Yes, I totally hate this ad campaign, and I can’t give any better reasons than what you list here. It’s just gross.

I could laugh, but I’m too busy trying not to cry.

*laughs bitterly*

Then this opens us up to feminist theorists who will say “if gender roles didn’t exist, transsexual people wouldn’t transition, they’d be happy without changing”.

And really, I don’t want, say, a character specifically like me so much as a way to see my own experiences affirmed, in a way. Yet more often than not even I find even a refracted reflection of my experiences is not there in a work. Instead, I have to check off certain boxes, compartmentalize myself, before I can get the reward of seeing myself. Fun Home was probably the only work where I didn’t feel like I had to do that, though I think everyone was able to find a bit of themselves in Fun Home–no doubt that’s part of what makes it such an amazing work. It didn’t compartmentalize.

I joked to some friends last night that I feel like I’m becoming a kind of pink unicorn: that man everyone assumes is gay based on social cues but who really prefers women, not that anyone asks. And though I was being mostly facetious at the time, part of me was also serious: how many of those men, after all, exist for something besides “trap” humor?

There’s a great power, then, in having one’s life affirmed through a direct relation, especially while one is early to come out and unsure. Though I’ve nitpicked it before for focusing too much on the coming out narrative, Queer YA Lit does a good job of providing a variance of outing stories to fit the varying experiences of readers.

That’s what I feel is ultimately missing, especially for young and/or newly-out folks (and of course, in comes the caveats and questions I ended my post with). The Bornstein/Serano/the blogosphere is great for a certain set of folks; it’s not entirely multipurpose, however. Education and a focus on informed discussion are vital, but there’s also the question of audience. What’s missing from that space, then?

However, I admit I’m asking a lot of questions of which I’m not sure how to answer, and that there’s no doubt some of my own issues bound up in this discussion.

Up for detailing your example? I’m curious to know more!