Ikea commercial upsets Thai Trans group

[Anonymous]

Thanks Bambi.

Now here is an oportunity for the TgR ‘community’ to rally around for a protest which will assist in educating companies & their marketing/advertising people what is not acceptable & why.

If an open letter were to be accessable through TgR for us to have our say (anonymously if need be) then the beginnings of our voice are underway. I’m not suggesting political activism be a motivation for Tgr but TgR has the forum & format to allow the ‘community’ to safely have their say.

IKEA is a global company, Tg people exist globally, the issue can be responded to globally.

[JeniSkunk]

The posts in the Thai Visa forum you linked to Bambi, show precisely why the ad is a problem.
Redneck posters who cannot begin to attempt to comprehend why attitudes such as theirs might not be correct or proper and why, ads pandering to attitudes such as theirs should be slammed.

Jenifur Charne

[bee]

Although perhaps off topic a pdf in English about Thai Trangender Allliance (Thai TGA) and their goals is here

http://www.transgenderasia.org/thai-tga-eng.pdf

Understandably their website is mainly in Thai.

UPDATE: IKEA [Thailand] have been reported to have contacted the Alliance by telephone and are said to be drafting a letter reply.

[Anonymous]

The first thing that struck me about the IKEA ad was my surprise that it had even been made. I would have thought the number of transsexual women in Thailand would have taken away any novelty effect the ad might have had. Which made me think that perhaps it is being judged by non Thai standards. Do Thais consider transsexuals so much a part of the furniture now that they are fair game for commercials in the same way that perfectly dressed housewives doing the laundry and beer swilling blokes driving utes aggressively are here? If a transwoman drops her guard and reveals her male voice perhaps it really was a great bargain!

Now I know the local group is up in arms over the ad but it worries me that the trans movement could alienate itself from support from the wider community if it gets too touchy about what is displayed in advertising. As the related forum shows, there are indeed a huge number of rednecks out there, but I’m not sure it’s the ads that encourages them more than the complaints about them.

What was really interesting was one of the links attached to one of the comments.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100198116/here-is-julie-burchills-censored-observer-article/

This struck me as an amazing piece of vitriol but it indicates how a potential ally can be lost. It also shows there is a lot of gender politics in the UK that I know “diddly squat” about too!