a trophy of proof that you’re an ally doesn’t make you an ally. Claiming you can do something good doesn’t make you good. A lot of us in the LGBT community have hard trust issues with capitalism taking advantage of us as many of us had been before. This is the first real issue that MeUndies has had from my knowledge so all I can say for now is this: do better. Do not just tell your consumers when we ask why should we support you as a company “we hope that you do but understand if you don’t” and that you hoped the values of the product would overcome the actual problem at hand, sidestepping the entirety of J.K. Rowling herself. Your words are empty unless we see more proof of actions and for myself, I’m giving you time, but I’m not giving you my money until I see improvement.

What can I do now if I was planning to buy some MeUndies but don’t feel comfortable doing so at this point?

If you considered spending money on MeUndies and don’t feel comfortable anymore doing so, there’s a thread of inclusive underwear brands that can give you more options. Especially during COVID-19, smaller businesses need the support to stay afloat through this time when others may not be able to afford their product. By taking time to throw money towards these small businesses, you’re helping brands that support and care about trans people at this time and that goes a long way.

If you feel like you want to help support the community instead, then redirect that energy and support trans people, especially Black trans people. Put your money into supporting trans folk as myself and others who have been faced with violence from the US President and his Cabinet here and those affected in other countries who may need it. Support Black lives as well, especially now. They face more injustices and by reading up on everything happening, educating yourself, finding out what you can do, even if it’s just spreading word, donating where you can, or emailing your state government (if you live in the US), you can do something to help. Using that money you were going to own on Black owned and trans owned businesses do a lot more than a company that “supports LGBT people” but doesn’t put it back into the community. By supporting Black owned and LGBT owned businesses directly, you’re letting your money speak for you where your values lie.