MrsArsenal04 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Arsenal ❤️ Family ❤️

[Ani O'Brien @aniobrien]

As a lesbian, I am so tired of this nonsense. I am tired of corporate Pride and activist Pride.

This week HelloFresh decided that the best way to celebrate Pride Month was to post jokes about preparing for anal sex and offering high-fibre recipes to help people "prep". They then doubled down with a discount code called BOTTOMSUP.

Inclusion! WOO! 🙄

The thing that frustrates me is that people like me have spent years defending gay rights against accusations that we are hypersexual, inappropriate, and incapable of ordinary family life.

That was one of the central prejudices gay people faced. For decades, opponents portrayed gay men in particular as sexually obsessed and depraved. They argued that homosexuality was all about sex rather than love, commitment, relationships and family. The fight for equal rights was partly a fight against exactly that caricature.

And now here we are. A major multinational company has decided the best way to celebrate Pride is to publicly discuss anal sex. What an achievement.

The same-sex marriage movement wasn't about sex. It was about love, commitment, and the ability to build a life with the person you love. It was about family and equality before the law.

Most gay people are not what the weirdos in the HelloFresh marketing department think we are. We go to work, pay bills, walk the dog, argue about whose turn it is to empty the dishwasher, and try to build a decent life together.

You know... Normal things.

The overwhelming majority of gay people just want to be accepted and left alone. We want the same freedoms, responsibilities and opportunities as everyone else. We don't need multinational corporations making dirty jokes about us to feel "included".

What makes this even more ridiculous is that HelloFresh's core market is clearly not radical "queer" activists with blue hair and septum rings.

Their customers are overwhelmingly middle-class couples and families. Busy parents. Professionals. People with disposable income who want convenient meals after work.

How hard would it have been to make a genuinely wholesome Pride advertisement?

Two mums cooking dinner with their kids or two husbands hosting friends. A same-sex couple just making dinner together or flipping a coin to see who has to cook. A simple message acknowledging families and love. Instead they went with rectum jokes.

Somewhere along the way after the TQ+ hijacked our movement, Pride stopped being about acceptance and started being about performance. A small but influential group of activists have convinced themselves that being as shocking, vulgar and sexually explicit as possible is somehow brave and intrinsically "queer". They think boundaries of any kind are oppression including standards and decorum. They think manners are censorship.

The result is campaigns like this one and somehow people are shocked when there is backlash against us all.

I actually feel really sorry for gay men in particular because one of the oldest stigmas they have faced is the idea that they are dirty, promiscuous and defined entirely by sex. This campaign reinforces that stereotype.

If you wanted to design an advertisement that would make ordinary people roll their eyes and think Pride is ridiculous, or shield their children's eyes in horror, you would struggle to do better than this.

The irony is that HelloFresh's marketing department thinks this is progressive. It's regressive and distasteful. It takes decades of work by ordinary gay people who want to be seen as neighbours, colleagues, parents, partners and family members and reduces all of it to a crude sexual punchline.

The people who fought for our rights wanted dignity, but the people most enthusiastic about Pride today seem determined to turn it into a fetish convention with corporate sponsors.

[MrsArsenal04 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @MrsArsenal04]

@REDactionAFC Was there for martinelli and dowman ones, defo dowman!

[MrsArsenal04 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @MrsArsenal04]

George is so ugly, what producer picked him 😭 #loveisland

[The Different Knock 🏆 @DiffKnock]

God I love these boys

[talkSPORT @talkSPORT]

Shirt sales for Gabriel increased by 350 PER CENT after his penalty miss vs PSG. He became the top-selling name on Arsenal shirts over the weekend. 👕

An insane show of support from the Gunners fans. 👏❤️

[🎰 @maplemartini]

this is my met gala bathroom selfie

[The Athletic | Football @TheAthleticFC]

Shirt sales for Arsenal defender Gabriel increased by 350 per cent after the centre-back missed a crucial penalty in his side’s Champions League final defeat on Saturday.

Gabriel, 28, took the final penalty in the shootout, but his effort went over the bar, and Paris Saint-Germain were crowned Champions League winners for the second consecutive season.

However, despite the disappointment for the Brazilian, fans have responded by buying his shirt en masse. The 28-year-old became the top-selling name printed on shirts over the weekend.

At one point, sales of the Brazil international’s shirt doubled those of any other shirt being sold.

More from @gunnerblog and @nnamdionye ⬇️

🔗 https://t.co/tbA927zt2V

[Premier League @premierleague]

Ending his debut season as a Premier League champion 🥳

[REDaction Gooners @REDactionAFC]

Unpopular opinion:

everyone welcome and all that, but ‘WHAT DO YOU THINK OF TOTTENHAM??’ just marks you out as a total rookie / League Cup merchant

Sorry / Not sorry

[James. @afcjxmes]

I know this gets spoken about a lot but I do think it'd be nice if we chanted more about Arsenal and less about Tottenham on days like today

[Andy Ha @AndyHa_]

Odegaard fuming at Ben White for throwing his sunglasses into the crowd is the highlight of the day imo

[MrsArsenal04 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @MrsArsenal04]

@SkyFootball WE LOVE BIG GABI!! He is a champion and a legend in our eyes!! He is one of the main reasons we are champions! One of the best defenders we’ve ever had!! ❤️❤️❤️

[MrsArsenal04 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @MrsArsenal04]

Shouldn’t be angry at any of the players. All have been incredible this season. Big Gabi 1 of the main reasons we are champions, Eze took us to another level. Penalties are a lottery. Was so unlucky. These players will win it all.
It’s the START of Arsenals era, 2006 was the end

[Arsenal Chizzy @ArsenalChizzy_]

I’m not even angry at Gabriel, I’m more angry at EZE, That guy is too nonchalant for my liking.

Very lazy footballer.

[Mike Keegan @MikeKeegan_DM]

Seeing a lot of gleeful mickey-taking from people who you’d imagine would snatch your arm off if you offered their clubs the season Arsenal have just had.

[MrsArsenal04 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @MrsArsenal04]

Don’t give this rage baiting shite player the response he wants

[Gooner Chris @ArsenalN7]

Daniel Siebert. Corrupt to the very core 💀

[Arsenal @Arsenal]

A season to be proud of.

We pushed the boundaries over land and sea, and couldn't have done it without your support. Thank you, Gooners ❤️

[P™ @SemperFiArsenal]

Ref got a cheque at half time

[Arsenal @Arsenal]

Standing on the brink of history.