"Sun Mum"...Is this really, really offensive, or am I just crazy?

[Jo-is-amazing]

So late last year the Queensland government started running these adds trying to get people to cover up....you know 'cause Australia...and Skin cancer, which is totally a good message and I get that.

My issue is that the way they did that was by getting a very vulgar looking/ acting man to wear a dress and assimilate the role of a mother. They just started running them again and I hate it!!

I kinda want to be a Mum one day...at least an adopted one...and the idea that this is the stereotype my kids will be subjected too and bullied about sickens me (That is if I ever have them)

I find it just so hurtful with like the reactions to her from the other people in the ads, and the stereotyping of Trans women as disgusting, vulgar and overtly masculine... am I just crazy...well I am ...but do any of you wonderful people find this offensive as well?

or is it just me?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRhxmZEXiZc

^ that's the video of one of the ads



and that's a picture for you lovely busy people :/

[Sephirah]

After watching the ad several times I have to say that honestly, I don't find it offensive because I don't think it has anything to do with the portrayal of a trans woman. I think it's an attempt to put a very strict, very authoritarian type of personality, in the role of a protective mothering figure, in order to send a specific kind of message of the importance of sun safety. And I think the reactions are more against being told what to do rather than the person doing the telling.

That's just my view though.

[Hideyoshi]

Not offensive.

Not only did they gender the 'sun mum' correctly (even though they didn't have to, they were just referring to the character sun mum), but the people weren't reacting with disgust. They were startled by the yelling.

I thought the video was funny. It would be completely unfunny if they had a female doing the part imo.

[Jo-is-amazing]

I kinda get that :/
Sorry everyone
I guess I just get offended easily

[JulieBlair]

Well that is tasteless.   It uses parody to startle, and provoke a response, but sensitive it ain't.  I hope
MS Sun Mum soon retires to the melanoma ward in the sky.  There has to be a better way to a safe summer.

Julie

[Ms Grace]

They're not showing them south of the border, so you could always move to Sydney!

Sorry, didn't find it offensive either. Here in NSW they have an animation of a melanoma getting into the blood supply and spreading.




Think I'd rather have Sun Mum!

[suzifrommd]

Actually, I love it. Don't think it degrades transgender people at all. Gets people's attention. No one thinks this is someone transitioning.

We can't, as a community, demand control over all portrayals of crossdressing people.

[Foxglove]

I generally find stuff like this more brainless than offensive.  It's beyond me why anyone would find this funny, but maybe I'm just missing the point.  Or maybe I've just got a weird sense of humor.  To each her own.

[Miss_Bungle1991]

I didn't find it to be offensive. But I did think it was really stupid. But I'm pretty biased when it comes to television. I think that 90 to 95% of all of it is incredibly stupid.

[Rose City Rose]

If that profile pic is you, I wouldn't worry dear!  I'd have never guessed... I'm actually kinda jealous of those looks.

[Lostkitten]

I think it is a funny video.. but I can understand why it comes across as offensive. I even think men cross-dressing is in a way offensive even though I somewhat started out like that? But I think in general people will see a man wearing a dress and not a very feminine 'man' who wishes to become a woman, so it has some humor .

[Miss_Bungle1991]

I even think men cross-dressing is in a way offensive.

I don't find the idea offensive if it's done right. "League Of Gentlemen" and "Kids In The Hall" were good examples of doing it right.

[Gabrielle_22]

I find it less offensive than unfortunate--it perpetuates the stereotype of the male-bodied female-presenting (sort of, here) person as a figure to be laughed at, as a figure that is not meant to represent likely or non-comedic reality. This is the way cross-dressing male-bodied persons have been portrayed in films and television shows for ages. Sure, Sun Mum is gendered as "she," but "she" makes no effort at actually presenting as female, and I assume we are not meant to assume Sun Mum is *actually* female, like a transwoman would be, so the "she" gendering here actually bothers me a bit because it seems like just more comedy to me rather than accuracy of gendering.

There's much worse out there, which is why this seems tame to me, but I don't find the female gendering at the end a real positive and the ad as a whole is a rehash of the trope of the to-be-laughed-at ->-bleeped-<- male.

[Lostkitten]

I don't find the idea offensive if it's done right. "League Of Gentlemen" and "Kids In The Hall" were good examples of doing it right.

Think I spoke too quickly actually > _ <. Cross-dress is what you also do when you simply wear a woman's jacket. Or.. well, so I think o.o. And even Drag can be really interesting when someone turns it into a show, an other identity. But whenever men wear fake breasts, pink dresses, red lipstick and try to look as fake exciting as possible while basically getting turned on walking around in stockings.. Not even sure if that falls under cross-dressing but in such a way.. ugh.. well, not for me ._.

Each their own I suppose ! Actually neither want to judge someone for acting out in their own way. It is just not for me =/.

[Shantel]

I'm with Julie, it is tasteless! So much of what comes across the TV now is tasteless, crude and ill conceived rubbish. I no longer watch it, seven minutes of substandard programming and eight minutes of mostly insipid commercials every quarter hour...Ugh!

[HelloKitty]

Have to admit, I just found it just too plain stupid and tasteless to be offended by it.

I wasn't offended, did have a chuckle though.

To me it seemed obvious that the person was quite literally a man, not a cross dresser or drag queen, but simply an ordinary man wearing women's clothes and attempting (_failing miserably) to be a mom..a totalitarian one at that.

It is portrayals of transwomen done very poorly that do offend me.

[Pikachu]

It made me chuckle, even though it was pretty generic and dumb. I didn't find it offensive. I don't think it's trying to say anything about trans people, and I don't think anyone's viewing the man in the ad as a trans person.

I don't watch much TV these days, but I'm sure there are far worse commercials on. Most commercials seem to pander to some gender stereotype, honestly. At least here in the US.

[Miss_Bungle1991]

I'm with Julie, it is tasteless! So much of what comes across the TV now is tasteless, crude and ill conceived rubbish. I no longer watch it, seven minutes of substandard programming and eight minutes of mostly insipid commercials every quarter hour...Ugh!

I know, it's so crude and tasteless.

*Farts & picks her nose*

Seriously though, a lot of it IS rubbish and the level of commercials is ridiculous. Not to mention that every other commercial is for a pill of some sort. When I'm at someone else's house, I flip through all of the channels and think to myself: "Yeah, I'm glad that I cut the cord years ago."