Weeks after the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court ruled that a woman can only be defined on the basis of biological sex, one artist has taken a stand against a transphobic billboard with the power of a really large Dachshund named Saveloy. Working under the name “youralrightyouare” — abbreviated as Yaya — the street artist added their playful revision to a billboard in Keighley, West Yorkshire, that was part of a controversial ad campaign from the daily conservative newspaper the Telegraph earlier in May.
“Should athletes born as men be muscling in on women’s sport?” the ad read, referencing the ever-present debate about the ethics and fairness of transgender women competing as athletes alongside cisgender women. The Trans Advocacy and Complaints Collective (TACC) has filed a complaint against the ad campaign, calling it a “targeted, hostile message directed at a marginalised community — trans women — framed in the language of fear and division.”
“The phrase ‘muscling in‘ is no accident,” the TCC’s notice said. “It’s a dog whistle designed to paint trans women as aggressive invaders.”
Yaya explained in an email to Hyperallergic that their friend had shown them the ads, and that they “couldn’t stand the thought of people reading it and it being so blatantly transphobic.”
And thus, Saveloy was born. Yaya quickly got to work with some chunky Posca markers and Molotow spray paint to design the enormous orange cartoon Dachshund with a benign smile and blue speckles, and they and their friend pasted Saveloy up over the Telegraph‘s billboard to the delight of thousands on the internet.
Instead of stooping to the level of the billboard’s abrasive rhetoric, Yaya opted to “paint something absurd that couldn’t offend anyone rather than a political slogan that would antagonise people who may hold transphobic views.”
Saveloy, named after the bright-red pork sausage that’s ubiquitous among British fish-and-chip shops, became a sensation after Yaya posted the photos on Instagram. Soon after, Saveloy was featured on the viral WeRateDogs social media account, ranking in second place in the “Dogs of the Week” post on May 30.
Yaya told Hyperallergic that they were really surprised by people’s responses now that their original post has exceeded 70,000 likes on Instagram. Let’s hope that this is just the beginning of what we see from Saveloy!
