In Secret Deodorant’s new advertisement, an “androgynous queer” “woman” “finds the courage to show there’s no wrong way to be a woman.” Unless of course, you’re a woman who disagrees or a woman who is bothered by the ad which takes place in a ladies bathroom.
Cosmopolitan praised the ad for “seamlessly, and poignantly, illustrat[ing] the experiences of a gender-fluid woman along with those of cis-gendered ones.”The Huffington Post even hailed the ad as “groundbreaking.”
The ad shows “androgynous queer” actress Karis Wilde hiding in a bathroom stall, afraid to face women in the restroom out of fear of a potentially awkward, or as Cosmo puts it, “even dangerous encounter.” The portrayal of “stress test #8260” ends with Wilde leaving the stall and facing the others who end up giving compliments. Cosmo repeatedly refers to Wilde as “her” throughout.
Secret’s #stresstest series claims to portray women dealing with stressful situations, usually ones that break gender norms. Past “stress tests” include standing up to a boss, waiting for a response from an “I love you” text, and even proposing to a boyfriend.
This ad “tackles a more hot-button issue,” Cosmo said, “the stress of using a public bathroom as a gender-queer or transgender woman.”
The transgender bathroom issue has become a nationwide battle. North Carolina’s HB2 has angered liberals and the media who consistently dwell largely on transgender concerns and ignore both safety and privacy issues for others.
