Luxury lingerie brand 'by women for women' launches ad campaign featuring 'non-binary' male in bra, panties

Luxury lingerie brand Honey Birdette defended their use of “non-binary” model Jake Dupree in an Instagram post Wednesday. The company that used the slogan ‘by women, for women,” made an update on the post saying they “support the LGBTQ+ community, women, and anyone who wants to feel fabulous in our lingerie.” 

“Honey Birdette fosters an inclusive and diverse environment” they continued, “While thoughtful and constructive discussions are important to push culture forward, hate speech and bullying will not be tolerated on our channels. Comments of this negative nature will be deleted.” They then shut off comments for the post. 

According to his Instagram page, Jake Dupree is a “non-binary, international Burlesque performer, fitness host and instructor, and lingerie lover.” 

Since the backlash to the post, Honey Birdette has changed their slogan across social media platforms to “a luxury lingerie brand for all!” According to a report from the Daily Wire, this isn’t the first time the company has worked with a male in their campaign. 

In June of 2022, the brand used a photo of Carmen Carrera to announce their intention to be supportive of the “LGBTQIA+ community.” The ad read “Stand out. Stand Proud… In celebration of pride month, Honey Birdette is donating $10,000 to the non-profit National Center for Transgender Equality! Honey Birdette is proud to support the work they do that helps so many in the LGBTQIA+ community.”

The post with Dupree is noticeably missing from the company's Twitter page, but user Rita Pani posted a screenshot that has been viewed by over 900k people. Content creator Sydney Watson asked “why is a man, who does not have breasts, wearing a bra?” in response. 

The company, founded in 2006 by Eloise Monaghan, was sold to Playboy magazine in June of 2021 for $443 Million. Playboy CEO Ben Kohn said at the time “I’ve been enormously impressed by Eloise and the rest of the Honey Birdette team and the organic, rapid growth they’ve driven. This acquisition is expected to further our mission to become the leading pleasure and leisure lifestyle platform and our commitment to deliver long-term value to our shareholders.”