Trident gum has found itself in a sticky situation (sorry) after firing off a series of tweets joking about the gender pronouns of its products.
“he/they of the day: spearmint trident gum,” the brand Tweeted Saturday.
he/they of the day: spearmint trident gum
— trident gum (@tridentgum) March 6, 2022
That led to some immediate backlash from some trans Twitter users:
Omg yes! My identity is a funny joke thank you trident gum ❤️
— willz (@willztwt) March 6, 2022
What’s it like only using pronouns to boost your product when u don’t actually care
— Ares (@SpectralAres) March 6, 2022
Me, a hey/they reading this: pic.twitter.com/v27GDb0xyf
— 🏳️⚧️Oliver | CANON THASMIN 💙💙 (@t4tTARDIS) March 7, 2022
And we’re not sure Trident fully grasped the sarcasm of this comment, judging by their response:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
i’ll just say bubble gum is she/her (obviously)
— trident gum (@tridentgum) March 6, 2022
But some responses surely stuck to the bottom of Trident’s shoe (sorry), like when one commenter pointed out that Trident’s parent company, Mondelez International, has made political contributions to anti-LGBTQ Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas).
so wholesome ?? https://t.co/8zEvVS3R3G pic.twitter.com/Elb9AkIOw6
— wharrgarbl ? (@nleglopnar) March 8, 2022
And another comment pointed out that Trident kinda-sorta-completely stole the “he/they of the day” premise from Twitter user @emonormie.
Do you need help obtaining @emonormie’s mailing address to send the check? Happy to connect you, although I’m sure you could just pull up their Twitter account again and hit that little envelope button in the upper right corner instead this time.
— athena (@athenaxco) March 8, 2022
@emonormie wasn’t thrilled to have their account co-opted by a giant corporation, either:
i know he/they of the day is about characters/things that are in some sense nonsensical but “he/they of the day: our gum brand :)” doesn’t even make any fucking sense akdhdjsksj
— norman (@emonormie) March 7, 2022
run me my fucking check https://t.co/aKWwGLwxXg
— norman (@emonormie) March 7, 2022
Invader7
Wow. Over gum ? I ge the supposed misappropiation of pronouns ..But some of the trans crowd is so easily triggered… There are WAY more important issues to expend energy & efforts on !!!
radiooutmike
To whom?
Why is Trident even bothering assigning pronouns to gum in the first place? People get triggered because this shit is pretty elementary.
A US corporate brand wants to get snarky with pronouns, the least they could do is get pronouns correct? Or at least not exacerbate the matter further.
Heywood Jablowme
@radiooutmike: Technically, “he/they” may be correct since (1) Trident is sold ten to a pack so that’s “they”; (2) in most of the gendered European languages, chewing gum is male: “el chicle,” “une gomme à mâcher,” “le gomma da masticare,” “kaugummi,” etc.
But the real problem was probably just that the company didn’t supervise the employee in charge of the Twitter account.
nunya
Yeah, I wonder if there are any Ukrainians worried about their pronouns right about now. Can anyone say Omphaloskepsis?
missvamp
i don’t get the outrage either. i don’t get the entire pronoun thing at all tbh. but having autism- alot of stuff goes over my head.
Halfnhalf
When you trivialize something that is important to a group of people, you trivialize the people., This makes them the butt of the joke. It reduces them and delegitimizes them and isolates them into an other category, which makes them less human. Trident is helping the Transphobic cause. This clearly shows a lack of empathy at the very least, but since this is a subliminal message that denigrates trans people, then it is likely to have been done purposefully. I just don’t believe that they are so ignorant that they didn’t know what they were doing.
Jaquelope
When did pronouns used become a trans issue? I thought it was more of a non-binary issue.
Is there even such a thing as a non-binary trans person?
Kangol2
Yes, a person who transitions and the presents as non-binary would be a non-binary trans person, no?
Fahd
Someone should get “reassigned” over this. Not nice for corporate to steal someone’s shtick like that and yes it is demeaning to trans people and by extension to all people’s dignity; not to mention the donations to that scumbag Congressperson. I hope they take more care in producing the product.
Jim
Hopefully one day we can get back to laughing at our selves.
Ronbo
I try to use the word “Ze” when the gender is unclear. But… the horribly transphobic bot on this site changes it from “Ze” to “Zoe”! So “no”, we can not be like everyone else on the left and have a good time laughing at our unique perspectuve,
The gender issues mandates that, like Republicans, we have no sense of humor… only outrage at pelple like Zoe.
THAT Steve
Has it ever done any good to tell people what they should not be angry or offended by?
scotty
who chews gum anymore?