Anti-rape feminist group plants ‘sexual consent’ lingerie among Victoria’s …

December 14, 2012 by admin
Filed under Latest Lingerie News

By
Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED:

17:22 EST, 13 December 2012

|

UPDATED:

17:25 EST, 13 December 2012

A feminist group called FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture is using Victoria’s Secret to get its anti-rape message across to the masses.

Last week, the group tried to convince American fashion media that Victoria’s Secret’s PINK line was launching a special collection of sexual consent-themed underwear, sending out a fake press release and launching a fake website under the Victoria’s Secret name.

Now FORCE has launched ‘operation panty drop’, putting its fake PINK Loves Consent thongs with the words ‘Respect’ and ‘No Means No’ next to real Victoria’s Secret underwear that say ‘Unwrap Me’ in stores across North America, and even some in Europe.

Marketing coup: A feminist group called FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture has launched 'operation panty drop', putting fake PINK thongs with the words 'No Means No' next to real Victoria's Secret underwear that say 'Unwrap Me'

Sexual consent campaign: Feminist group FORCE has launched ‘operation panty drop’, putting fake PINK thongs with the words ‘No Means No’ next to real Victoria’s Secret underwear that say ‘Unwrap Me’

In its original press release, PINK Loves Consent claimed to be a new Victoria’s Secret line that ‘promotes consent to fight rape in new panties.’

The PINK Loves Consent website, with a Victoria’s Secret copyright notice on the bottom and the brand’s logo at the top, features a model wearing underwear with the phrase ‘No Means No’.

The line has its own Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, and the website claims to have 5,541,840 members who have joined the ‘consent revolution’.

The website also shows how the Victoria’s Secret PINK
line has evolved with ‘Then and Now’ sections that read: ‘Then we loved
styles that were all about rape culture. Now we love styles that are all
about consent! Catch the changes hitting stores this holiday season.’

Fake PINK underwear: FORCE's fake PINK Loves Consent line, which they pass of as Victoria's Secret and features taglines like 'Respect', is being sneaked into Victoria's Secret stores across America and Europe

Fake PINK underwear: FORCE’s fake PINK Loves Consent line, which they pass of as Victoria’s Secret and features taglines like ‘Respect’, is being sneaked into Victoria’s Secret stores across America and Europe

The website also has a Facts box which reads: ‘By the time women in the United
States graduate from college, one in four will have been raped.

‘Every
21 hours someone is raped on a college campus. Women are twice as
likely to be raped in their lifetime than to develop breast cancer.’

When Jezebel’s
Katie Baker spoke to Molly Reagan, who says she is the ‘Media Relations
with Victoria’s Secret’s new PINK loves CONSENT line,’ she said she was
working for Victoria’s Secret.

However
a Limited Brands spokesperson (which owns Victoria’s Secret), rebuffed
these claims, saying: ‘This is not an official PINK campaign. We are
looking into it.’

The PINK Loves Consent website, with a Victoria's Secret copyright notice on the bottom and the brand's logo at the top, features a model wearing underwear with the phrase 'No Means No'.

Prank website: The PINK Loves Consent website, with a Victoria’s Secret copyright notice on the bottom and the brand’s logo at the top, features a model wearing underwear with the phrase ‘No Means No’

The website is still active, and now
that FORCE has admitted it is behind the PINK Loves Consent campaign,
it is taking to brick-and-mortar Victoria’s Secret stores to spread
their message, putting its PINK Loves Consent underwear next to real Victoria’s Secret lingerie.

According
to the FORCE website, it wants ‘customers who hadn’t heard about PINK Loves Consent on the internet to stumble upon it in stores.’

It continues: ‘Last
week, Victoria’s Secret shut down pinklovesconsent.com and
@loveconsent [both the website and twitter handle are back up after the
group fought the take down] and we realized we need another method to
spread the good news of consent.’

Apparently many people have stumbled
upon them in stores actually want to buy them, inlucding Jezebel’s Miss
Baker, who praised FORCE’s efforts, wrote: ‘ My only complaint is that
you can’t actually buy anything off the site, because now I kind of want
some underwear that says ‘respect’ on the crotch.’

'New' styles: The PINK Loves Consent line claimed to be a new Victoria's Secret collection that 'promotes consent to fight rape in new panties'

‘New’ styles: The PINK Loves Consent line claimed to be a new Victoria’s Secret collection that ‘promotes consent to fight rape in new panties’

Covetable products: People that have come across the PINK Loves Consent website actually want to purchase the goods, however FORCE are unable to sell them for obvious copyright reasons

Consent revolution: FORCE hopes to draw attention to its cause through the hoax, pointing out that 'By the time women in the United States graduate from college, one in four will have been raped'

Consent revolution: FORCE hopes to draw attention to its cause through the hoax, pointing out that ‘By the time women in the United
States graduate from college, one in four will have been raped’

FORCE’s website explains: ‘When one shopper found them in the store in Miami, FL, she said, “When I picked up this pair of underwear, it was fun because I knew that they had been planted in the store, because I knew about pinklovesconsent.com.’

Another shopper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who was not aware of PINK Loves Consent prior to finding the gems in store said, ‘if I am wearing sexy underwear, that doesn’t mean I am asking for anything. Ask me first!’

Although FORCE can’t sell its prank underwear line because they would probably be sued (Victoria’s Secret has already taken legal action to try and block the website, according to FORCE), the group says: ‘There never was a plan to sell consent-themed panties, [it is] just to create a consent revolution!’