Andrew Christian just got itself into some serious mess. The company is pulling photos from their retail site that feature a Black model wearing a harness that repeatedly says the word “slave” on it.
Per The Advocate:
A reader of The Advocate, Gabriel, who withheld his last name due to privacy concerns, flagged the “Slave Net C-Ring Harness” product as “offensive” in a recent email to the retailer. Gabriel took particular issue with a model of color being used to advertise the harness on AndrewChristian.com.
“It’s actually tasteless,” he wrote in a customer complaint. “I can’t understand why you would put a person of color in an outfit that says the word slave.” Gabriel asked the company to remove or change the product to avoid a racist association.
Andrew Christian replied to Gabriel Monday. “Thank you for your suggestion! We have passed this along to our production team for review,” read the response, which also included a coupon code.
…A product description for the harness references BDSM culture, in which terms like “master” and “slave” pertain to sex, but the model’s race, as Gabriel noted, places its name in problematic territory.
The famous underwear brand has since pulled the item from their shop. Andrew Christian co-founder Jeff White told The Advocate that they will be replacing the image immediately and that they are sorry if they offended anyone.
As you accurately noted in your article our “Master” and “Slave” harnesses and underwear only reference the “Master” and “Slave” terminology of the BDSM culture and has nothing to do with anything else. We sincerely apologize if anyone finds the image of the model offensive and we will replace it immediately.
The product is currently not listed on their site for purchase, but we’re sure it will be available again once they retake the pics with a new model. Three additional “slave” products are still available for purchase, but none of them feature the original model that was in the product shots for the controversial harness.
Looking through Andrew Christian’s back catalog of images reveals that the company has been selling various “slave” merchandise since at least 2016. From what we can tell, this seems to be the first time that the company has faced any major backlash for their use of the word “slave.”
We will update this story if Andrew Christian releases any further statements about their “slave” gear.
We seriously need to stop allowing judgemental closed minded bigots from controlling our lives – release it I say and fuck em if they can’t handle it!
lotta racist homos on this page. fascinating.
stop being a snowflake and be a real man
You seem to have missed Gabriel’s point: the problem is not the use of the word “slave” nor the use of a model of color. It is in identifying a person of color as a slave. Whatever the intended context here, there are several hundred years of context referring to non-consensual bondage and domination and whipping having nothing to do with the pleasure of the slave. Rather than apologizing for offending someone, a more appropriate response would be accepting responsibility for such a BLM-deaf advertisement in the first place.
WHY do you people always have to be so PC. Can’t an african man wear something that says slave without getting snowflakes all offended. Free country free speech!!!!
EXACTLY!! If you have absolutely no real problems in your life, you get mad that a gay, liberal company was “tone deaf” or “missed the moment” or some other nonsense. These people need to learn what racism and inequality actually are and get a life.
Okay. Wow. This conversation devolved. Gay men can definitely be racist. Black men can be racist. Stating a view isn’t forcing a view. BLM aren’t terrorists. BDSM culture is real. Black and white people, gay, bi and straight enjoy the slave/master dynamic. Gay men have more interracial relationships than any other group. Some black men want to be dominated as a slave by their white, latino or other black partners. Understanding that and providing gear to an eager market is good business sense. Any misunderstanding of this is an overreaction. Trump is still racist. Bigotry is still alive. Biden still won. Your sex life is still your sex life. Business is still business. Deal with it!
Black Panther?! Dis nigga’?! So now Black folks are panthers?
Nowhere in his comment were Black Panthers mentioned.
The comment said “partners”, not panther. It also didn’t say anything about Dis nigga.
OH no we’re using the N word on here, what trash did walk into
Shut up libtard and go back to putting your mask on and hiding in your bunker
hey your president lose, asshole. he’s FIRED!!
UGh I cannot with you yth men, you always baffle us.
FUCK YOU ASSHOLE RACIST PIECE OF SHIT, Without us white men you coloreds would still be living without any rights.
The white old racists queens jumped out in the comments section. LOL.
Gro screw yourself, gay men can’t be racists. I hate all these fake crybabies forcing their views on us. I didn’t choose to be white.
Ugh. Fake uproar. Get over it.
these pc crybabies need to stop pushing their stupid agenda. The majority of people are white, get over it. I’m frustrated how suddenly all these studios have to hire ugly black models it’s ridiculous.
YIKES. the blatant racism.. lol. @rensoa please just stop making a fool of yourself.
No one would be whining about this if the model were white.
It’s frustrating how this new pc crowd is too much. You’re black we get it who cares. I don’t understand the support for terrorists grounds like black lives matter
Here’s a great idea; lets just ban the word SLAVE and every other word that triggers or offends!
Exactly! Why should anyone enjoy something someone else doesn’t?
I agree I’m tired of this whole diversity thing. ALL LIVES MATTER! I’m getting tired of the PC crybabies.
Go crawl back in a hole boomer
Andrew Christian deserved the backlash. So does the model. In this age of the white trash in the WH with Trump and his white nationalist bigotry, what was AC and its ad company thinking? There is a reason why Trump was the only Republican to suffer losing on Election Day, and that people want decency back, and want racists to take a hike off the cliff.
shut up, you know that election was stolen from President Trump. Hopefully the law end sup finding out President Trump was the true winner.
These are non-customers with absolutely nothing better to do with their lives than complain about nonsense. Andrew Christian needs to ignore them, not coddle them.
Not “nonsense” moronic and sick. Andrew Christian is TRASH! The “model” is a dumbass without a shred of integrity!
AGREE 100%!
It’s only gonna get worse with biden-ler