The View's beef with Balenciaga sexualizing kids is that it plays into 'far Right's' groomer narrative

Last week, chances are you were pretty busy thinking about Thanksgiving. Preparing food, making sure you had a clean pair of stretchy pants, and how to avoid all the stupid guides about how to talk to your conservative uncle about why he’s wrong and stupid and liberals are right and brilliant.

But if you had a chance to take a peek at social media, you may have noticed that there was quite a lot of buzz about fashion house Balenciaga. But it wasn’t the good kind of buzz. No, this buzz was over one of their recent ad campaigns, which many critics were insistent normalized and even promoted child porn.

For what it’s worth, those critics’ criticisms were not in the least bit unfounded:

the brand "Balenciaga" just did a uh….. interesting… photoshoot for their new products recently which included a very purposely poorly hidden court document about 'virtual child porn'

normal stuff pic.twitter.com/zjMN5WhZ0s

— shoe (@shoe0nhead) November 21, 2022

Normal stuff for predators, yes.

Hey Photographers :
When Balenciaga hires you to shoot their new lookbook & you show up to find a toddler laid across a sofa with wine glasses & bondage gear arranged around them, you walk away. Period. pic.twitter.com/DSoHgQLM6O

— Hoop (@xhoop) November 21, 2022

Apparently Adidas was sort of in on it, too:

Important nuanced point :@shoe0nhead released all these images as a pack but if you look into it, this image featuring the child porn papers is actually from a separate Balenciaga x Adidas collab.
Important because Adidas does WAY more consumer sales in US. https://t.co/VMH7Ql23bw

— Hoop (@xhoop) November 23, 2022

That statement leaves more than a little bit to be desired. As does the reaction from the wealthy liberals, including liberal celebrities, who enjoy wearing Balenciaga designs. One would think there’d be vocal and widespread condemnation from celebrities who want to take a very firm and very public stand against child predation and child sexualization and child pornography. But we really haven’t heard it yet.

If Balenciaga did something that offended the LGBT community, every celebrity would have cut ties instantly.

They promoted child porn and nearly every celebrity is silent. Really makes you think, huh?

— BLAIRE WHITE (@MsBlaireWhite) November 28, 2022

Apparently the best we can get out of the liberal celebrity contingent right now is this take from “The View,” which isn’t so much a condemnation of the egregiously inappropriate nature of the ad campaign as it is a condemnation of “the far Right,” who is the real bad guy in this situation.

Watch:

'The View' can't even condemn Balenciaga for its despicable sexualization of young children.

The best it can muster is 'this plays into the hands of the far right.' Unbelievable. pic.twitter.com/T8VhgzA7UT

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) November 28, 2022

Transcript:

Alyssa Farah Griffin: “I found this ad campaign particularly distasteful, um, in this moment. So there’s this, there’s growing anti-LGBTQ sentiment right now, and how it’s being framed is as portraying, you know, trans people as groomers. This is a term you’ll hear on the far Right. They’re groomers. This is where you get the anti-drag-queen stuff that we’re seeing. So Balenciaga played right into their hands by having kids in a sexualized manner, carrying something that represents, you know, sex acts. I think it was a really bad misstep at a moment where it’s just kind of a dangerous time to even give credence to those kind of insane takes.”

(Cute how Sunny Hostin chimes in not to call Balenciaga out, but to make a joke about Balenciaga’s designs being ugly.)

So, for those of you keeping score at home, what Balenciaga did was wrong because it fed into a “far Right” narrative that there are people out there who condone and, in some cases, actively participate in the sexualization of kids. Except it’s not a “far Right” narrative; it’s a known fact.

Imagine being angrier at Balenciaga for demonstrating that grooming of children is a very real thing than you are at Balenciaga for engaging in the grooming behavior. Hopefully you can’t imagine it, because it’s so insane.

@TheView really? It’s dangerous at this time?When is it ever a good time to show kids like this?Played into the hands of the right? Yes I’m sure that is exactly what the ad execs were thinking.”Oh, how can we piss off conservatives with an ad campaign!” #Balenciaga SMH #Groomers https://t.co/5Ju5ZCymjK

— Me 🇺🇸 (@Jersey29558073) November 28, 2022

Insane.

She also called it a misstep, it’s a lot more than that!! 🤦🏻‍♀️

— kat Ⓥ 🐈 (@mygracie5) November 28, 2022

Oh yeah. That’s insane, too. Balenciaga’s ad campaign wasn’t a misstep; it was objectively offensive and wrong and disgusting.

“Bad misstep”

“Distasteful”

As if it was a bad color arrangement on a corset.

And they wonder why many people think there is a grooming element among them?

— just call me Furious (@call_furious) November 28, 2022

The people raising the alarm about grooming may be onto something.

The left has been conflating transgenderism, gay and lesbian sexual preference, and minor-attracted persons for years. This is implied in ITS LGBTQIA+ brand. Don't blame critics for calling this all out as basically the same perverse movement to corrupt America's youth.

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) November 28, 2022

The groomers and their apologists aren’t the reasonable ones. They’re just not. And the fact that Alyssa Farah Griffin is twisting this into an opportunity to denounce the “far Right” should speak volumes.

PSA: Child sexual exploitation is always bad. No exceptions. Full stop.

How hard is it to condemn sexual exploitation of children? And yes, that includes pageants that sexualize kids. It’s really straightforward, and refusal to acknowledge there is a major problem with Balanciaga is disgusting. https://t.co/I1Jqb0AiL8

— Hot As Ice (@kkaystronger) November 28, 2022

This weak ass discussion from the View is ridiculous. Political spin jockeying should not apply here, and the seriousness should not be swatted aside for trivial discussion of their clothes. Come on. https://t.co/7G4MPa2OpI

— archimedes (@archimedexx) November 28, 2022

This actually worries me : because young children being sexualized should be something that’s universally hated by everyone regardless of their political alignment . https://t.co/JeG5dP3l0T

— Soundwave (savage arc) (@sirchadwavethe1) November 28, 2022

Another pathetic display from the pathetic ladies of “The View.” As if we expected anything else.

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