New Zealand's Libra Tampon 'Transphobic' Commercial Yanked From Airwaves (VIDEO)

A New Zealand feminine hygiene company has yanked a controversial new advertisement from the airwaves after many in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community objected to what some have deemed a "transphobic" message.

The ad for Libra tampons depicts a showdown between two women in a ladies' restroom. Though it isn't clear if one of the characters is intended to be a transgender woman or a drag queen, her blonde opponent is depicting as "winning" the competition when she pulls out a tampon, alongside the tagline "Libra gets girls."

The clip instantly sparked a bevy of complaints after its Dec. 21 debut. "It's extremely offensive because it's pretty much saying the only way you can be a woman is to get your period," Cherise Witehira, president of Agender NZ, told The New Zealand Herald. "Obviously we can't menstruate. However, we identify as female."

Others have taken to the company's Facebook page to express their distate with the ad. "I'm not sure what is more disgusting, the blatant transphobia or the inclination that a period is what defines a woman's femininity," one user writes. "Seriously, what were you thinking?"

The Daily Mail cites an apology issued by Libra officials before they pulled the clip. "It was never intended to upset or offend anyone," the statement reads. "Independent research was undertaken and the advertisement was viewed positively during that testing. Libra takes all feedback very seriously, and in response to this, we will immediately review our future position with this campaign based on the feedback received."

View other LGBT advertisements, many of which caused similar controversy when they debuted, below:

Comments

[candysays]

01:09 PM on 01/17/2012

As there is no mention of the self-identity of the two people in the ad, it all seems a bit of a beat-up.

[candysays]

12:25 PM on 01/17/2012

This is standard technique.

Commercials appealing to the women's purse portray men as stupid with great regularity. They don't share in tampon knowledge, they are clumsy around the house, they don't know what the kids want, etc. Excluding the other is meant to get some kind of "i am women" herd instinct association with the brand name. Men don't seem to get as vocally upset about it as the transgender lobby. Obviously.

Wonder why?

[gardinsprite13]

12:39 AM on 01/10/2012

TAX THE CHURCH!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/tax-the-church/

[monkbot]

01:54 AM on 01/08/2012

The crux of this argument is: do women and men have different personalities. I believe they do not and that to imply so is a sexist argument. Men and women have different bodies and that's about it. A man who identifies with women is just that- a man who identifies with women. It does not, as is often said, make him a woman. I'm sorry if that is offensive. I like transgendered people because they are often humble and seldom uninteresting, but let's stop with these absurd ideas you can change your sex. It's seems an awful lot like a simple delusion.

[Valerie Keefe]

03:12 AM on 01/08/2012

Well, I'm sorry that you haven't paid any attention to the link between prenatal hormone exposure and gender identity or sexual differentiation in the midbrain, but the point remains, that, regardless of how much you would like male and female brains to be exactly the same, they aren't. Does that mean that men or women are innately more intelligent? Reasonable? Decent? Worthy of rights? No. But there is a differentiation in body map, and in some aggregate characteristics.

So, you can believe whatever you want, but until you have read:

http://aebrain.blogspot.com/2010/12/two-papers-on-legal-issues-for-ts-and.html

Male–to–female transsexuals have female neuron numbers in a limbic nucleus. Kruiver et al J Clin Endocrinol Metab (2000) 85:2034–2041

The present findings of somatostatin neuronal sex differences in the BSTc and its sex reversal in the transsexual brain clearly support the paradigm that in transsexuals sexual differentiation of the brain and genitals may go into opposite directions and point to a neurobiological basis of gender identity disorder.

--------

Then you should really stop pretending you know more about neurology and sexual dimorphism than the experts.

[Girl Named J]

10:56 AM on 02/17/2012

Actually we can change are sex. Gender is what cannot be changed. Sex and gender are not the same. As for male and female personalities, yes they are different and it has been proven many years ago that men and women do not think the same. I am a transsexual woman and I have regular monthly cycles the same as a natal female the only difference being I don't need a tampon. The only thing about me that was not female is I had been born with the wrong genitals. The absurdness is completely yours and that absurdness is your lack of education. Transsexual women and men will never stop our need to change our sex and you have nothing to say about it nor do you even have the right to say that we should stop striving to be who we are.

[Perspectives]

02:44 PM on 01/06/2012

Political correctness is simply a language manipulation strategy to make the unpalatable seem palatable to the masses...or else.

People can not be forced into liking others or accepting others. Tolerance is not acceptance. It is possible to disagree, even strongly with certain lifestyles, yet show the utmost in respect to persons who embrace those lifestyles. This fact seems to be lost on LGBTQ community who seem to think that if a person does not wholeheartedly agree with everything that community proposes as true then that person is a phobic of some sort. Nothing could be further from the truth. Personally, I could care less if adults choose to chemically and otherwise castrate themselves. Where I do have issue is with the notion of experimenting on children on a huge scale through the educational system. I have read the curriculum on the gender spectrum being introduced into schools nationwide and I must admit I'm confused. On the one hand, The LGBTQ community states that persons are born that way, yet simultaneously teach that one can choose to be either a boy or girl and to completely ignore ones biological identity. I have some strong reservations when it comes to socially engineering a genderless generation. It's a huge experiment - it's never been done before. Bullying is an issue, but bullying in general is not being addressed in the curriculum. The impression and indeed the materials used in school target the LGBTQ community only when it comes to bullying.

[Kittyburger]

04:58 PM on 01/06/2012

Political correctness is a phrase used by people who want to deny that there's anything wrong with treating people unlike themselves badly.

[dirtydog1776]

01:20 AM on 01/09/2012

No, political correctness is obfuscating the truth and forcing people to believe what you want them to believe.

Like calling a dishonest person, ethically disoriented.

Don't want anybody to feel sad inside or wound their self esteem.

[kingofhearts1287]

01:50 PM on 01/07/2012

F&F

[sevnwolves]

08:26 AM on 01/06/2012

So if I "identify" with being a billionaire, does that mean American Express needs to give me a platinum card with no spending limit?

[Kittyburger]

10:02 AM on 01/06/2012

Because there is no difference whatsoever between simple, greed-based envy, and a documented medical condition which is clearly understood by medical professionals to have a biological and neuroanatomic origin, which has been artificially induced in laboratory test animals, and which has a well-understood course of adaptive and maintenance medication, of which the persons possessing that condition, despite being perfectly capable to lead normal and productive lives, suffer extreme and unique social stigmas based on the fact that they contradict one of the most cherished assumptions society has (which is that everyone aspires to be male).

The two are clearly exactly the same.

[Valerie Keefe]

03:13 AM on 01/08/2012

Well, are babies born with ambiguous bank balances? No? Then the analogy falls flat.

[clancy3909]

06:55 AM on 01/06/2012

LOL I Love It !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[laaksolove]

10:32 PM on 01/05/2012

I love that McDonalds ad. It's just so incredibly sweet.

[capercaper]

08:28 AM on 01/05/2012

Most savvy women are aware of the misogyny of trans women towards natural women.

I've never met a trans woman who wasn't negatively competitive with attractive natural females.

This commercial captures this in such a way as to use that reality humorously -- and empowering for natural women. Should sell a lot of product.

My compliments to the agency who created it!

[DanaLane]

11:55 AM on 01/05/2012

That isn't a trans woman...it is a male-identified drag queen.

[Valerie Keefe]

11:35 PM on 01/05/2012

The adjective you're looking for, to refer to the foundation-caked individual standing stage right of the other foundation-caked individual, when you're referring to her accord between birth assignment and actual sex, is cis.

I think when it comes to misogyny it's pretty easy to discern who in this discussion has a problem with some strong women.

[GoldenGateCA]

02:22 AM on 01/05/2012

You know, this brings up a question I have had for some time now. If you "identify as female" and dress as female, but still have some male parts hanging around, which bathroom should you be using? My impression is that a significant number of transsexuals don't go "all the way." I am not comfortable with the idea of my wife and daughter in a public restroom with someone who has male parts. I guess we need more family bathrooms that any one can use.

[Kittyburger]

08:16 AM on 01/05/2012

You may or may not be aware of this, but generally women's restrooms have individual, locking stalls, wherein one generally only partially disrobes, does one's business, then re-clothes themselves before opening the stall door, going to wash one's hands and leaving.

I'm really often puzzled by the freakout over "male parts" because it implies a gross misunderstanding of what happens in a restroom.

[GoldenGateCA]

09:18 PM on 01/05/2012

Really? You are puzzled? Let's move onto the women's shower room at the health club. Still puzzled? Making out in the back seat - still puzzled? The simple fact is that many transgender women are just a couple hormone treatments away from a man in woman's clothes. You ok with a man in woman's clothes heading for the women's restroom? A man in man's clothes? New situations need new rules of behavior.

[robinsdee]

09:52 PM on 01/05/2012

Exactly. I'm also amused by the assertion that allowing mtf transgenders to use women's rooms will lead to legions of men donning pantyhose and lipstick for the express purpose of sneaking into ladies rooms to get an eyeful.

[AudreyLee]

10:05 PM on 01/04/2012

Having your period sucks, the other girl is lucky not to have it.

[AudreyLee]

02:03 PM on 01/05/2012

"Twanz"? That's your word for transgender individuals. You are such a classy individual, Xoubuo. So eloquent.

[reddy52]

04:22 PM on 01/05/2012

What other girl?

[AudreyLee]

09:56 AM on 01/06/2012

The one on the left.

[Kittyburger]

07:12 PM on 01/04/2012

Those like you who are so happy to do the Patriarchy's work for it? You make me sad.

Rigidly-patrolled gender boundaries benefit the Patriarchy. They build it up, because they reinforce the Patriarchal mindset that male and female are uncrossable opposites, with men in charge and women always playing catch-up.

I'm sorry. I really am. But you're playing for the wrong team.

[Xoubuo]

07:44 PM on 01/04/2012

Aw, don't like the Biological reality staring right in front of you. Oh and the truth hurts when it biologically stares right at you and every day.

It's a very common trait for male born M2T twanz to hide, deny and dismiss the cold hard biological truth about sex and gender. That's why to twanz, they think the very notion of the biological truth and biological science is twanzphobic. It's obvious that denying the realities of biological science is ok, but telling the cold hard biological truth must be twanzphobic.

It's very obvious your playing the wrong deluded team

[Kittyburger]

03:59 PM on 01/05/2012

Whether male or female, anti-trans bigotry demonstrates a very ugly truth about the person displaying it. When you strip anti-trans bigotry down to its basic core, it's about defining womanhood by who the bigot wants to have sex with. The identity of the person has nothing to do with it. Their heart and soul and mind are not important to the anti-trans bigot; it's all about do you have a body that they want to have sex with. It's an EXTREMELY misogynistic point of view.

[Xoubuo]

04:37 PM on 01/05/2012

I see your male privilege is showing again. It seems to me your the one who's denying the biological truth and seems to be calling biology tranzphobic.

[Jay Arellano]

06:24 PM on 01/04/2012

Someone's always got to be offended. I'm surely not the type to just say "HAHA THAT FUNNY SO ME LIKE," no, that's being ignorant, but people need to take the entire context of something into account before they become offended. There is no apparent malice here, the ad is being made by a tampon company, not the Family Research Council, and how is one going to just presume the person on the left to be trans? What if it the individual is depicting a cross-dresser? A drag queen? A person in a play? A person at a costume party? A person in a drag pageant? Etc? If you are offended by this advertisement, while surely there's no way to say your offense is invalid, I fully believe you should broaden your view of the world and stop caring so much about nonsense things as such, which in no way bear intent to harm nor offend.

[here2makesense]

04:41 PM on 01/04/2012

Transphobic?! I'm gay and completely disagree! It's funny!

[Valerie Keefe]

11:48 PM on 01/05/2012

I'm trans AND lesbian AND you're wrong, (and I imagine cis) the ad is cisessentialism of the first order.

[danrothesq]

01:49 PM on 01/07/2012

Good way to get women I bet. LOL

[here2makesense]

03:27 PM on 01/12/2012

Seriously?! Feel free to toss more $10K words at me but the fact is, the commercial was meant to be silly and fun. Here's some advice: laugh and the world laughs with you. I don't have to tell you the rest.

[ShamanOfHedon]

10:51 AM on 01/06/2012

Exactly. You're GAY. Not Trans. YOU don't get to tell us what we can r can't be offended by.

[Valerie Keefe]

03:21 AM on 01/08/2012

I'm both. Do I get a prize?
.

Mebbe just a cookie? 0.0

PS: Don't mind me, I was overcome with the desire to be pedantically cute on the internet and you were the nearest commenter around.

[here2makesense]

03:31 PM on 01/12/2012

Here's what your reply sounded like to me: "WAAAAA!" Let me break down the commercial for you: Girl one continually tries to one up girl two for the duration of the commercial until girl two seemingly gets the final one up. How having a bloody nether region gives girl two the one up is a little lost on me but I digress. So what, girl two wins because she gets her period. That's just a fact anyway and how you and anyone else can extrapolate a transphobic message from that is either A: overreaching or B: overly sensitive. Good luck with that.

[Robert J. Feldman]

03:59 PM on 01/04/2012

The McDonald's commercial is SOOO awesome.

It brought tears to my eyes. People who can in any way, shape or form be offended by such an emotionally nuanced and well crafted ad have to be entirely intolerant of beautiful young gay guys.

What a shame; THEIR loss, indeed.

Fanned and Faved and whatever kudos to to you Valerie for your post.