Urban Outfitters plays the tranny card

Post by **DonnaT** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 5:06 pm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/1 ... 64589.html

Jan W · Post by **Jan W** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 5:29 pm

Crass and unfunny.

Who would think otherwise?

Caith · Post by **Caith** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 8:15 pm

Terrible and disrespectful to transgender people everywhere.

Erica S · Post by **Erica S** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 7:46 am

A large store like that should stay away from being so crude! It is offensive to people altogether. It does not matter how you feel. In my opinion

Erica

Anthony Simon · Post by **Anthony Simon** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 4:36 pm

FWIW Jill can't have both been "a closet tranny" and gone up the hill with Jack. She'd still be at home. But then logic never is a strong suit when it comes to prejudice - and I think this card probably does appeal to prejudiced people. It sounds jeering (to me).

The actual "story" of the joke - the "shocking" "reveal" is probably the standard element of CDing/Female Impersonator narraratives in just about all media. And we've had (at least one) jokes here along those lines - just the treatment differs.

I get a thrill when a good-looking woman in a drama is revealed to be "really" a man - that's the power of the basic narrative. And I think non-CD people respond to it too.

Anita · Post by **Anita** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 9:04 pm

At first glance I wondered how they got away with the bawdy language--you don't generally see a word like "cock" in mainstream commercial writing.

Anthony wrote:

The actual "story" of the joke - the "shocking" "reveal" is probably the standard element of CDing/Female Impersonator narraratives in just about all media. And we've had (at least one) jokes here along those lines - just the treatment differs.

Anthony's statement puts it back in perspective for me. There is a fascination with this whole subject that can easily get out of hand and become offensive. More than once I've been glad that I've got my Transgender Girl Credentials. If I didn't, my own interest in TG women could have been seen in the wrong light, but as "one of the girls," I've never had any problems with it. My current girlfriend would never have trusted me if I were 'just some guy,' but she knew me as a woman first.

But it 'gets' to me when I see a CD out in the world trying to pass. I'm as fascinated by her as anybody else would be. I felt better about that when MtF author Deirdre McCloskey, who wrote Crossing, said that it was hard for anyone (including her) not to want to stare at people who were crossing gender lines.

It strikes me that this is a little like going to nude beaches, which I did when I was younger--California has lots of them. Nudity gets ho-hum pretty quickly once you're on the beach; it's the norm. It's the same at support group meetings or any other place where transgender people gather; we're all just people at those times.

But it's the unexpected encounter out there in the world that reminds me of how other people often see us.