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Political Correctness or just ridiculous

(227 Posts)
Firecracker123 Thu 13-Aug-20 14:25:05

A bra not for the easily offended it seems.

Xander Thu 13-Aug-20 14:27:17

World has gone mad!!!!!!

kittylester Thu 13-Aug-20 14:32:38

I saw that and thought it was bonkers.

GrannyLaine Thu 13-Aug-20 14:32:42

Words fail me!

lemongrove Thu 13-Aug-20 14:34:11

It’s stupid quite frankly.Darker coloured bras could be called coffee, chocolate, tobbacco, mocha etc .....as opposed to strawberry shortcake or bluebell.
Anyone can object to anything, but it’s up to firms to have some common sense and backbone.

Jane10 Thu 13-Aug-20 14:35:14

The world seems full of unexpected opportunities to be offended.
Poor old M&S.

Septimia Thu 13-Aug-20 15:09:35

Daft names for colours anyway!

Doodledog Thu 13-Aug-20 15:13:21

I am a firm believer in sensitive language (AKA political correctness), but even I think that this is a step too far.

I would never have thought about race in that context; but if the term is offensive to people of colour then my feelings as a white person aren't relevant. It's not for me to say what should or shouldn't cause offence to other people.

Doodledog Thu 13-Aug-20 15:14:21

By 'a step too far', I meant that I thought it was an over-reaction. I've just realised that my sentence was ambiguous. I wish we could edit on here!

Callistemon Thu 13-Aug-20 15:17:30

The most offensive thing about their bras is that they have been out of stock of the ones I buy and don't look as if they're ever going to get them in again.

I don't really care what colour they are.
Except strawberry shortcake or pistachio green.

timetogo2016 Thu 13-Aug-20 15:19:23

I watched Ricky Gervais on political correctness.
You may not like him but what he said totaly makes sense.
Free speech has gone out of the window as has common sense.
The world has gone bonkers.

EllanVannin Thu 13-Aug-20 15:25:03

The most offensive thing about their bra's is the price.

Ellianne Thu 13-Aug-20 15:27:13

If you look at the colour choices there are several dubious names for the darker shades ... cinnamon, sienna, fudge etc. so why is tobacco so offensive?

honeyrose Thu 13-Aug-20 15:27:30

Ridiculous! Why would the name/shade of Tobacco have racist connotations?! It is after all unhealthy to people of all colours. Sweets are not particularly healthy for that matter either! It seems you daren’t open your mouth nowadays in case someone is offended. Yes, perhaps Caramel for example would have been a better name, to tie in with the “sweets” theme that the lighter bra colours have, but I still can’t see that Tobacco as a shade is racist. Tobacco is an unhealthy thing for everyone, but I certainly wouldn’t object to that word as a shade of bra. Many colours/shades may have names which are not deemed “healthy”! We’re not eating the bras after all.

Starblaze Thu 13-Aug-20 15:32:03

I really truly do not understand white people getting offended by black people being offended.

It seems more ridiculous to me to be offfended by something that has no impact on you than it does to be offended by something that does have impact on you.

Personally, if I wanted a bra to match my skin tone as some do, I would not want it to be called "tobacco". I have never before in my life seen a colour described as tabacco and I would never go to DFS and buy a "tobacco" sofa. It would put me off and I smoked once upon a time. So using it to describe underwear that matches skin colour is gross to me.

As a white person, I would still tell the retailer this.

I am sure if absolutely no one would be offended by this story, most people would never know they needed to offend themselves with it because it would never have one to our attention. News outlets tend to play to people's silly outrage.

Sorry, a bit cross but there you have it

AGAA4 Thu 13-Aug-20 15:35:19

Not a very nice name for a shade of bra but not racist. I have one in almond. Is that offensive too?

Lexisgranny Thu 13-Aug-20 15:46:36

I cannot think of any occasion during my bra-wearing life when I searched for a label telling me in teeny tiny print, what the manufacturer had chosen to call the colour I had selected. This really smacks to me of ‘quick, let me find something I can complain about’. I have seen clothes in glossy magazines described as tobacco coloured, usually when worn with a wax jacket, along side a well polished pair of brogues which put me off, not because of any racial prejudice, but because I would have been reminded of an old ash tray

Spangler Thu 13-Aug-20 15:50:37

This car from the 1980's was a Porsche 911, It's colour was described in the brochure as Tobacco Brown Metallic. There wasn't a fuss about that description then, so much so that I bet unless you were a 1980's Yuppie, you wouldn't even have heard of it.

ladymuck Thu 13-Aug-20 15:58:08

It looks as though the shopper in question has intentionally been on the look-out for something she can deem 'racist'. M&S should have realised that and told her that other shops are available.

Ellianne Thu 13-Aug-20 16:02:00

Well ladymuck, she could have gone to John Lewis, (nearly 50 items with colour tobacco), Boots (several hairdyes), handbags, furniture, wallpaper etc. The colour tobacco is all over the shop.

Missfoodlove Thu 13-Aug-20 16:06:45

Dulux and their colour charts will need a lot of reworking ?

25Avalon Thu 13-Aug-20 16:08:32

Firms are afraid to take a stand for fear they will get adverse reports on social media and lose custom.

Aldom Thu 13-Aug-20 16:08:37

When see the word tobacco I automatically think Nicotiana the beautifully scented tobacco plant. A well respected department store J... L... sell a scented candle by Molton Brown. It's called Tobacco Absolute. Presumably so named because its perfume is similar to the tobacco plant. Not for any other reason.

GrannyGravy13 Thu 13-Aug-20 16:14:58

What a complete fuss about nothing!!!

Ellianne Thu 13-Aug-20 16:15:51

My mother lived on a tobacco plantation in South Africa. I just thought, has the colour perhaps got any connections with black labour and slavery?