The Transgender Alliance, a Thai transgender group, has some harsh words for an IKEA ad airing in the Thai market.
The ad (which you can view below) features a man and a woman shopping at IKEA, an activity they pursue until the woman drops her voice to a male register in order to express shock at one of the sale items on display.
In an open (and grammatically strained) letter to IKEA, the Transgender Alliance stated that this portrayal of transgendered people is, “negative and stereotypical in nature, perpetuating misunderstanding transgenderism as human sexuality for ‘deceitful and deviant lifestyle.’”
IKEA has yet to respond, instead opting to bask in the free publicity this controversy is drawing, courtesy of blog posts just like this one.
