Culture

People Are Terrified Of The Cursed IKEA Bisexual Couch That’s Covered In Hands

Love to come home after a long day and be gaslit by my bisexual "nobody believes you" couch.

by Michelle Rennex  1 July 2021
IKEA bisexual couch memes pride love seat

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In honour of Pride Month, as all corporations do, Ikea Canada proved they’re not homophobic in their own way… by creating a bunch of couches inspired by the different LGBTIQ flags.

The ‘Love Seats’ collection is a one-of-a-kind set of 10 loveseat covers “inspired by the colours of different Pride flags” and includes the transgender, pansexual, bisexual, lesbian, nonbinary, genderfluid, asexual, progress, and two-spirit flags.

Collaborating with four different designers from the LGBTIQ community for the project, Love Seats is said to be “a platform to celebrate identity and share stories of love” because “there’s more to Pride than a rainbow”.

While not available to purchase, the seats will be displayed at different IKEA locations across Canada over the next few months. And honestly, for the most part, the end result looks pretty damn cool.

I say for the most part because if you look close enough you might be able to notice one horrific standout couch: The bisexual couch.

The bright purple couch, which is covered in ominous pink and blue handprints and features 3D arms reaching out in place of armrests, is nothing short of a nightmare. Yet the whole thing somehow gets even worse when you read the message printed onto the right cushion: “Nobody believes you”.

Unlike the other couches in the Love Seats collection that look sweet and inviting thanks to features like clouds and rainbows or abstract swirls, the bisexual couch is the complete opposite.

Designed by Candian artist Charlotte Carbone, who also designed the nonbinary and genderfluid couches, the gaslighting hand couch is said to be inspired by a coming-out poem written by bisexual spoken-word poet Brian Lanigan.

Brian explained that the line “When you change ‘or’ to ‘and’, nobody believes you” is from a high school poem he wrote about the bi-erasure he experienced from an ex-partner. As for the hands, Brain shared that they “are meant to represent the audience reaction” and in particular “those of other bisexual folks who would approach me after [spoken word] performances and share their story with me”.

But regardless of the inspiration behind the couch, people online have agreed that the bisexual couch is way scarier than it needs to be.

Luckily once the initial fear and shock over the bisexual couch subsided, people began to brainstorm other couches that IKEA could release to ensure every group was well represented during Prime Month, too.

After all, how can we celebrate Pride Month without making sure straight men and Italians get their moment to shine?

Thank you for your service, IKEA. Pride Month finally feels complete with your set of gay couches.