Urban Outfitters Under Fire for ‘Tranny’ Jack and Jill Greeting Card

Posted by Kevin Farrell on Mar 19, 2012 in Business | 19 comments

All good gays know that Urban Outfitters has a long history of anti-gay business practices, and political donations. So while we’d all love to own a t-shirt memorializing Jesse Spano’s “I’m so excited!” prescription drug abuse episode, we take our money elsewhere.

The latest in a laundry list of UO anti-LGBT missteps is a transphobic nursery rhyme greeting card for sale on the company’s website, and one imagines in stores as well.

The card reads:

“Jack and Jill, Went up the Hill, So Jack could see Jill’s fanny, But Jack got a shock, And an eyeful of cock, Because Jill was a closet tranny.”

Oh dear. A particularly egregious run-on sentence aside, the card and the company are being denounced as blatantly transphobic.

The card was pulled from Urbanoutfitters.com late last night, but testy Redditors were wise enough grab a screenshot before UO could pretend that it never existed in the first place.

We always side on the “Just stop effing saying the T -word already!” side of things around here because we hear over and over how hurtful it is to people, and it was so easy to stop saying.

But what say you – Funny nursery rhyme or transphobic malarkey? And does a company’s anti-gay products or politicking affect your buying decisions?

http://www.facebook.com/ybennoach Joshua William M Berkowitz

I don’t shop there for other reasons already. I do think it’s insensitive. However, if a gay or trans friend made this joke, I wouldn’t blink. I think that we queer people need to remove insensitive remarks from our vocabulary if we expect the rest of society to follow suit.

Kit Warner

Amen.
http://www.facebook.com/annasauv Kiera Ball-Mcadams

ok go tell black people to stop using the “N” word… because i mean they still use it, but somehow it’s wrong for anyone else to use it….

Lonny Parr

As someone who has done my fair share of drag, and is comfortable in androgeny, I think it’s cute. Especially if you look at it as ‘transvestite’. It doesn’t specify that Jill, if that was ‘her’ name, was a transexual. But if she was, in this case, a transexual or transitioning transexual or a hermaphrodite, for that reason; then perhaps some may choose to take offense.

The whole trans spectrum has only recently been contracted into ‘trans’ in our lexicon. I would hope that people wouldn’t get so touchy about the outsiders not being up to speed on these developments. I mean, seriously, look around you .. there is a huge portion of our country that is living in the past.

I read this rhyme off to my partner, to get his reaction and the response was a simple eye roll with a virtually non existent trace of amusement.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Diego-Alexandro-Gomez/100000793362600 Diego Alexandro Gomez

Cute? yes. Funny? No. Insensitive? Definitely.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Katherine-McQueen/1319070098 Katherine McQueen

I don’t know if I would label it trans-phobic, but semantics aside it’s deplorable and in incredibly poor taste. As a feminist, I’d also like to add the layer of sexism in the card. Either way it is upsetting and this will definitely cause me to NOT look at UO again, as someone who has and would have shopped there before this knowledge.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=887180542 Michael Blank

I dont really understand who this greeting card would be for…
http://www.facebook.com/joshelder Josh Elder

I don’t really see how this is offensive? I hear drag queens use this toast ALL the time during shows. What, are we going to pull that double standard the black community uses and say “Oh, we can say it but other people can’t”? I think we’re better than that.

http://www.facebook.com/annasauv Kiera Ball-Mcadams

because gay men should totally speak for transwomen/men
http://twitter.com/kyliebyron Kylie Byron

There is, generally, a significant difference between drag queens (who are typically male-identified, assigned-male-at-birth individuals who dress up not like women, but like drag queens, and only for fun) and transfolk, who for their own individual reasons rarely dress like drag queens, and usually because their mode of dress is designed to match their gender identification. Long story short, drag queens aren’t trans, and therefore their use of the word is still a transphobic slur, rather than reclamation. So no. Saying “I hear drag queens saying tranny” is like saying “I hear white people saying nigger.” Even if you don’t agree with reclamation, it’s STILL not reclamation.
Kathryn Fortunato

Comprehension fail. A trans woman != drag queen.

Drag queens are generally loud, abrasive, and usually gay men, who dress up to mock everything about femininity. They have nothing to do with trans women, most of whom go about their daily lives just as simply as any genetic woman would.
http://www.facebook.com/kateprincess73 Katherine Middleton

Drag queens are not transgender and are aware it is a hateful word. It is not okay for them either.

Anonymous

I’m more disturbed that members of the LGBT community don’t see how incredibly offensive this card is than I am by the fact that UO sells it. “Tranny” is a slur and should be treated like others, possibly used within the community it is used to denigrate in hopes that it decreases the words ability to shock and hurt but not acceptable to use in any other circumstance.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Patricia-Stanley/100000563290571 Patricia Stanley

To focus on a small detail, because I have way too much to say abou the card, I love that it uses the term ‘closet tranny.’ Because obviously being out of the closet means presenting as your identified gender, and then telling everyone you meet that whats in your pants is not what they think is in your pants.
Kathryn Fortunato

I am more than a little disturbed by this, and a lot angry. I’m so tempted to go buy some self etching primer and leave my response on the windows of UO stores. I mean, what are some harmless jokes between friends, right?
http://www.facebook.com/g.alex.fox Khai Fox

it’s not really being used to insult anyone, so it’s not offensive.

http://www.facebook.com/kateprincess73 Katherine Middleton

Yes it is. If you are not trans gender then you have not had to worry about such things. I am transgender. I have had to correct ignorant people who use it and risk being attacked by those who use it in a hateful and aggressive manner. Tranny is not endearing, it’s not cute and it is certainly not helpful to allow its use. If you hear it, correct the person as to its hateful message.

Anonymous

A lot of trans people would consider this transphobic because of the word “tranny”. I’ve never heard it used similarly to other pejoratives so I can’t say. But apart from that isn’t it good that it is getting more and more ok to include trans people in popular culture?
http://profile.yahoo.com/CQSJR46R32RO3NMAYFBZJMDL6M Maureen

WTF? Comments here make it sound like people think “As long as someone else is being offensive, I can too and it doesn’t count.” Hello? You are responsible for what you say, period. If there is another issue of insensitivity going on, that is ANOTHER issue.

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