Watch the ad before reading, you'll be as shocked as I was! It's worth it!

Watch this advertisement without reading anything around it.

Can you tell me why this advertisement is really gay?
(Note: The fact that it is not in English does not matter.)

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All these models... are men. This advertisement receives a 100% gay rating because all of the models are transgender males. This Taiwanese ad created in 1996 shows that our concepts of gaze are exceptionally different. Since gaze establishes a relationship of power that establishes differences this ad shows how our society has grown more comfortable with the discourse of gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender possibilities. This is true because societal norms are dictated through ads and the media. Although, this may only have been successful in Taiwan the concept is out there and will eventually reach America.

A discourse like this, where transgendered males are being empowered and publically having their beauty appreciate, would never have occurred in the time of Sonny, from Dog Day Afternoon. A spectator’s gaze from that time would have been, according to Foucault, constituted through a relationship of subjects defined within and through the discourses of institutions. The institutions of Sonny’s time were not open to homosexuality, which is apparent in how Sal reacted to the idea of being called a homosexual, how the crowd responded to Sonny frisking a man, and how the media highlighted the homosexuality as relevant to a bank robbery. Now the discourse on homosexuality has changed with the help of active LGBT members, gay alliance groups, gay parades, and many more people no longer fearing “coming out of the closet.”