Trans images in advertising

[publictrans.livejournal.com]

I came upon this site today that is a repository of GLBT images in advertising. It's called the Commercial Closet. It's got all sorts of good positive images of gay and lesbian people, and a large number of negative ones too.

But the trans images are pitifully negative. Almost all of them have the same central conceit: "Surprise! She's a man!" In addition, FTMs are completely invisible.

But every single ad? I mean, come on! The site's maintainers seem to be deluged enough by these negative images to relax their standards. Each ad is rated as a "+", "=", or "-". i.e. a positive, neutral, or negative portrayl of being GLBT. Does "If Clothestime can make Mark look this good, imagine what we can do for a real woman." seem neutral to you?

Of course, this raises the question: what would we consider a good trans image in advertising? For those in stealth, no image is probably good image. Maybe showing genderqueer people in media? People obviously gender-variant? Mid-transition?

I don't know, but here is the one good ad I found... just so you don't get too aggravated.