"Doc Martens Go Woke" - Transphobes Bafflingly Call For Boycott Over Shoe Design

Doc Martens received calls for boycott from accounts known for transphobia on Monday over a show design that featured a queer character with top surgery scars.

Aug 01, 2023

On Monday, Dr. Martens became the most recent subject of conservative ire when anti-transgender social media accounts published photos of a shoe collaboration with Jess Vosseteig, a queer artist from Colorado. The design was never mass-produced and was designed as part of the "DIY Docs" initiative, a project that encourages artists to reimagine the well-known Dr. Marten shoe brand. The brand has traditionally been associated with queer and punk subcultures, with Planet Her referring to the shoe as "a staple in the queer wardrobe." Despite the enduring association between the brand and the LGBTQ+ community, conservatives seemed surprised by the modest display of transgender representation. Now, malicious accounts associated with harassment, abuse, and threats of violence have targeted the shoe brand.

The shoe design can be found on the DIY Docs webpage. Jessie Vosseteig, a queer artist who aims to “promote body positivity” and wants her audience “to be seen and heard in her work,” designed the colorful shoe. When asked about the design itself on the Dr. Marten’s DIY Docs page, she stated:

“I wanted to include two stylized people that were part of the queer community. I knew I wanted to incorporate lots of color with rainbows, clouds, and sparkles! I wrote "Queer Joy" on the back of them to send the message that queer joy will always exist." - Jessie Vosseteig

You can see pictures of the design here:

The outrage was immediate - within hours of posting to her Instagram, Chris Elston (also known as Billboards Chris), a well-known anti-transgender activist known for his self-proclaimed "stochastic terror tours" against children's hospitals, stated that the shoe company "sells boots to promote the mastectomy of healthy girls." Soon after, Libs of TikTok, an account notorious for inciting violent campaigns against LGBTQ+ individuals and their supporters, posted a similar message. Other influential conservative, anti-trans figures joined the criticism: Maya Forstater, a UK-based anti-trans activist, Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms For Liberty, and right-wing blogger Ian Miles Cheong all posted similar comments on Twitter. Fox News also participated in the reaction against the brand. Calls for boycotts from their audience quickly followed.

Here is a sample of the conservative outrage over the design:

The response to the shoe brand marks the most recent in a series of attacks on corporations for offering even minor LGBTQ+ recognition. Earlier this year, transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney experienced harassment due to her partnership with Bud Light - a collaboration that resulted in a single beer can featuring her image. The beer company received a torrent of violent emails and bomb threats as a consequence of their support. In a reprehensible move, Bud Light not only abandoned Mulvaney in the midst of the controversy, but also terminated the employment of staff involved in the advertising campaign. Similarly, Target stores across the United States faced harassment and threats over their Pride merchandise during Pride Month, with several outlets opting to remove their merchandise from display.

While hate campaigns against those companies may have succeeded, such a campaign against Dr. Martens shoes may have a bit more difficulty. The brand has had a long-standing positive reputation with the LGBTQ+ community and has produced LGBTQ+ shoes for years. In 2019, for instance, they released a pride-flag themed shoe. The brand has become so intertwined with the LGBTQ+ community that it has become an iconic brand that people often look for to signify that a person is queer.

Ian Miles Cheong, noted for his anti-trans and extreme far-right views, lamented this fact in his own tweet:

“What is up with all these corporations now celebrating "trans affirming" body mutilation surgeries on perfectly healthy girls and young women? Wokeness is supposed to be dying, but instead it's only getting worse as the public fights back against the mind virus.” - Ian Miles Cheong

Though boycott initiatives aimed at "wokeness" have achieved minor successes on a few occasions during Pride Month, there are indications that their impact is dwindling. Recent box office successes have conveyed messages that strongly align with anti-racist, feminist, and anti-fascist themes. Films such as Barbie and Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse, despite being criticized for their "wokeness," managed to generate record-breaking ticket sales. Additionally, when American voters were asked to rank their most pressing concerns, "wokeness" was positioned at the bottom of the list, according to a Fox News poll.

Dr. Martens has yet to issue a statement in response to the boycott campaign, and the contentious shoe design continues to be featured on its website. If the brand remains steadfast in its countercultural identity, it is improbable that it will be swayed by such attacks. As for the conservative, anti-trans propagators of outrage, their unrelenting search for the next rainbow flag to scream at will undoubtedly continue.

Disclosure: The author of this piece was not paid by Dr. Martens, but she does own a sweet pair of “woke” docs herself: