New Gillette Ad Features Dad Teaching Transgender Son To Shave

Now if your thinking so what, who cares if this mans son is transgender and who cares that he is being taught to shave – then, well, you’d be right. Who cares?

And this is where the problem lies, why does any emphasis on the individual’s gender need to be identified within a shaving advert?

What’s disturbing though is Gillettes apparent dislike towards birth identified men, as Zero Hedge points out:

Months after releasing an ad shaming all men for being ‘toxic’ pigs (while curiously cutting out a scene from the original ad featuring a booty-grabbing fake rap video), Gillette wants female-to-male trans individuals to know that once those hormones kick in, they’ve got your shaving needs covered. source

The advert features a transgender boy called Samson and his loving father teaching him how to shave, Samson says:

“I’m at the point in my manhood where I’m actually happy. It’s not just myself transitioning, it’s everybody around me transitioning,”

Underneath Gillette’s Ad featured on Facebook, Samson writes “Thank you so much Gillette, I look forward to the great things you’re going to continue doing to encourage us all to be our best selves.”

Gillette responded in kind with “Thank you for sharing your story, Samson. We’re honoured to showcase this special moment between you and your father and are proud to have you as a partner. Thank you for your courage and confidence in sharing your journey to becoming your best self!”

A totally organic relationship formed between the company and customer, we think not.

The topic is, of course, a difficult one to tackle, to suggest an issue with such media and how the topic of transgender is tackled puts many on the defensive and before you can say non-binary you’re labelled as a transphobe.

What do you think, we’d love to hear your opinions on this in the comments below.

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