The transgender woman who is the face of Hershey’s International Women’s Day candy bar has shut down her haters after they accused the company of not caring about women.
Fae Johnstone, 27, said the backlash she received “shows exactly how focused the far right is on trans people, and trans women in particular.”
“The response to my inclusion as a trans woman in Hershey’s IWD campaign in Canada shows just how far we have to go in the fight for feminist liberation and trans rights,” she tweeted Thursday. “They’re coming for us. We need our allies now more than ever.
‘I do not go anywhere. I am not silent. I will always stand up for women and girls, cis and trans.”
The Canadian, who co-founds a small consulting firm, is one of the new faces of the American chocolatier’s Canadian HER for SHE campaign, which kicked off on Wednesday to mark International Women’s Day. Johnstone and four others will decorate five different packages in March.
Trans activist Fae Johnstone, 27, is one of five women starring in the Hershey’s Canada campaign, which has since sparked backlash from conservatives who claim Hershey’s “hates women.”
Johnstone, a small business owner in Canada, has since told Twitter that she’s “not going anywhere” and won’t “shut up” anytime soon
The other women featured in the ad are Kelicia Massala, the founder of Girl Up Quebec, Naila Moloo, a climate technology scientist, Rita Audi, a gender and education equality activist, and an indigenous rights activist, Autumn Peltier.
Johnstone has campaigned for LGBT+ rights in Ottawa, Canada for many years, having previously served on the boards of LGBT Youth Line and the Canadian Center for Gender and Sexual Diversity. She has also worked for the Strategic Advisory Board of the Ontario Center of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health.
In 2019 she won the LGBT Youth Line Trans Activism Award.
Hours after the launch, social media activists began calling for a boycott of the iconic chocolate maker.
“Initiating an international campaign to boycott a chocolate company was definitely not on my list of predictions for 2023,” Johnstone wrote on Twitter.
This is the third year Hershey’s has marketed a product to celebrate International Women’s Day. The 2022 campaign was hosted by bright actress and comedian Mindy Kaling.
While Johnstone, the chief executive of consultancy Wisdom2Action, tweeted on Wednesday that he was “honored” to be part of the campaign. As of Thursday, Boycott Hershey’s was one of the top trending topics on Twitter in the United States and Canada.
“Why does Hershey’s hate women?” mused a conservative Twitter account on Thursday.
“You get the sense that these companies have always despised women – they were just waiting for the right moment to teach us. Here’s the thing about real women, Hershey’s. We have long memories,” tweeted Abigail Shrier, author of Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters.
Johnstone is just one of five new faces for the Canadian version of the Women’s Day Bar, which will be available during Women’s History Month
The other women featured in the ad are Kelicia Massala, the founder of Girl Up Quebec, Naila Moloo, a climate technology scientist, Rita Audi, a gender and education equality activist, and an indigenous rights activist, Autumn Peltier
While announcing his plans to de-transition in 2022, Oli London tweeted: “A biological MAN is at the forefront of Hershey’s new campaign celebrating women’s International Women’s Day. This is misogyny at its finest! A real slap in the face for real women!’
In addition to Johnstone’s presence, at least one TikTok user was upset that Hershey’s highlighted the “you” in the company’s name in bars rather than the “you.”
One commenter said, “For those who don’t get it, it could have said ‘Celebrate her!’ Now it says ‘Celebrate her’, which is grammatically awkward.”
On her Twitter page, Johnstone posted several messages in support of the campaign and bemoaned the fact that she didn’t have many transgender role models growing up.
She wrote: “Many young trans people have yet to meet a trans adult. I hope this campaign shows trans girls that they can dream big and change the world too.”
“We still have a long way to go in the fight against misogyny, patriarchy and gender-based violence. I hope this campaign will help give more young women and girls role models and models of opportunity. And shows them how we can change the world together,” Johnstone tweeted.
Johnstone is Managing Director of the consulting firm Wisdom2Action
She said that the far right “is coming for us” and that members of the LGBT+ community “need our allies now more than ever”.
B-movie actress Erin Marie Hogan was among those who expressed her support for Johnstone, saying: “She’s a woman. If terfs [trans-exclusionary radical feminists] I don’t like it, they can fuck off freely.
Twitch streamer Sarah Daniels wrote, “Thank you for representing us so beautifully.”
According to a Hershey’s Canada post, the campaign will “shine a light on the women and girls who inspire us every day.” Hershey’s has partnered with North Carolina-based Girls on the Run for the promotion this year.
The candy giant will donate $10,000 to each of the causes featured in the ads and $30,000 to Girl Up.
“Hershey’s SHE bars serve as a heartwarming reminder to take a moment and shine a light on the women and girls who inspire us every day,” the Pennsylvania-based company said in a press release.
“The brand invites fans to recognize the women and girls in their lives through the simple gesture of gifting a Hershey SHE bar.”
has reached out to Hershey’s for comment.
Some took to social media to blast the company’s campaign, some asking if they “hate women” while others called for a boycott
According to the Girls on the Run website, the group is “dedicated to creating a world where every girl knows and activates her limitless potential and is free to boldly pursue her dreams.”
Republicans have placed transgender issues at the heart of their agenda, a tactic that many observers see as an attempt to keep conservative voters happy and push voters who sympathize with Democrats on other issues into the GOP camp.
In the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders derided the Democratic president as “the first man to hand his presidency over to a woke mob who can’t even tell you what.” is a woman”.