Swedish furniture and homeware company IKEA has launched a series of Pride-themed sofas that have got people talking.
The Love Seats, released by IKEA Canada, are a collection of 10 loveseat sofas that have been redesigned, inspired by the “Pride flags of different 2SLGBTQ+ identities”.
Designed by artists from those communities, they are intended to celebrate their unique identities and feature bright designs with colour schemes that reflect the flag that inspired them.
Some of the identities include two-spirit (a third gender found in some Native American cultures), pansexual, transgender, asexual and lesbian.
The bisexual sofa is covered in bright pink, purple and blue hand prints and features a pink 3D arm along the armrest.
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Stitched into the backrest and drawing a lot of attention are the words: “When you change OR to AND nobody believes you.”
The slogan, which references how bisexual people are attracted to both males and females, has caused a stir on social media for also including the harmful words “nobody believes you”.
One Twitter user wrote: “my bisexual self waking up every morning to see my couch tell me ‘NOBODY BELIEVES YOU’.”
Someone else said: “I dare you to think of anything funnier you could put on a bi themed couch than “nobody believes you.”
Another posed the question: “you have a wonderful first date with someone then go home to their apartment to see the ikea bi couch, what do you do?”
Many pointed out how the slogan on the sofa is quite problematic as it common for bisexual people to experience others trying to invalidate their sexual orientation.
One person drew on the fact that bisexual people can face stigma from the LGBTQ+ community.
They wrote: “I love how the ikea people were like ‘queers hate bi people too so let’s just remind them that no one believes them on these odd corporate robotic pride couches’.”
Other Twitter users were confused by the asexual couch design, which featured black, grey, white and purple pieces of material arranged in a circular wave pattern across the sofa, to reflect the colours of the flag.
One person wrote: “That asexual couch is maybe the least asexual couch I have ever seen.
“Like, okay, you may not be interested in sex, but your couch is down. to. clown.”
For others, the entire concept of sofas to celebrate Pride was too much and was very quickly ridiculed online
Journalist Louis Staples joked: “therapist: it’s OK, the Ikea pride collection can’t hurt you.”
Some came up with their own mock designs of Pride sofa options, while others created a “straight” sofa based on stereotypes.
However, others were glad that IKEA is helping to uplift queer artists and raise awareness of other identities.
One person said: “i know everyone has their own jokes about the ikea pride collection and rainbow capitalism, but I actually really love the ace one and im genuinely delighted that the ace flag was included and represented.”
