Lindsay Dodgson and
Canela López
Sep 17, 2021, 12:12 AM
Sexual pleasure coach Luna Matatas woke up to hundreds of tags on social media of her trademarked phrase "Peg The Patriarchy" on Tuesday, after model Cara Delevingne wore a top bearing the slogan at the 2021 Met Gala.
But nowhere in Delevingne's Dior ensemble or
Instagram post was there credit to Matatas, who
trademarked "Peg The Patriarchy" in 2018 as a metaphor for subverting the patriarchal system, Matatas told Insider.
Matatas said she was initially excited to see so much engagement until she realized she wasn't tagged or mentioned as the owner by Delevingne or Dior. Rather, the sex toy company Delevingne co-owns,
Lora DiCarlo, seemed to be getting the credit from people on social media who assumed the connection.
Matatas started her brand Peg The Patriarchy five years ago. She sells clothing, mugs, and accessories on her website,
all adorned with the phrase.
Matatas said she already faces discrimination when building up her business. Delevingne's team "pulling it off as their own" could have real negative impacts on her growth, she said.
"Being a small business, being queer-owned, being in a fat body, being in a racialized body — these are all things that already create barriers for me in doing what I'm already amazing at," Matatas said. "And to have a white, thin, cis body kind of taking a message and representing it in a way without credit to an artist, it says a lot about what the problem is."
It also creates a lot more work for Matatas in fixing her algorithm and SEO. Now, when someone searches for "Peg The Patriarchy," the connection with Delevingne is right at the top of results. Matatas is now also dealing with more copycat designs of her clothing than ever, she said.
When Delevingne was asked in an interview at the Met Gala to explain Peg The Patriarchy, she said it meant "stick it to the man" and that if people didn't understand what pegging was they should "look it up."
"It has impact in ways that are great for raising the visibility of the message, but because it's not anchored in the awareness that I was trying to bring through the message, it doesn't serve me in the same way," Matatas said.
Matatas said she has reached out to Delevingne and Lora DiCarlo, but hasn't heard back. She said she doesn't expect to, especially as she can't afford to take legal action. One positive to the whole situation has been the outpouring of encouragement from people in her community and new followers.
Dior and Delevingne did not respond to Insider's requests for comment. A representative for Lora DiCarlo told Insider that the company "was not involved with the 2021 Met Gala."
'Peg The Patriarchy' was coined to represent the fusion of equality and sex education
Matatas started the "Peg The Patriarchy" movement five years ago when she was teaching sex and pleasure workshops, and had many conversations with people about how the patriarchy affected their sexuality. She came up with the slogan during Pride in Toronto, and started selling T-shirts emblazoned with it.
"It became a way of connecting to people and also really intertwining this message of equality and sex ed," she said. "We can't do one without the other."
Pegging refers to a sex act that involves a person
wearing a strap-on dildo to have anal sex with another person.
The term was
initially coined by sex columnist Dan Savage in the early 2000s to describe a cisgender man being pegged by a cisgender woman, but the idea of who pegs whom has expanded to include people of all genders and presentations over the years.
Pegging has been portrayed as a subversive sex position because it flips traditional gender roles during sex. But Matatas said her slogan isn't about men being pegged. The patriarchy doesn't have a gender. Rather, it's "a system of oppression that affects us all."
Some see Delevingne's appropriation of 'Peg The Patriarchy' as another example of 'white feminism'
Delevingne faced
criticism on social media as some called her outfit a classic example of
white feminism – actions framed as women's empowerment made at the expense of women of color and other marginalized people.
Matatas said words and slogans such as "peg the patriarchy" change meaning when they are taken from plus-size, queer women of color and appropriated by white women.
"Privilege matters in the ways we take up space, do activism, and are perceived," Matatas told Insider. "Cara coming in with a lot of social power, but using it to appropriate my work instead of lift it up, is nothing new from white feminism."
And clearly he vibes with her, but to me he seems super normal and wholesome by comparison. I saw something with her daughter too, not sure if the same or different ...
