A video by popular TikTok Influencer, “MisGlisn” claiming that manscaping makes mens genitals appear 48% larger went viral Wendsday night. A frenzy of activity erupted on Twitter that ultimately slammed retailer Target for promoting toxic masculinity by selling products such as Harry’s razors. The accusations began when a lone unverified user tweeted “This is nuts! Why would a company like @Target promote such toxic masculine behavior by making it easy for men to enlarge their dicks. #TargetIsToxic” The hastag campaign took off and was tweeted at least 11 more times.
Target was quick to cave to the accuser with “We @Target pride ourselves in promoting an inclusive and tolerant society. While we believe that certain types of grooming are important, cis white men pretending to be something they are not is intolerable. We’ll be pulling all mens grooming products from our shelves at midnight tonight to eradicate this intolerant behavior.” They countered with their own hastag campaign by ending the tweet with “#ToxicIntolerant”.
Gillette took up the #ToxicIntolerant hastag and announced that the R&D department at its subsidiary Harry’s was already investigating technologies that would cause its razors to dull in the presence of pubic hair. Gillette also stated that they were working on adding facial recognition to their never popular “Styler” electric trimmer. The face recognition would cause the trimmer to stop working if a face was not clearly recognizable in the shaving area.
Target ended the evening with a press release that announced, “In an act of fairness, we will continue to carry straight razors for mens use.” Their logic in continuing this product line was that cis white men are too afraid to put a straight razor to their nuts.