| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Great Cultural Revolution |
| Starbucks: What a coffee ad reveals about transphobia in India |
| 2023-05-23 |
| [BBC] It's hard to not be accepted for who you are. It's harder still if the ones not accepting you are your parents. And that's why a recent Starbucks ad about parents rekindling ties with their adult daughter - a transgender woman - has touched a chord with many. In the ad, the couple meet their daughter in a coffee shop after being estranged from her for years and the father shows his acceptance of her decision to transition by addressing her by her chosen name, Arpita, instead of Arpit. The ad was released earlier this month with the hashtag - It Starts With Your Name - and has since been viewed over a million times on YouTube and has over eight million views on Twitter. Many users praised the brand for its message of inclusivity, and for featuring a transgender model in the lead role. "A parent's love and acceptance to their trans kid is truly everything," wrote one user, while another said that it was "about time to move past transphobia". But the ad was also criticised by some users who accused the brand of tokenism and claimed it was "against Indian culture". Model Glorious Luna at couturier Gaurav Gupta's store opening in Mumbai This isn't the first ad to spark a conversation around the transgender community in India. In 2021, an ad by Indian jewellery house Bhima won hearts for telling the story of transition of a trans woman. It featured transgender model, Meera, who had told the BBC that doing the ad "helped me become more comfortable with myself". India has an estimated two million transgender people. Despite a Supreme Court ruling that they have equal rights as other genders, many continue to suffer abuse and stigma. Several transgender people are alienated by their families and have to resort to begging, prostitution or performing at events to earn a living. However, people from the community say that things are slowly changing for the better, at least in certain spaces, and that they and their stories are finding some amount of representation in mainstream culture - whether it be in ads, movies or fashion shows. The recently concluded Lakme Fashion Week - one of India's biggest and most respectable fashion events - had two transgender women and a non-binary person in its pool of models for the first time, and they walked the ramp for some of India's top designers. The event also presented a collection by Saisha Shinde - as established designer who came out as a transgender woman in 2021. Mainstream fashion magazines are profiling trans models; a few top designers are dressing them for events and roping them in for their campaign launches and store openings. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #3 Several transgender people are alienated by their families and have to resort to begging, prostitution or performing at events to earn a living. Gonna guess that was in the cards regardless of whether Dad could afford a cup of Starbucks every morning. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2023-05-23 10:41 |
| #1 They've got them there too. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2023-05-23 09:40 |