January, 2011
On the January 29th, 2011 episode of Saturday Night Live, after the opening monologue, they ran one of their faux-commercials. This one was for a fictitious product called “Estro-Maxx” – a high potency, once a day hormone therapy for male to female transsexuals. If you haven’t seen the spot, here it is:
There has been a bit of a storm of contraversy surrounding this bit, with GLAAD issuing statements saying that it demeans and ridicules transgender people.
All I can say is: “Lighten up!!”
SNL pokes fun at all sorts of unlikely things, such as yeast infections (the “Gyna-Lotrimin Gymnastics”). This sketch was more about the ridiculous “personal testimonials” that are part of modern pharmaceutical advertising. That they chose to use trans-women as the subjects was, IMHO, a testament to how far we have come. I can’t help but think that a few years ago the writers would never have even thought to make the bit about m2f transsexuals.
Being able to laugh at ourselves is important. We can’t lose our sense of humor and become grim ideologues. Sure the bit was tasteless, but it <strong>was</strong> funny.
Besides, nobody takes hormones 5 times a day anyway. 🙂