Did you not read that the protesters are Thai? Someone so concerned with “context” should perhaps read before crapping out ignorant statements.

Homophobia is hilarious! Good job finding the humor in bigotry.

And some men have morphologically different hips than others.

“2) Nope.  Those are claim-quotes, not scare quotes.”They’re the same fucking thing.

You are conflating two different types of persons.

Straight/gay transvestites may perform, may or may not have this as a lifestyle, and transsexuals may perform as well, but they are not necessarily the same, and singing songs as their gender is not “performing sexuality” or whatever the implication you’re making is.

Seeing as that’s not the case in the US and elsewhere in the world, I find your assumptions doubtful.

I believe there is something similar in the Philippines where I believe they are called girly boys or something like that.  There were stories of USAF personnel stationed there going out to the bars and coming home with beautiful women with unexpected naughty bits.

Also, you do realize that it’s a transgender group IN THAILAND that’s complaining?  I’d imagine they likely are quite familiar with Thai culture and know how trans people are treated in Thailand.

As many of the other posts here have stated, trans people in Thailand are not considered equal.  Trans women are not recognized as women, they’re not treated the same as other people, they’re frequently the target of violence and discrimination, and they have a really difficult time living their lives.  The only difference is that it’s generally more accepted that they exist in Thailand, so they’re somewhat more open about it.

I feel like the woman in the commercial isn’t shown in a disrespectful light.  She’s a character in a fictional story in a 20 second commercial.  An unexpected even happens which doesn’t objectify her, and has a humorous outcome. It’s called a commercial, and I think its a pretty effective one and that they deserve credit for including transgendered people in their advertising.  What other company or country has had the (avoiding gender specific expression here) “courage” to do that?

I don’t think it advances anybody’s rights if we get Ikea to re-shoot the commercial where the woman’s voice doesn’t crack, and she doesn’t pick up the box, and her boyfriend doesn’t notice anything, and instead she expresses her opinion with calm repose and the commercial ends. 

Transgendered people on TV in Thailand aren’t there solely to be the butt of jokes, they full fledged personalities of equal status to everyone else. 

I spent half a year in Thailand, and caught a lot of TV (it’s often quite interesting even though they speak too fast for my limited grasp of the language to keep up with). 

Transexuals are pretty common on TV, and in the society at large obviously. But they’re not really accepted in the way that solstice2005 is implying – they are almost always the butt of jokes on TV, not treated as equals, and thought of as “others” – to an extreme in many cases – in the minds of average-joe Thais, day-to-day.

It’s different from homophobia as it’s expressed in the west – there isn’t really deep-seated hatred, or even disgust. As per your link, there are of course actual haters, but it’s not part of the culture as it is in many parts of the US. 

So – back to TV – as I said transexuals are featured on TV programs and advertisements all the time. You don’t realize it, necessarily, until you learn to tell (and in many cases you simply can’t tell), and it’s suddenly very surprising.

I think last year there was a woman who sang beautifully on a Thailand’s Got Talent type show… and who then walked out and talked in a male voice, revealing herself to be transexual. I’m pretty sure it was on BoingBoing. She was enthusiastically and positively accepted on the show, and among the population at large (can you imagine this in the US?) – but that’s far from representative of how transexuals are normally portrayed. It’s a good sign though.

Anyway, the difference here is that a foreign multi-national corporation is doing it – not nearly as bad as locally-made stuff, but that’s hardly the point – so they are a much better target. If they just went after every egregious slight toward transexuals in Thai-produced stuff, nobody either in or out of Thailand would pay as much attention.

Not because they’ve done anything to deserve insults, but because speech which does not specifically provoke violence is legal in any country purporting to be free.

But in the world outside your brain, speech that doesn’t constitute proximate cause for acts of violence does create a climate in which violence thrives. And transgender people live and die in that reality.

They are completely entitled to not have to deal with “shit” such as being beaten, raped or killed.  As are we all.

Entitled to not have to deal with hearing anything that they find hurtful or insulting?  Not so much. 

Not because they’ve done anything to deserve insults, but because speech which does not specifically provoke violence is legal in any country purporting to be free.

In any case, given the commercial is called “forgetting to stay hidden” and it’s set in Thailand, it’s pretty clear she’s supposed to be transgendered, not just a strong woman with a deep voice. I think it’s actually kind of funny, although I understand why the TGA would have issues with it.

If anything, showing a trans person doing normal things like going to Ikea helps to promote a more positive image. Not a freak, just a normal person.

Did we watch the same clip?  Because the criticism is based on the fact that she’s presented as a freak rather than as a woman.

We use tools like wigs, makeup, steroids, hormones, pectoral implants, toupees, teeth whitening, body forming garments, etc… to reform our appearance to match those external definitions. (Advertising is the major factor in creating those definitions, which is exploitive by definition.)

So essentially being feminine/masculine -is- an act. Much more so when we are trying to overcome the qualities of the gender and the genes we are born with when they contradict our personal definition of self. You may take issue with my use of the word act but it is what it is: trying to present ourselves as different from what we physically are.

The unfunny thing is the abusive powerful hyper-masculine and the beautiful fragile hyper-feminine are two sides of the same coin. 

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players

So you’re only acting clueless?

Personally, I would have gone with Billy, since they do require assembly, come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes (just like boys and girls do) and because the name Billy is gender indifferent.