In December, you may have heard about a new line of Victoria’s Secret panties with revolutionary consent-themed slogans like “respect” and “no means no.” Unfortunately, Victoria’s Secret wasn’t the one to create them. The feminist group FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture orchestrated what they call “operation panty drop,” by creating a satirical website called “Pink Loves Consent.” The website had over 200,000 hits in three days and captured consumers’ attention by discussing the importance of consent in a way that has never been done before.
One of the satirical slogans FORCE created was “ask first,” to spoof the “sure thing” slogan VS uses on their actual products, and there was widespread disappointment when women across the nation learned that the panties weren’t real. Even worse, Victoria’s Secret attacked the group for “confusing customers,” and had the site taken down.
The actions of Victoria’s Secret were met with outrage because under fair use and parody laws, Pink Loves Consent was not violating any copyright rules. However, thousands of consumers petitioned for the website to be reinstated as a global means of promoting consent, and succeeded.
You can visit their website and support the movement here