This advertisement has upset a lot of people.
My favourite uncle used to say, if something is making someone sensitive, make an issue of it. So here goes.
The ultimate proof that the biological woman accepts the transgender woman is that she enters into the rivalry with her. Sexual status games are played out between women all the time. There is a great video of Queen Elizabeth meeting Marilyn Monroe the year they were both thirty years old. Go watch it and pay close attention to the Queen's eyes and you can see her glance down at Marilyn's body as she assesses her as a sexual rival.
Anything you can do, I can do better
The thing is that the ad makes narrative sense and that is what troubles the people who are troubled by it. Whether you laughed, were offended or, like me, did neither, you can follow the narrative. And if we look at that narrative something important may jump out at us. And that something becomes clear if we consider some counterfactual examples.
Imagine that we are in the washroom at a dance club and two hot young women come to stand in front of the mirrors at the sinks. Emily and Pippa both know one another but not well. What they both know is that they are rivals and a certain amount of posturing takes place. Okay, here is the thing that is different: Pippa would not win that duel by whipping out a tampon! To the contrary, she'd lose because she and Emily are having a duel for sexual status and acknowledging that she is having her period would put Pippa at a temporary disadvantage in that struggle.
Okay, now imagine another scenario. Emily was born Martin but now identifies as a woman and she enters into the same struggle with Pippa but Emily is so convincing that neither Pippa nor we know that she is not a biological woman. Does Pippa pull out her tampon to win that battle? Of course not because that rivalry is not about who is a "real woman" but rather about who is more of a woman.
Okay, now imagine you are watching an advertisement in which Emily-born-Martin-but-identifying-as-a-woman is playing the trans person only she is so convincing that you can't tell. Does that ad make any narrative sense? No it doesn't. The ad above makes sense because everyone knows that the transgendered person in the video isn't really a woman! Love it or hate it, you know that. You couldn't know enough to be offended if you didn't know that.
The biological woman doesn't prove she is really a woman by whipping out a tampon. She and we already know that. You can see it in her skin, the shape of her body, the way she moves. She accepts the transgendered person as a transgendered person and that is why the rivalry is possible. But the transgendered person is not a woman but (literally) a parody of a woman. We all know that she isn't "really" a woman. You can start a long argument about what "really" means here if you want but the mere fact that you can start the argument means you have already lost. If transgendered persons really became women by "identifying" as women there would be nothing to argue about.
The struggle here is not about what these two people are. That is clear. What the ad really does is to tell girls that they are special. "Libra gets girls."
And girls are special. Nothing is going to change that.
Final thought, just think about the expression "transphobic tampon ad".
My favourite uncle used to say, if something is making someone sensitive, make an issue of it. So here goes.
Agender NZ president Cherise Witehira, said many in the transgender community were outraged at the ads which were "blatantly transphobic".Actually, the really notable thing about this advertisement is the complete lack of phobia. There is no fear or hatred present and those are the qualities that make a phobia. The young woman in this video is completely accepting of the transgendered person. She doesn't say, "What the hell are you doing in the women's washroom", nor does she turn and walk out because she feels uncomfortable.
"It's extremely offensive because it's pretty much saying the only way you can be a woman is to get your period.
"That's where a lot of the anger in the community is coming from - it's saying you are not a woman unless you can get your period.
"Obviously we can't menstruate. However, we identify as female."
The ultimate proof that the biological woman accepts the transgender woman is that she enters into the rivalry with her. Sexual status games are played out between women all the time. There is a great video of Queen Elizabeth meeting Marilyn Monroe the year they were both thirty years old. Go watch it and pay close attention to the Queen's eyes and you can see her glance down at Marilyn's body as she assesses her as a sexual rival.
Anything you can do, I can do better
The thing is that the ad makes narrative sense and that is what troubles the people who are troubled by it. Whether you laughed, were offended or, like me, did neither, you can follow the narrative. And if we look at that narrative something important may jump out at us. And that something becomes clear if we consider some counterfactual examples.
Imagine that we are in the washroom at a dance club and two hot young women come to stand in front of the mirrors at the sinks. Emily and Pippa both know one another but not well. What they both know is that they are rivals and a certain amount of posturing takes place. Okay, here is the thing that is different: Pippa would not win that duel by whipping out a tampon! To the contrary, she'd lose because she and Emily are having a duel for sexual status and acknowledging that she is having her period would put Pippa at a temporary disadvantage in that struggle.
Okay, now imagine another scenario. Emily was born Martin but now identifies as a woman and she enters into the same struggle with Pippa but Emily is so convincing that neither Pippa nor we know that she is not a biological woman. Does Pippa pull out her tampon to win that battle? Of course not because that rivalry is not about who is a "real woman" but rather about who is more of a woman.
Okay, now imagine you are watching an advertisement in which Emily-born-Martin-but-identifying-as-a-woman is playing the trans person only she is so convincing that you can't tell. Does that ad make any narrative sense? No it doesn't. The ad above makes sense because everyone knows that the transgendered person in the video isn't really a woman! Love it or hate it, you know that. You couldn't know enough to be offended if you didn't know that.
The biological woman doesn't prove she is really a woman by whipping out a tampon. She and we already know that. You can see it in her skin, the shape of her body, the way she moves. She accepts the transgendered person as a transgendered person and that is why the rivalry is possible. But the transgendered person is not a woman but (literally) a parody of a woman. We all know that she isn't "really" a woman. You can start a long argument about what "really" means here if you want but the mere fact that you can start the argument means you have already lost. If transgendered persons really became women by "identifying" as women there would be nothing to argue about.
The struggle here is not about what these two people are. That is clear. What the ad really does is to tell girls that they are special. "Libra gets girls."
And girls are special. Nothing is going to change that.
Final thought, just think about the expression "transphobic tampon ad".
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