Added: 7 months ago
From: tidelaundry
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  • I will forever buy Tide.

  • I'm kinda offended by this, since I'm a tomboy and yeah.

  • It's really not so much that the mother doesn't like hoodies and cargo shorts. I can see how, depending on the family, that could be considered "grubby" even for a boy. It's the disappointment in her voice when she comments on the car garage. That girl could grow up to be a well-paid architect, and the mother sounds upset that her daughter doesn't have some unrealistic fantasy about being a princess.

  • Kevin Mchale's Mom Sent me here

  • OMFG THIS IS NOT THE 1920's?!?! like time machine anyone?

  • What a cunt.

  • That mom is HOOOOT

  • I kind of liked this commercial on the basis that it showed not all girls like pink, frilly clothes and barbie dolls. Like 99% of girls, that are depicted that way on television. I can see how it would be offensive, as the mother is patronising the daughter. I think whats most offensive is it's always women in these laundry/cleaning commercials.......

  • Tide is just begging for Heskey to rape them.

  • I thought the little girl was just a tomboy.

  • This is awful. Everyone involved in the development of this commercial needs to find a way to come into the 21st century.

  • Lolol people get butthurt over commercials, it isn't like the mom said "QUIT DRESSING LIKE THAT YOU LESBO DYKE" It was supposed to be funny, get over it.

  • Tide - Stop promoting the idea that sexism is okay.

  • I remember when I used to use tide until I found out they use seriously harsh chemicals and perform cruel animal tests.

  • I think she's adorable

  • this produkt no gud

  • This is ridiculous. Tide is sending the message out to viewers that we must conform to gender roles otherwise we are weird and will make others uncomfortable, including our families. We can dress however we want and be whoever we are.

  • Only offensive because it portrays the mother as some passive dishrag. She needs to control and guide her clearly misguided daughter. Children don't know what to do - that is why they need parents.

  • I like this commercial. It's humourous.

    Is it sexist? I guess that's one way to look at it... if you want to. But people need to stop being so goddamn sensitive to everything. Why must you let something like this bother you? How does it affect your life in any way? It doesn't--unless you let it, that is.

    And as far as this being some sort of social commentary on LGBT individuals... give me a break. This has nothing to do with that.

  • goddamn this is a fucking stupid commercial. I hope this was meant to be a joke about how sexist the mom is being but I doubt it.

  • Another example of a pervasive assumption: gender nonconforming kids are 100% certain to "come out" as LGBT sooner or later. I'm not sure whether this rises to the level of a stereotype. More like a too-simplistic predictor: one which is sometimes true, sometimes not.

    Perhaps the makers of the ad were attempting to slyly poke fun at a "Stepford Mom"-type. But subtle irony is easily missed or misunderstood on TV, esp. in ads.

  • What a prude.

  • It's like you were trying to offend everyone. If that was your intention, them um, congratulations, Tide!

  • Policing your childs gender is NEVER okay. This commercial needs to go.

  • @xxxBakeneckoxxx - normally it doesn't need to be done - the child needs help, though.

  • This is such a sexist ad. I will not buy tide. Please stop playing this bullshit ad that is clearly expressing that a lesbian/transgender daughter is a complete disappointment/disgrace on the family. PULL THE AD!!

  • @Meshey14 - they would be a disappointment - what world do you live in?

  • @catothewiser I personally don't think any LGBT person is a disappointment but clearly tide does

  • @Meshey14 - despite unprecedented propaganda and even co-opting the word "gay" most homosexuals lead short and miserable lives.

  • @catothewiser I am not sure your comment makes any sense or holds any validity since there is no research or statistics to show that gay or lgbt people live miserable or short lives.

  • @Meshey14 - actually, there is plenty of it. You being ignorant of it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

  • @catothewiser 1) I am not ignorant since I am part of the lgbt community 2) I attend a women's college were we are all well aware of the hardships the lgbt community faces 3) I would love to see some data that shows that homosexuals live statistically shorter and depressive lives compared to heterosexuals in the America 4) I am AGAINST the tide ad and having this mother become disappointed that her daughter might be gay is a horrible message so whose side are you on anyways?

  • @catothewiser Yes, some people are not excepted because of their sexuality which is horrible but I am not sure why you are even attacking my comment in the first place since I am clearly lgbt friendly-loving

  • THIS COMMERCIAL IS OFFENSIVE. PLEASE STOP PLAYING ,P&G IS LOCATED IN CINCINNATI ,OH I GREW UP THERE VERY HOMOPHOBIC CITY AND THIS AD PROVES ITS STILL THAT WAY!

  • Does anyone know who that mom is???

  • MILF

  • Wait till she finds out her daughter's a lesbian!

  • @milkmanv1 thats a sterotype. You have girls who is just as girly as the mom turn into lesbians, jackass.

  • THIS IS SATIRE, PEOPLE! They are poking fun at the gender stereotypes and expectations that exist, not conforming with them!

  • @tillypoynterr Yeah, that ain't working. The fact that most people think like the mother in pink (____is for boys, ____is for girls...) make this commercial about as funny as brain tumor.

  • all the people in tide ads are PLASTIC PEOPLE!

  • PLASTIC PEOPLE

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  • A girl that likes playing with blocks and not dressing up like a mini-Kardashian?! Clearly a mother's worst nightmare.

  • Just a quick follow-up point: the kind of criticism expressed here would apply to almost any other commercial. Think about the dunkin donuts commercials where a construction worker is happy to have a coffee boost before starting his day. You could easily complain about this misrepresenting the average coffee drinker as an unskilled laborer who needs coffee for a boring job or some garbage.

    All they're saying is "hey, this guy looks like an honest fellow, and look, he drinks dunkin donuts."

  • I agree with what @morganewhite and others are saying: I think you guys have missed the point here, by a large margin.

    Ads don't contain 100% perfect people. Instead they usually have realistic people that we can relate to, if not because we see ourselves then because we see someone we know. They can even portray stereotypes - all that matters is that we understand the message. The characters don't represent the views of Tide any more than characters in a novel represent the views of its author.

  • I really thought this commercial was MAKING FUN of the ridiculous enforcement of gender roles that STILL exists in our society. It's not like Tide actually thinks this is okay. It's supposed to be funny, and probably a wake-up call for moms that are really like this, because it shows how stupid it looks.

  • While I'm a girly girl as an adult, I only have brothers and grew up in a neighborhood of boys. I converted them, got them to play girl things with me, but my own childhood experience as being one of the boys taught me there's nothing wrong with it. Way to make the first commercial ever to offend me, Tide.

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  • Never bought tide before definitely won't now

  • I've officially been inspired to never buy Tide. The mom in this commercial needs to leave the 1980s behind and jump into 2011.

  • i feel for the girl with the typical upper middle class homophobic family, but tide really needs to go f*ck themselves.

  • Yes, I was a bit offended as well

  • Hey! Something ELSE to talk about in my women's class! I love it when media portrays women as nothing else but pink wearing, dirt hating, laundry machines! Yeah!

  • Dear Tide - it's 2011. This is offensive. Please get a clue and pull this ad.

  • really? this is so lame!!! the disdain of the 'supportive' parent is appalling. tide, get with the program. girls are free to be and become whatever they want, and will indeed take over the world. what mom would be disappointed in that?

  • People are taking the "message" theyre getting out of this too far. Interpret it how you want, but its only supposed to be a cute little commercial to sell tide! i thought it was funny..

  • when i saw this commercial, i giggled, cuz i remember being that little girl, wearing my older brothers hand-me-downs... at the end of the commercial, the mother tells the girl her car garage is beautiful, =] she may not approve of her daughters choices, but it comes across as though she's trying to accept it. she doesn't like it, but she loves her daughter, and allows her to express herself and play with the toys she wants to.

    BUT at the end of all this,i'm sure they just wanna sell Tide. lol

  • Thank you, Tide for giving me a negative portrayal of women/girls in advertising to use in my Psychology of Women journal. Society is already backwards from women's sufferage and you decided to add to the pile of garbage that is sexism in media. Thank you. I'll get an A for this for sure.

    Sincerely (and yes this is honestly ment),

    A peeved tomboy college student

  • The main reason I'm not amused is because my mom and family always made me feel abnormal for liking things that "only boys like". So yeah, maybe I'm overreacting, but only due to the fact that I went through my mom not accepting that I was no where near girly. It hit a nerve #sue me

  • I really couldn't be happier to see a tomboy on a commercial. I felt represented on TV for the first time. I was a tomboy whose mother was disappointed and struggled to accept my tomboy ways, but loved me always. I actually laughed out loud and then got a little misty eyed as my Mom has passed away. Her Mother is struggling but loving and that is a truthful depiction. I think my mother would have seen herself in the Mother on the commercial just as I see myself in the girl. Thanks for this!

  • People need to calm down. This commercial is great, how often to we see a little girl who is wearing boys clothes on regular TV? Yes her mom is a little bit upset about it, but she isn't forcing her to wear other clothing. She obviously still accept her for who she is.

    This commercial really reminds me of my childhood.

  • Really Tide? Can we say homophobic?

  • I need a chick like that.

  • I LOVE it because it reminded me of myself, and all the little pink dresses I put on my daughter, that was until she was 2yrs old and put her foot (that was clad in black Nike hightops) down and stuck to her hoodies and still does 23 yrs later. I look back and laugh at myself for thinking my daughter would love pink dresses and playing dress up, nope she played trucks and hockey :) People need to lighten up, I'm sure that like me this woman wouldn't change a thing about her awesome little girl ♥

  • I don't really think this casts a negative and disapproving tone.

  • Whether Tide is making fun of the mother or not, the focus of this commercial is on the child, her style, and how she plays, and it's cast in a negative and disapproving tone. You don't have to have a big brain or care about LGTB rights to find this offensive. If it's satire, it certainly isn't my kind of humor. Tide should pull this commercial, it's awful.

  • What a bitch.

    

  • Oh my god don't any of you people get satire?? Thank you tide for having the ovaries to be edgy and use comedy to shed light on our cultures unwillingness to advance beyond fear of differences in human beings ....

  • seriously, tide?

  • So ridiculously dumb...tide can just disappear along with the stains..

  • Flag this!

  • I'm sorry I had to hit Like on this just because this was EXACTLY me when I was little. Thank goodness my mom was ok with it though. But ya this is definitely in bad taste. but oh well. thats how us tomboys have to live

  • What I find disturbing in this commercial is NOT that the child is being who she wants to be, NOT that the mother encourages her child to be herself, BUT the sense that the mother, though she SPEAKS the words of support still SOUNDS disappointed that her child is not what she expects her to be (It's a sensing thing -- get in touch with it)

  • I understand that this is intended to portray the mother negatively and not the daughter, however many people, myself included, grew up in a home where both parents are extremely negative towards the individualized persona the child took on. So I can definitely understand the sensitivity that American women especially could have towards such a commercial.

  • This could have been funny, this could have been a good fun-poking at stereotypes. Instead it comes off extremely rude and insensitive. The commercial is poorly executed, and the TONE in the mother's voice when she says "Another car garage, honey? It's beautiful." is extremely patronizing. The premise isn't what sucks, it's the execution. It sends the completely wrong message to parents.

  • If they were trying to poke fun at the mom instead of the girl, then it's poorly executed.

  • The mother is disappointed, but supportive. One is an option, the other isn't. I actually think that this advert is more 'gender sensitive' than most for that reason. Have you ever seen a kid like this on an ad before?

  • This is not the fake mom from People Under The Stairs. You people having a cow over this obviously have personal issues about gender identity easily set off by innocent corn flakes like this commercial.

    Imagine if the kid was a teen wearing a skirt the mom thought was too short and tried to get her to wear longer ones. Same issue. All parents want their kids to be various things for various reasons and the level of disappointment she expressed is NOTHING compared to what some of us grew up with

  • omg you all are so fucking dramatic..trying to find offense in every little last thing.

    the top comments say it best.

  • This is just dreadful.

  • People get real, Tide is actually making fun of people who think like her, not promoting it...sarcasm must be dead in modern America, sad because with a socialistic communist dictator like Hussein Obummer in office, you really need to find something to laugh at!

  • this is retarded

  • just another example of heternormativity in corporate america.

  • I think it is good the girl is allowed to wear clothes and play with the toys of her choice, but the underlying issue for me is the mom's implication that her daughter is a disappointment based on gender expression. A better, less offensive commercial would have been a woman obsessed with plaid or maybe denim and a daughter who likes stripes or an off the wall costume. Gender expectations and the pink is for girls way of living is unfair and creates stereotypes which then lead to prejudice.

  • @jumper15239 Thank you! I came here to say this myself. I was that girl growing up. My mom let me be who I am without complaining that I wasn't girly enough and I love that about her!

  • @jumper15239 After the mother says about trying pink and asking if it was a car garage she says "its beautiful". This commercial is real. I'm a minority and a lesbian and I think the acceptance at the end of this commercial is endearing. Everyone should just shut the fuck up because there ARE gender expectations. That's reality, but this commercial portrays acceptance as the final message.

  • @jumper15239 U R TEH BOS !

  • Makes me have hopes for my daughter to be like that in the future, really prefer a son though.

  • DINOSAURS ARE 1000 MORE FUN THAN DOLLS

  • This is ironic sexism at it's finest. We all know it's sexist to the extreme, which is why it has been made. That doesn't make it okay, it is still sexism.

  • I have been using Tide since I was old enough to do laundry - being a lesbian makes me ashamed to be using their product now after seeing this commercial aired on T.V. this morning. I am going to stop purchasing Tide in protest to this disgusting commercial of gender stereotyping and non-conformation - why not let children let themselves who they are Tide?

  • @TheSniffyBunny is the mom letting the little girl wear the clothes? ... and being supportive of her building the car garage? ...okay just checking. I'm gay and I think this commercial is cute.

  • Listen everyone is taking this commercial way to seriously. I think it's hilarious it reminds me a lot of myself when I was younger. I wanted to play with pokemon cards and legos and wanted to wear t-shirts and jeans and my mom always wanted me to wear poofy frilly dresses and I'm 20 now and i'm girly and like makeup and all that stuff i still really don't like to wear dresses all that much but i do wear them from time to time.

  • I believe when you are younger you should wear what you want and just be a kid. I get so sick when I see little kids trying to dress like they are 20 and it's not always the parents that are making them dress that way it's what they are seeing in this generation from other kids and things on T.V.

  • This commercial is very offensive to the girls who are "tomboys". My daughter is a tomboy, and I'm proud that she wants to be herself. That's why I don't like this.

  • What I find offensive, is it's always women in laundry/dish/cleaning commercials. Always shows the woman, cleaning up in the kitchen after the family. It rather annoys me, in todays society, a good portion of women have full time jobs. Commercials need to get this preconcieved notion that women are the keepers of the home out of their heads, and get with the times. By the way, I rather like this commercial because I like how the little girl is being real with herself.

  • This ad is clearly shaming kids who don't act like a stereotype of their assigned gender.

    It's not inclusive; it's cissexist; it's homophobic; it's a piece of crap.

  • Im willing to be that at least 25% of the people who made this commercial from conception to the final product were gay, bi, trans, etc

  • @pwhiteOO So what? LGBTQ people can stil be homophobic, transphobic, etc...

  • Ick. Ick ick ick. C'mon, Tide, it's the 21ST CENTURY. Get your head out of the 50s. This commercial is offensive and it makes me sad. It most definitely does not make me want to buy Tide.

  • Ugh, say what you will about it really making fun of the mother, this commercial just does not sit well with me. Even if it isn't making fun of non-"feminine" girls, it still dichotomizes females into "prissy, pink, feminine" and "tomboy, cargo-pants wearing butches." Which is obviously completely invalid. C'mon, Tide, you can make marketable commercials that aren't controversial.

    (Also, since when are hoodies "boyish"? Every single female friend of mine owns at least one.)

  • My biggest gripe is that these laundry commercials NEVER show men doing laundry, or at least, seriously doing it the correct way. So men are so incapable of taking care of themselves. Everyone does laundry!! Not just women. Also, that little girl looks cool.

  • I love this commercial please someone explain to me why it's so "disgusting and bad" haha I think it's funny and cute:)

  • i am reading this more as 'the mother's compulsion to adhere to gender norms pervades every facet of her life, making her totally neurotic and coloring her interactions with her child. meanwhile her non-conforming child is having fun just being a kid, seems totally disinterested in her mother's bullshit.'

    i'm not seeing hetero/cissexism here, i'm seeing the making of a future feminist.

  • People are overreacting. This is hillarious. It's a kid who loves playing in the dirt and a mom who wishes her kid would be a little more "normal". Whats offensive about that? That pretty much describes every household out there. Its a commercial for laundry cleaner people. If the kid was clean, it wouldn't work very well now would it?

  • @Shitsville101

    Define normal.

  • @TheAlebat Exactly. That's why its in quotes. The mom's thoughts on normal girl behavior are obviously not the same as her daughter's. All parents at one point wish their children would be more normal. It depends on the situation as to what kind of normal that might be.

  • I don't know if Tide is making fun of the mother and the stereotypes but what I got from this video is that they are obviously following one. Who knows if that little girl is a lesbian? Yes, she could be one, like her I was one of those little girls and I am gay BUT my best friend was like this and she is straight.

  • I find this commercial extremely offensive and I'm wondering how it was every able to air.

  • Looking at it myself, it pissed me off, but now I'm more enlightened by others views. Still, the best thing to do would be to pull the ad. Tide had to know what they were doing, and a time like this is too crucial for this sort of ad. Everyone's been picking sides, and Tide is making themselves look too shaking with this ad.

  • @zdavidjoke Yes, I was just saying the commercial isn't inherently offensive or harmful.

  • @zdavidjoke Most people aren't perceptive enough to understand most things. Doesn't make them correct.

  • @DanielleMMarra ? I didn't say it makes them correct. I just meant that's why this commercial is still harmful. If you don't get it's a satire on societal stereotypes, I don't think you're going to take away a very good message from it.

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  • WOW. she is not encouraging. its sarcastic and this video is offensive. wow. WOW.

  • I love this! Even though the mom hates every minute of it, she still encourages her daughter to be herself. Great commercial.

  • "Humiliating a child for their choices is wrong."

    Did you watch to the end of the ad? She's accepting her daughter!

  • Hm. See, speaking from the transman point of view, I think the point of this commercial is to sell Tide.

  • @Tatami701 Of course the point is to sell the product, however, they don't have to be offensive to sell Tide. If this commercial had been racially offensive, it would have been pulled already.

  • @jadedangyle I see what you mean, and I agree. I'm just hoping that the intention wasn't to discourage differences. Unlikely, though.

  • @Tatami701 and to sell the product there has to be a limit to how the commercial can offend others' gender expressions. I totally agree with @jumper15239 comment, the mother seems to be disappointed by her daughter gender expression.

  • @subversivediscourse I heard it the same way, actually. She could be disappointed or accepting, the way she says it, but I dislike the lack of clarity. "Oh, it's not disappointment, she's accepting it!" I apologize if I offended anyone. I don't especially like this commercial, either.

  • @theBDMentertainment Woah. What your friend went through is horrible, and it's a shame. I'm sorry to hear that. But to compare an abusive childhood to this commercial is beyond ridiculous.

  • I'm a mom who loves pink and frilly things....my girls are tough and rumble....I LOVE that about them!! I know that they think I am hilarious for LOVING pink frilly things! I don't believe that this commercial is meant to criticize or stereo type, it just shows how different girls can be from their moms. When I first saw this commercial I burst out laughing, I thought to myself "yep, this sums up my world"

  • Who says the child is trans?

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  • this is crap. tide needs to rethink their marketing.

  • Oh come on! It is just a commercial! Let's see it with fun eyes instead of criticizing and being so hateful!! What we least need is MORE hate!!

  • @mspaolaaleman83 I agree we don't need more hate, but we also don't need to reinforce stereotypes. 

  • What a terrible commercial, I've never been more offended by an Ad before, this is disgusting!

  • I've never been so offended with this commercial in my life, my friends parents beat him for being a transgendered woman and still to this day suffers with the side effects of her ordeal. I'm truly sadden that Tide had to revert to this kind of commercial in such a matter of degrading such a person life.

  • @theBDMentertainment

    What the fuck? Who said the girl in the commercial is trans?

  • @bosozoku1000 clearly i never said that i just wanted to prove a point that any one who is gay straight bi trans can be affected....

  • THUMBS UP! IMMEDIATELY WHAT I THOUGHT...TOTAL GENDERIZATION!

  • This child represents the norm.

    This mother represents society's expectations of the norm.

    Expectations are shattered, and society adapts (slowly).

    IMO it's actually encouraging open-mindedness by making the mother (society) seem overly prim and out of touch.

  • @katejb09 What about this is humiliating to that child? If anything, Tide is poking fun at this stereotypically cisfemale mother, who is learning that her child will not be a porcelain cut-out mini-her. Tide is making fun of the mother (and societal stereotypes in one fell swoop), not the adorable child playing with blocks.

  • @DanielleMMarra The problem is, most people aren't perceptive enough to get that, and if you're not, it promotes a bad message.

  • @DanielleMMarra

    cisfemale? That's an insult.

  • @bosozoku1000 lol no it's an adjective

  • @bobdylanswife Pretty sure Tide isn't calling anyone gay. In fact, this whole commercial seems to be focused on the fact that children can't be pigeon-holed to fit society's (aka the mom in this commercial) stereotypes and expectations. Kids are kids, regardless of gender. They're going to get messy. That's the point of this commercial.

  • @MsSamStamper I think that's what they're poking fun at.... the old school, super traditional image of femininity.

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  • This shows a normal young girl who doesn't fit her mother's preconceived notions of femininity... something that happens often regardless of sex and gender. And the wonderful thing is that even though we can tell the mother wants her to adore frills and lace, she DOES accept the girl's preferences ("Another car garage, honey? It's beautiful.") I'm not saying this commercial is going out of its way to be gender sensitive, but I do think it's an overreaction to say its anti-trans or sexist.

  • @DanielleMMarra I'd accept the "Another car garage, honey? It's beautiful." as a positive aspect of the commerical if her comment wasn't so blatently laced with sarcasm.

  • @cldrewski See, and it didn't sound sarcastic to me in the slightest. To me, it sounded like the mother was encouraging the daughter regardless of her own feelings about pink/frills/etc. I guess we hear what we want to hear.

  • @DanielleMMarra couldn't agree more!

  • @DanielleMMarra The issue I have with it is that she's disappointed that the girl's clothes weren't ruined and she couldn't replace them with pink and that her compliment is said sarcastically. Change the tone of voice slightly and it would be an amusing commercial.

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  • Wow, this is pretty disgusting :/

  • @ Schunocko Come on now. I think that'slooking too much into it. The mom to me sounds kind of resigned that she has a tomboy (like we are!) but still seems to accept and love her. Maybe she wishes the kid was a little more girly (as she is with all the frilliness around her) but I didn't get that she was unhappy with her.

  • OMG this is just a cute ad!! It has nothing to do with transgender, sex changes or anything like that! As a proud father of a tomboy (our daughter even looks like the kid in the ad, exact same hairstyle) I love her for who she is. Doesn't mean she won't become more "girlie" as she gets older. And if she doesn't, so what?

  • @foxmccloudlover That's the problem with this ad. It's implying that the mom DOESN'T love and accept her for who she is.

  • anyone ever heard of the word "Tomboy"? apparently most of the people who commented on this vid havent.

  • its absurd people are offended by this.  America..what has happened.

  • Anybody notice how the little girl is sitting there in camo and a hoodie? Looks like the mother doesn't really impose her "desires" and "beliefs" of what her child should be wearing. Parenting is a learning process (I'm not even a parent and I'm aware of this). This mom is learning and accepting that her child isn't like herself in the pink and girly way. She did tell her child that her garage was beautiful. Looks like this fake mom is figuring out and supporting her fake daughter just fine. :)

  • I see nothing wrong with this commercial. Whenever a little girl or boy is born everyone "tries the whole pink thing" or "blue thing". She doesn't understand but she encourages her beautiful car garage. Some just look too deep into things. It's just a commercial. No one throws a fit about commercials being gender stereotyping with little boys playing in dirt.

  • @mbg0062

    No, but if there was a commercial about a little boy playing with barbie dolls and wearing pink clothing, and the father was sitting there talking about how they'd tried the whole "blue" thing but all he wants to wear is shorts and scoop / v-neck tees, there may be a similar problem.

  • I really don't think that this is targeted towords transgender people. When I saw this, I thought of my mother and I because she was always decked out in pink and I just wanted to have fun and get dirty. I feel really bad that this offends people :(