Styles of Exclusion (Harry's Part)

All questions in this article are rhetorical unless stated otherwise.

Writing my article about exclusion in Gemma Styles Eyewear, I realized I’ve never really acknowledged Harry Styles’s part in the exclusion of wheelchair users in Pleasing. That stops now.

Pleasing (the company founded by Harry) has been excluding wheelchair users since its inception.

Since the company’s very first social media post (November 14, 2021) there has been two wheelchair users shared on their Instagram story (August 15, 2024 originally posted by disabled_eliza and November 29, 2024 originally posted by chronicallypersevering). No photos and/or videos taken and posted by them on their social media(s) feeds and website.

This exclusion confuses me because Harry is vocal about his belief in equality and treating all people with kindness. Part of me feels like all that is super hypocritical. I, as a wheelchair user, feel extremely excluded and the opposite of kindness.

In the midst of writing this, Pleasing announced a collaboration with JW Anderson.

I’m mentioning this because it just happened, it’s fresh on my brain, and I am incredibly angry.

One product in this collaboration is a keychain shaped like a penis.

The object isn’t the issue. I think it’s creative. The issue is this keychain came before any photos and/or videos have been taken and originally shared by Pleasing.

So including phallic-shaped keychains is more important than including us [wheelchair users]?

This is a great example of the point of this article.

Harry [Styles] preaches including people, but doesn’t live up to those words. That’s not okay.

I don’t want to hear “it’s coming” and I should just “be patient” and/or “calm down” - especially from Harry.

Wheelchair users are human beings and we deserve to be represented and included just as much as able-bodied and nondisabled people.

This isn’t about adding representation to things already published without it, this is about caring about us as human beings and doing better going forward.