Comments on: Ikea: Humor at a Trans Woman’s Expense?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 10:23:00 +0000

I would have accepted it if it weren’t for the very obvious manvoice-of-pain at the end… that’s the only thing that makes this go from a reasonably funny ad with a non-operative protagonist (hey, I’m one of those) to a ‘trans women are really men’ joke.

Also, she’s cute.

By: lyssa

lyssa — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:22:23 +0000

This is a good comment.

It’s really easy to take this commercial as offensive, but maybe it is just slapstick.

I admit that I find it funny. I didn’t think there was a problem with it until someone mentioned there was a problem. It was just a transgendered woman who had the male bits and she hit them and it was funny.

In all honesty, I don’t think people will be satisfied with anything. This is rude because they made her manly in the end, but it’s inclusive because someone transgendered is in a commercial.

“Don’t poke fun at minorities, it makes you a bad person.” is the kind of mentality that goes on. I don’t think so, though. I’m Mexican (born and raised in America) and I’m bi-gender. There’s plenty of stereotypes to poke fun at, lol. I think people need to learn to laugh and not be so thick-skinned. For one, not everyone is out to get us and two, it helps when they really are.

By: Luey

Luey — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 03:14:41 +0000

Really, Steff? I’m not trans, and so I really value your analysis of the commercial. But I sincerely think this is a harmless and inclusive commercial featuring a trans woman who is not characterized as some freak or weirdo – just a pretty girl who hurt herself.

So, in your opinion, how could this commercial be modified to be funny, but to still keep its humor? Is it always inappropriate to show minority groups in a joking fashion? Is it always inappropriate to reveal a trans individual’s “true” (biological) identity? If biological identity can’t be revealed, how can we have inclusive commercials featuring trans individuals (after all, we won’t know that they are trans unless their bio sex is revealed).

Honestly, to say you feel “battered” seems like an overreaction.

By: Phil

Phil — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:12:58 +0000

It made me laugh, so perhaps I’m being too lenient, but I don’t see anything offensive. The whole point of the commercial is the slapstick comedy, the getting-hit-in-the-balls gag: a classic and often-used joke (e.g. “Dodgeball”). The beginning emphasis on the character’s femininity is just misdirection, leading us away from expecting the funny twist ending.

Finding the joke funny is dependent upon being able to recognize and sympathize with her masculine traits, despite having first identified her as a sexy female.

By: steff_

steff_ — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:54:54 +0000

This ad is very transphobic (and sexist, too)! It happens all the time that trans*people get attacked with the idea of a biological/natural based truth (the “sensitive” area between the legs (which I think shall be read as a bio-penis) and the deep voice). In this case with the intention to deny the person her lived genderexpression, because her “performance” breaks when she feels pain and her voice sounds deep (which by the way my voice is also doing in those situations). So the audience can react: “Aha! He is just acting!” For a trans*person it’s a very painfull experience, to hear from other people (in many cases they never met before) what they are and/or what they are not. I was battered by this violent act of appreciation.

By: Policing « Café Americano

Policing « Café Americano — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 13:25:04 +0000

[...] invoking a set of fears about that spectrum of gender. It reminds me of a recent spate of blog posts I’ve seen recently about transgendered individuals in the media. It seems that transgender is [...]

By: Kirsten

Kirsten — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 22:41:54 +0000

I think andrewska has just said what I was fumbling towards in my earlier comment.

By: andrewska

andrewska — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:07:38 +0000

I think it is worth noting that the ad depicts a transgendered woman who looks beautiful and (until the corner of the table incident) is successfully passing. Most media depictions of transgendered women are of a guy with a beard in a wig. So, in that sense, it’s an advance.

While I’m all too ready to be offended by this ad if consensus decides we’re supposed to be, I do want to point out that acting as if there can’t be humor involving transgendered people is just another way of making them “different.”

By: yikes

yikes — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:17:26 +0000

This will probably be Too Much Information, but:
as a short, clumsy woman, I have often whammed my (insert your favorite word/term for female genitalia here) on corners of dressers and tables and whatnot. I identify with the pain, no matter what the gender.

By: Matt K

Matt K — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:57:56 +0000

I find the ad a little uncomfortable. It’s playing on popular notions of transpeople. The joke is “oh, look at this hot girl — just kidding, it’s a guy!” The idea (as I see it) is that audiences will see it as funny or “gross” in that what they thought was an attractive woman was indeed a “man”.

Just seems like it’s objectifying transpeople in a pretty stereotypical way, if you ask me.

By: Kirsten

Kirsten — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:36:55 +0000

Were it not for the bit at the end, I wouldn’t have noticed that the protagonist is trans. In fact, without the deep-ish voice I still might not. I’ve bruised my hips/thighs on the corners of tables many times, and it hurts – maybe not as much as this does, but still.

What I wonder is, if it had been a woman’s poise being undercut by clumsiness, would we have thought it was sexist or not?

I do think that it’s making fun of the protagonist, but I don’t think it’s necessarily worse than if it were a man squishing himself or a woman tripping. I’ve never been very keen on the pratfalls in the “Bridget Jones” films, but when I think about it, they aren’t actually worse than what male comedy characters are subjected to. It’s just that women seem to be expected to have poise in a way that men aren’t, and therefore their trips and slips seem more socially awkward.

By: Navidson

Navidson — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:44:35 +0000

I believe, from the visuals, it’s an ad for tables with rounded/no corners, and that the character runs into a corner specifically.