No, it's shiny! I like to meet new people. They've all got stories...

Kaylee ,'Serenity'


Natter 70: Hookers and Blow  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


§ ita § - Aug 25, 2012 12:55:38 pm PDT #19447 of 30001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

I'm looking for some non-privileged perspective on this ad. I'm seeing discussion that it's transphobic, but the premise seems to be that appearing to be a gender that you're not, and revealing your gender after the mislead is endorsing trans panic and therefore the murder of trans women.

Here's the first discussion of it that I saw:

The problem is that it still relies on the same old transphobic (and transmisogynistic) tropes, and this is a cis man that is doing an advert that involves a bigoted idea that ends up killing trans women (especially trans women of color), that trans women are tricking people over their gender, that their penis makes them male, as shown by the shock reveal at the end and a company owned probably mostly by cis men creating this advert to profit from that idea. In the end its just an insulting OMG that person you thought was female is a he advert, with high production values and some glitz but still transphobic at its heart.

Given that the ad's tagline is "Let's turn our butts to conventional knowledge" isn't there an "don't rely on first impressions or traditional standards" interpretation that we can take away from this that is progressive and not detrimental?

Is my general chafing at the gender binary seen as cis privilege and transphobic or counter to trans* equality?


§ ita § - Aug 25, 2012 1:52:37 pm PDT #19448 of 30001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

For reasons I don't totally understand I actually paged all the way through this slideshow of teacher sex scandals: [link] . They're all women, all fairly attractive, and most of them are pretty lightly and obscurely sentenced. I would imagine that if this were 20-35 year old men sleeping with 13-17 year old girls (or boys, probably) and sending them naked pictures of themselves, they'd have been locked away for longer. Are male teachers not doing this, or do people not care?


ChiKat - Aug 25, 2012 1:56:14 pm PDT #19449 of 30001
That man was going to shank me. Over an omelette. Two eggs and a slice of government cheese. Is that what my life is worth?

A teacher in my former district took a plea of 12 years this past February. He was abusing 15-17 aged girls.


Amy - Aug 25, 2012 2:00:28 pm PDT #19450 of 30001
Because books.

A swimming coach here was fired earlier this year because he was apparently sleeping with at least one girl. No charges were brought, though.


-t - Aug 25, 2012 2:05:32 pm PDT #19451 of 30001
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

I am trying to remember if the teacher in the sex scandal at my high school was fired or prosecuted or anything. I think he took early retirement. That was a million years ago, though.


DavidS - Aug 25, 2012 2:06:53 pm PDT #19452 of 30001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

I'm seeing discussion that it's transphobic,

I don't get that at all. It's about confounding the viewers presumptions, making you question them. So that seems like a good thing to me.

But then I don't agree with half the objections on Mark Watches, and (in my head) they often sound like Kat Demming's character in 40 Year Old Virgin as the teenage daughter who gets so upset she sounds like a shrill whistling teapot.

In short: I'm probably part of the problem with my wrong thinking.


§ ita § - Aug 25, 2012 2:49:27 pm PDT #19453 of 30001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

half the objections on Mark Watches

I'm taking the ablist language complaints as a given, since I've heard about the banned words--what other objections are there?

Why is there *1* male teacher figure abuse in the news and so many women? Is it because it's way more palatable for no supportable reason?

He was abusing 15-17 aged girls.

How many?

No charges were brought, though.

How old was the girl?


Dana - Aug 25, 2012 3:02:48 pm PDT #19454 of 30001
I haven't trusted science since I saw the film "Flubber."

Woohoo, Saints game on TV!


Dana - Aug 25, 2012 3:25:18 pm PDT #19455 of 30001
I haven't trusted science since I saw the film "Flubber."

Okay, Saints game is not going well. Perhaps I should stop watching.


-t - Aug 25, 2012 3:32:10 pm PDT #19456 of 30001
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

Not loving the score, but at least we can see it live!