Lidl merchandise reads, “The Future Is Female.” Is that what they mean?
Lidl is one of my favorite grocery stores. Not because of its politics (of which I know little), but for the $1.49/pint raspberries and fresh baked goods. As I roamed around casually after school drop-off this morning, I came across a journal with an interesting cover. It read: “The Future Is Female.”
Now, that made me think. I came of age in the 1990s, with a father who told me that I should stand bold and be myself. He assured me that my natural aggression wasn’t a liability, but an asset – that it was possible to be both fierce and feminine. Like me, though he wouldn’t explicitly say it, my dad was a libertarian feminist. Later in my life, I chose to keep my maiden name. I was born a Lundquist and I will die one. I hyphenated it when I married my husband, who loves me not in spite of my passion, but because of it.
Years later, we were blessed with three amazing sons. To be clear, three males who identify as boys and are confused only about why their public schools keep asking them if they’re sure about that in multiple surveys.
My father, my husband, and my sons lovingly accept that the future is of course, part female. The world is mine just as much as it is theirs. Why would I ever accept that it should be more mine than theirs? This was my first problem with the Lidl journal. The future is, in fact, only part female. We need both males and females.
My second issue with the journal is more confusing. When I showed my son a picture of the journal, he responded, “Don’t they mean that the future is males claiming to be women, and then competing in women’s sports?”
I suppose that’s the difference between coming of age in the upside-down, post-COVID world and the 1990s. That thought, though at the forefront of my mind and his now, would’ve never occurred to me as a child.
To be clear, I take no issue with the transgender population and neither do my sons. Live and let live, we say. But I do take serious issue with preferential treatment, varying systems of justice, suggestions of gender identity experimentation in schools, and the pervasive violations of Title IX.
I’m not sure where Lidl stands on those issues. (Remember the time when we didn’t have to know all of our retailers’ political views? That was nice.) In June, Lidl displayed all of their LGBTQ+ items. Human Rights Campaign gives Lidl an 80/100 LGBTQ score. In other words, I’m not sure in asserting, “The Future Is Female,” that Lidl supports keeping women’s sports and locker rooms female. But it would be interesting to ask them, wouldn’t it?
Here’s what I would start with: Earlier this month, Riley Gaines was assaulted and held ransom at San Francisco State University. As a guest speaker there, she had the audacity to use her own experience as a collegiate swimmer and suggest that female athletes need their own space to compete and change clothing.
After her talk, an angry mob of protestors screamed obscenities at her and refused to let her leave, and then a male punched her twice in the head. The three-hour detainment caused her to miss her flight home.
Jamillah Moore, Vice President for Student Affairs & Enrollment Management, later sent an email revising the events that transpired, referring to the protest as “peaceful” and thanking SFSU protestors for their “bravery.”
So, to Lidl, I pose the question, “You sell merchandise indicating that the future is female. What do you mean and how does that assertion apply to the detainment and assault of Riley Gaines at SFSU?”
#IStandWithRiley
