If you want to pinpoint when woke activism and DEI hit the corporate world, you could argue that it started with Target, which was one of the first major businesses to push "gender neutral" restrooms and "trans-friendly" clothing for kids.
Target faced massive backlash for it, including a lawsuit from shareholders, and lost billions in revenue. Last March, the company said it was rolling back its DEI initiatives, which earned it backlash from the Left instead. But the Left doesn't comprise as much of Target's customer base as normal people do, so sanity was largely restored.
The store was recently in the news after a woke Karen harassed an elderly Target employee for wearing a Charlie Kirk "Freedom" shirt while she was working. Target didn't punish the employee and kept itself out of the story.
We say "largely," because there's still some woke going on, as evidenced by this sweater they're selling right before Valentine's Day:
I saw this sweater promoted at Target today. Could you imagine if, in the month leading up to Valentine’s Day, Target was spotlighting a “Dump Her” sweater in the men’s section? People would lose it. I’m so tired of this garbage. pic.twitter.com/TyxxuEOjHl
— Lisa Britton (@LisaBritton) January 9, 2026
If it said "Dump Her," we'd get a million columns about the inherent misogyny of Target, "toxic masculinity," and sexism. For this, it's just "Slay, Queen, you don't need no man!" cheering from feminists.
The rest of us, however? We're over this.
I haven’t shopped @Target since they promoted “tuck” underwear, swimsuits, the CHILDREN’S department during “pride” month.
— kittyhawk 🇮🇱 (@FredOakland) January 9, 2026
This is disgraceful and we wonder why young men aren’t dating, not engaging with women or trying to build families. MEN ARE NOT THE PROBLEM, white,…
"Men are not the problem, white, liberal women are, in my opinion," wrote the user. That's absolutely correct.
This is fine, it means that men can handle it.
— Married Man's Mystery - Dominant Polarity (@polarityperfect) January 9, 2026
People would lose it over a "Dump Her" sweater because women cannot handle it.
The fact that this "Dump Him" sweater exists is actually patronizing to women, but they don't see that.
This is also true, but the hatred of men needs to stop.
Jordan Peterson once argued that a lot of whats happening in our culture is just attempts at fertility suppression aimed at young women, and now I see it everywhere. https://t.co/M5uTAGn53Z
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) January 9, 2026
When you tell young women to not get married and not have kids, it leaves them open to protest ICE in Minneapolis.
Apparently misogyny is the problem BUT all we see is HATRED of men and misandry.
— Sandor (@SandsPatel) January 9, 2026
It is the feminist lie that allows violence and control of men and boys, by pretending it’s not real. https://t.co/3lE2tIuDwG
Yeah, the Left loves to tell us misogyny is the problem, but it's not.
it feels like the world is generally hostile towards Good Things lately, and its just getting worse. even the smallest things will be used to destroy what is Good https://t.co/EHvCScJBBC
— taoki (@justalexoki) January 9, 2026
Yes. What's good is now considered evil, and what is evil is considered good.
Maybe Target is itching for another boycott or backlash.
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