Comment: Paddy Power thinks it's fun to play 'spot the trans lady' – want to bet?
by Paris Lees
20 February 2012, 5:40pm
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/02/20/comment-paddy-power-thinks-its-fun-to-play-spot-the-trans-lady-want-to-bet/Irish bookmakers Paddy Power have a rather distasteful publicity stunt coming up. The company's latest advert, broadcast on BSkyB, has upset the transgender community by asking viewers to "spot the transgendered [sic] ladies". Today, I can exclusively reveal that Paddy Power hopes to 'plant' trans women at Cheltenham Festival on Ladies Day, so that race-goers can try to spot them in real life. Nice, huh?
The problem with "spot the trans lady" though is that, for one person in the game, it's really not that fun. Ask any trans woman. Most of us, at some stage, have faced the humiliation of strangers playing it on us, (I use "on" as it's something that's done to you, not with you, and rarely with permission). You know it's coming, as you walk down the street, like any other member of the public, on your way to buy milk. You see the curious look in a stranger's eye, the excitement as they wonder if it could truly be – if they could really have found someone as laughable and as exotic as you. You note their lack of subtlety as they nudge the person next to them. They walk by. Seconds pass. And, no matter how you try to prepare for the certainty of what comes next, the phrase "Is that a ->-bleeped-<-?" stabs like a dagger every time.
