Ableism of the Day (Pleasing 7 - Serum)

Warning: brief mention of death; brief explanation of an allergic reaction

This article is worded talking directly to Pleasing

Yesterday you released new summer products. One of these products is called “Solar Dew Mineral Serum SPF 50+”.

I had 2 immediate thoughts when I first saw it.

1.) The bottle reminds me A LOT of your “Acid Drops” bottle

2.) Because I believe the top of the “Acid Drops” is latex, the top of this serum is probably latex

When taking a screenshot for this article, I also noticed the drug facts/ingredients of the “Solar Dew Serum” are barely shown in the one photo of the serum’s box on the product listing.

I don’t like or trust this because I feel that’s hiding at least something. Why not show the drug facts and ingredients in a different photo?

I’ve already written and published an article on the “Acid Drops”, but since this is still an issue, I’ll also talk about the problem I see here:

I’m pretty sure the dropper/squeezable thing/the orange top on the “Solar Dew” is latex. (Throughout this article I will refer to it as a dropper.)

This is a huge problem because I have Spina Bifida and, as a result, I am allergic to latex.

Since my “Acid Drops” article, I have learned that I used to downplay my allergy. The reality is: just being near latex makes my skin red and itchy. It makes it difficult to breathe. Meaning I could stop breathing using this product.

Along those lines, something I realized while writing this article is I do not believe you as a company have ever actually claimed to be inclusive of and/or accessible for disabled people.

At the very beginning, though, you had me fooled.

(Talking only about your Instagram:) In three of your collections (Perfect Pearl, Shroom Bloom, and Hot Holiday), there was a little bit of physical disability representation. With “Perfect Pearl”, there are two different posts showing someone without a pinky finger (Nov 17, 2021 and Nov 23, 2021). The only difference between the two photos is one is a more zoomed in/cropped version than the other.

In “Shroom Bloom”, there are three different posts featuring someone with Vitiligo (March 16, 2022; March 17, 2022; and July 9, 2022). In these posts, there is a combined three different photos.

In “Hot Holiday”, there is one post (and, therefore, one photo) of a person with no pinky toe.

In hindsight, none of these people - no physically disabled person - has their face shown. This is full evidence to me that you don’t really care about physically disabled people. And, frankly, that really pisses me off.

This ALL honestly really confuses me because Harry Styles (the creator and owner of Pleasing) generally treats people with respect and kindness. I don’t understand why many disabled people are the exception - because this lack of thought and inclusion of potentially harmful product(s) is neither respectful nor kind.

Including latex on and/or in a product and not saying that on their website, social media, and any ingredient list, could be really bad. It could end in death and/or a lawsuit.

Also, protecting ourselves (people allergic to latex) is not as simple as wearing gloves to open the bottle. The dropper is directly attached to the tube the serum enters and exits. The latex of the dropper gets into the serum and, therefore, making it impossible for anyone allergic to latex to use this product.

And what about the people who can’t just tell if something is latex? I’m lucky and blessed I can ask my mom if something could harm me. Not everyone has that. Not labeling something as having latex is incredibly dangerous.

I understand latex tends to be considered better for the environment over plastic or silicone or something and that’s your whole thing, but I personally like trying to prevent other people from getting hurt more. That may just be me though.

Fighting/stopping climate change is about what we can do - not “perfection”. It’s completely okay and possible to use mostly sustainable ingredients and products AND use something other than latex.

If saving lives isn’t enough for you, catering to more people (aka not harming or killing disabled people) could bring in more customers and, as a result, money.

You’ve never said you’re inclusive and/or accessible, but I fully believe you should be.

This ableism is not okay. This exclusion is not okay.