transphobic humour

[Anonymous]

Re letterman, we are sooo going to disagree on this one that I’m not going into details. All I can say is as a transwoman who dates guys this is simply not funny. Yeah, guy runs off screaming after finding out your previous life after a one night stand…yeah….ho ho ho.

Long term relationships are different. You definitely discuss it.

As a lesbian you may change your mind later in life when you discover that radical feminists use exactly the same arguement (eeeek it’s really a guy) to exclude you from women only spaces.
I guess we all judge things from our own frame of reference. Ours at the moment are different.

[Anonymous]

Just these two samples of the video show me how far we have to go to change people’s thinking of our community. If these styles of video had been made about anyone else, there would have been more outrage seeing that we are a small community with no power anyone can make very poor jokes like this and get away with it.

So how do we change the world ?

Penny

[Anonymous]

I’ve just watched both of these videos.
I agree that they’re both pretty bad- with reservations. First, Letterman’s show depends on his making jokes about every item that he deals with. So it stands to reason that he will choose the old, tired “Aaaaarghhh! it’s a man!” schtick, merely because he’s really not that funny (sometimes he is, though, but rarely, IMHO) .But I can see that maybe some people with prejudices against transgender women might have their beliefs reinforced by that ‘sketch’.

And the Family Guy bit is typically “Family Guy”.
I have to admit I love that show. But it’s deliberately un-PC and is based on bad taste jokes and it would disappoint me if it wasn’t offensive, disgusting and in bad taste
.Don’t get me wrong- I certainly don’t like the idea of people thinking transgender women are for vomiting over,but I’d be disappointed if anyone in ‘Family Guy’ said anything positive about them- when I watch that show I want to be outraged and disgusted. Sorry if I appear a ‘sicko’, but I like it.
That’s just my two cents’ worth .
Michelle

[Anonymous]

Perhaps a guide as to whether not the Lettermana skit was funny can be gained from the victom’s perspective. From a Facebook post by Amanda Simpson today:

Quote:

Well done last night Chaz. You represented the community well. Also, thanks for taking Dave to task for that skit laast year about me – completely uncalled for and reinforced sterotypes that put people at risk.

I guess that places the skit more in the “unfunny” camp, but of course everyone has their own viewpoint. Personally, I thought that Amanda articulated the issue very well.