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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Dove transgender ad #realmoms are men!

182 replies

Usui101 · 14/04/2017 18:32

Start the rant:

OP posts:
MrsDustyBusty · 15/04/2017 13:53

It's funny how long cosmetic companies have spent promoting the idea that men and women have different skin with different needs. Is this an admission that it's not actually the case at all?

duxb · 15/04/2017 13:52

The transgender woman's partner clearly doesn't have an issue, nor I imagine does she see herself as a walking womb.

The advert is incredibly diverse in terms of Mothers - biological and otherwise - it features.

If it doesn't bother the biological mother why rant about it or boycott the brand? Surely It's inconsequential to them when they are hoping to reach a wider market?

noeffingidea · 15/04/2017 13:42

I've got to say, I do love Dove, but I'm not buying it anymore now. I'm not buying anything from any companies that use transwomen to sell products that are targetted at women.

BeyondUser24601 · 15/04/2017 13:38

Yy lass! I use dove because it agrees with my faffy skin, nothing to do with stupid "real woman" advertising. DH and my kids use the same, are they real women too? 🙄

😮 Datun, and 💐for tinsel

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 15/04/2017 13:32

Dove's "real women" campaigns have always been rubbish. I don't think I've ever bought any of their products because of that campaign.

Basically they re- marketed existing products such as anti- perspirant and body lotion which were readily available in non- gendered form anyway . I know you can buy perfumed "women's anti- perspirant (but why one would want a cheap synthetic perfume escapes me) but there are shelves of generic neutral antiperspirants.

As for body lotion- the same applies. They invent this market for "real women" to sell products which already existed for people. It's more dishonest and cynical than the companies selling sparkly pink girly stuff.

Datun · 15/04/2017 13:30

Bloody hell TinselAngel, you're the third woman this week on these threads whose husband is now trans.

Flowersto you.

TinselAngel · 15/04/2017 13:27

This makes me so furious. My daughter's father now lives as a "woman", (that's why we split up). If he asked my daughter to start calling him "mum" or if he passed himself off as her mother, I think the rage might very well kill me.

noeffingidea · 15/04/2017 13:09

whereyouleftit probably, but I actually think they're a small minority. DM and youtube comments (when you weed out some of the craziest, and bigoted) are more representative of general mainstream opinion.
Most people do not buy into the idealogy of gender identity over riding biological reality, and the more it comes into the spotlight the bigger the pushback will be.
Target in America suffered big losses as a direct response to allowing transwomen to use womens bathrooms, and I expect other companies will take note.

OlennasWimple · 15/04/2017 13:01

More erasure of women. More specifically, erasure of lesbian women

WhereYouLeftIt · 15/04/2017 12:54

"What is the point of this advert? Most women do not identify with transwomen, so why use transwomen to advertise products that are targeted at women?"
Is it that younger women are still hypnotised and trying to be 'right-on' - is that who they're really targeting with the ad?

noeffingidea · 15/04/2017 11:48

What is the point of this advert? Most women do not identify with transwomen, so why use transwomen to advertise products that are targeted at women?
It's like the Caitlyn Jenner cosmetics campaign ad. "I want to look like Caitlyn Jenner". Said no woman, ever.
These companies are just shooting themselves in the foot in an attempt to be politically correct and inclusive.

GuardianLions · 15/04/2017 11:04

Exactly!

Datun · 15/04/2017 10:01

GuardianLions

YY. #RealWomen designed to stop the perception in advertising that women need to be tall, thin, gorgeous. It is first and foremost a marketing ploy. But it had a benefit. And it was designed for women.

Any hashtag that has the word Real and Woman in it is going to set the transactivists on fire.

I have no doubt they lobbied Dove. Being included in a campaign for women would be a dream come true. Shed loads of validation.

First they took 'woman', then 'real woman', now real 'mum'.

It's complete erasure.

And why aren't the real dads out there saying they are erasing fatherhood?

Because none of this effects men.

GuardianLions · 15/04/2017 09:39

Anyone out there think that the deranged and obsessive AGPs out there are so finely attuned to the word 'real' and its suggestion of erm reality when related to the word 'women' that the Dove campaign about #RealWomen got right up their noses and caused them to hound Dove into submission? The reason you don't get Ftts erasing men gay or straight, in things like this, is because Ftts aren't the male-entiled deranged, perverted, obsessives that TRA AGPs are, hounding every organisation and campaign to feature them.
I can imagine the Dove #RealWomen campaign was incorporated into some AGP narcissistic sex fantasies of being 'all us girls together, different shapes and sizes - ooh' wank, wank, strum, strum...
And they just had to obsess about making it a reality - as they are wont to do.

CharlieSierra · 15/04/2017 09:20

A man becoming "mother", negating the actual mother, co-opting the female power of creation and birth - at a psychoanalytical level, I think that's the crux of everything that's happening here. Rather frighteningly dystopian

Absolutely this. It's terrifying how quickly and silently this has come about.

HmmOkay · 15/04/2017 08:59

I would not really have a problem with both parents speaking if they were talking about what it is to be a real parent. And they were talking about the importance of nursery furniture or something. Even then I'd want a FTT person represented in the interests of equality.

But this was all about real moms. And the transgender parent in that relationship was the only one talking about what it meant. I wonder how many FTT would feature in a similar ad about real dads and talk about it while the father sits there mute? We all know the answer - none.

I don't like the term "birth mother" to refer to a mother while the biological father bags the "real mom" term. Talk about women being erased and silenced and relegated.

We wouldn't have any of these issues if we simply referred to people as what they actually are.

fruitlovingmonkey · 15/04/2017 08:43

You NEVER see a FTT person flogging Lynx deodorant or any other product whatsoever on TV, or opining on what it is to be a "real dad" in the media, or presenting Top Gear, or taking up a place in a male refuge, or winning Man of the Year. It is always women that are displaced, never men.

Exactly, HmmOkay

My first problem with this is statistical. How many trans people are parents of newborns? I've never heard of any, but I do know lesbian mums and adoptive mums. Why aren't they featured? By giving this MTT a platform, they are pushing out real mothers to instead show a very unlikely scenario.
The way the MTT talks loudly about being a mom while the actual mother sits quietly is fucking creepy. Presumably she had to put up and shut up with labour, PP bleeding, hormones, etc while her partner wanked on about how great it is to be a mother.

Just another reason not to buy their shit shower gel. I've still not got over them coming on MN and referring to racial characteristics as imperfections anyway.

BeyondUser24601 · 15/04/2017 08:31

I already said I'd be less bothered if they both spoke.

It'd still be gaslighting nonsense, but at least it wouldn't look like "real mom" and their own personal womb-on-legs

CaoNiMartacus · 15/04/2017 07:43

A man becoming "mother", negating the actual mother, co-opting the female power of creation and birth - at a psychoanalytical level, I think that's the crux of everything that's happening here. Rather frighteningly dystopian.

TinyRick · 15/04/2017 05:33

I'm disappointed that Roller Derby is now allowing men compete with the women

WhereYouLeftIt · 15/04/2017 02:21

"I'm wondering if people would be as annoyed if the 'birth-mom' in the ad had made some contribution?"
Personally - no I wouldn't be as annoyed. If they has seemed to be 'two co-moms'. Since it was only the MtT who spoke, it gave the impression of the female's role as mother being totally usurped. Like she was a walking, non-talking incubator.

And yes, why was there not a lesbian couple co-mothering? There must be far more lesbian couples bringing up their children. Don't Dove want to connect with them?

DJBaggySmalls · 15/04/2017 01:57

Yes I would be. Transing is totally binary and the opposite of body acceptance, it makes a mockery of the entire concept.
Plus did the women know she was marrying a trans person? Or did they announce it and trans after marriage? Because women can be too afraid to complain for fear of being labelled bigots.

tallwivglasses · 15/04/2017 01:21

I'm wondering if people would be as annoyed if the 'birth-mom' in the ad had made some contribution ?

BeyondUser24601 · 15/04/2017 00:01

The body acceptance/inclusivity is a good point. Don't dove encourage that everyone is supposed to be happy as they are?

Floggingmolly · 14/04/2017 23:37

Providing sperm to create your child is certainly not my definition of what makes a real mum?? Sweet Jesus!
I think Dove have quite spectacularly missed the mark here and I hope it hits them where it hurts.

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