Home Bargains is a fan favourite store for a lot of people, but a slogan on one of their Christmas jumpers has sparked a debate between shoppers.
With festive jumpers hitting stores in-time for Christmas, some of them have been traditional or comedic, but the retailers offering has been deemed 'offensive' by one shopper.
The Manchester Evening News reports that one mum sparked debate after she took her views to the online forum, MumsNet, and asked if she was being unreasonable.
The jumper itself has a picture of a melted snowman on it, and the divisive slogan reads: "I am having a meltdown."
After sharing an image of the festive knitwear to the forum, the mum wrote: "I seen this when I was in store today and it just didn't sit right with me. I do have a neurodiverse DD so that might be colouring my view slightly."
As described by autism.org.uk, 'a meltdown is an intense response to an overwhelming situation. It happens when someone becomes completely overwhelmed by their current situation and temporarily loses control of their behaviour.'
The comment sparked a heated debate between shoppers and it seems that it has caused a divide - as some shoppers agree with the statement, while others believe it to be harmless fun.
"Not just you op but a lot of people in here are very ableist, perhaps without realising. It's an awful jumper that makes light of being autistic" wrote one shopper who was in agreement with the mum.
Another shopper backed the statement by saying: "I'd say don't wear it unless you're ND. I'm autistic."
Other shoppers, however, said that the jumper was not intended to cause any offence, as one shopper commented: "I don't see anything wrong with it to be honest, just a bit of humour."
While another wrote: "I think you can choose to be offended or choose not to be - personally I'd recommend choosing not to be, it's not intended to be offensive it's intended to be humorous."
The forum entry then spiralled into a debate on the meaning of the term 'meltdown' and whether it belongs to the NT community, reports Edinburgh Live.
One asked: "Is the expression "having a meltdown" particularly related to autism? I had no idea. I thought it was a widely used expression."
Someone else explained: "The issue is that the language has been appropriated by the NT community to mean a tantrum, and so now, the neurodiverse community have no language that expresses the biological phenomena that they actually experience during a “meltdown”.
And worse, when a ND person does experience a “meltdown” it’s conflated with tantrum and the ND person is not only not offered the correct support they are often judged and treated appallingly for “misbehaving”.
Home Bargains has since been contacted for any comments on the divisive jumper.
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