A man walks into a bar... wearing a frock.
Cathii Scott had taken my jokey piece about trannies on telly and made some good points about the way that "blokes in dresses" are used as a joke on television at the moment, and how this may be part of a process where trannies gain the same kind of growing acceptance enjoyed by the gay community.
I want there to be jokes about me and my kind on television. I think that it is a Good Thing. It will be a sign of a positive attitude evolving when the media makes jokes about trannies, rather than makes fun of people because they're trannies. In the same way that Will and Grace makes jokes about gay people, rather than laugh at them because they're gay.
Trannies are intrinsically funny, a man putting on feminine apparel and mannerisms is funny. In the same way that gays are intrinsically funny. So are black people, and Asian people, and disabled people, and of course white middle class straight people. We all have our own idiosyncrasies that can be the basis of great humour.
The only way trannies are going to stop being the butt of jokes is by taking ownership of those jokes. Laughing at our own idiosyncrasies and stereotypes.
An analog to this in the Asian community was the UK television sketch show "Goodness Gracious Me". It made fun of many of the stereotypes that British Asians have (clinging mothers, large families sharing one house etc.) but because it was Asians themselves making the jokes, it made it acceptable. It made non-Asians see that the stereotypes were just that, cliches that do exist but don't necessarily represent the community as a whole.
Trannies are often in danger of being too sensitive to jokes and jibes. I know of t-girls who want to start a campaign to take the Bounty advertising campaign off the air because it features two (unashamedly obvious) blokes in frocks. They want it stopped because it "paints a negative picture of transgenderism". This is bollocks.
It's time for trannies to start saying "yes we are blokes in frocks. It's fucking hilarious! I had a good old belly laugh at the outfit my mate wore last week."
If there ever comes the day when there's a sitcom or sketch show by trannies about trannies, I'll applaud. Because once people start laughing with us, they've stopped laughing at us.
I want there to be jokes about me and my kind on television. I think that it is a Good Thing. It will be a sign of a positive attitude evolving when the media makes jokes about trannies, rather than makes fun of people because they're trannies. In the same way that Will and Grace makes jokes about gay people, rather than laugh at them because they're gay.
Trannies are intrinsically funny, a man putting on feminine apparel and mannerisms is funny. In the same way that gays are intrinsically funny. So are black people, and Asian people, and disabled people, and of course white middle class straight people. We all have our own idiosyncrasies that can be the basis of great humour.
The only way trannies are going to stop being the butt of jokes is by taking ownership of those jokes. Laughing at our own idiosyncrasies and stereotypes.
An analog to this in the Asian community was the UK television sketch show "Goodness Gracious Me". It made fun of many of the stereotypes that British Asians have (clinging mothers, large families sharing one house etc.) but because it was Asians themselves making the jokes, it made it acceptable. It made non-Asians see that the stereotypes were just that, cliches that do exist but don't necessarily represent the community as a whole.
Trannies are often in danger of being too sensitive to jokes and jibes. I know of t-girls who want to start a campaign to take the Bounty advertising campaign off the air because it features two (unashamedly obvious) blokes in frocks. They want it stopped because it "paints a negative picture of transgenderism". This is bollocks.
It's time for trannies to start saying "yes we are blokes in frocks. It's fucking hilarious! I had a good old belly laugh at the outfit my mate wore last week."
If there ever comes the day when there's a sitcom or sketch show by trannies about trannies, I'll applaud. Because once people start laughing with us, they've stopped laughing at us.
Labels: transvestism
Actually the only thing funnier than a bloke in a frock is a bloke in a frock trying to run. Try it sometime. I piss myself every time.
I guess it is more a question of what is being laughed at, and the way in which you are laughing.... yeah I know it sounds pompous... lol
[ok, that wasn't that funny, but at least give me credit for trying...]
'Emily' from The Little Britain?
Grayson Perry in his thing on tv earlier in the year applauded this character because she (uncannily, unless David Walliams is actually a tranny) picked up on a few very funny and slightly uncomfortable truths about what we do and why we do it. I tend to agree with his take - it's a joke that works from the inside and out - if you're part of the community you can enjoy it with a smile of rueful recognition (of sorts!), if you're outside the community it's just very funny. And at times Emily is seen 'reverting' to maleness (in the loo, on the phone etc) - thus putting her back in touch with the whole audience (saying she is, after all, just like everyone, something the Little Britian team is good at doing...)
'Goodness Gracious Me' seemed to work in a similar way, and was very popular with Asian viewers because it laid bare a few truths - but to others of us was simply well done and enjoyable at other levels. The Kumars and the most recent Meet the Magoons (spelling?) seem to do the same thing.
(There was, conversely, a ghastly thing on Radio 4 a year or two back - a serial about a guy who comes out as a tranny to his family. It was supposed to be funny, but it took itself too seriously and was so teeth grindingly self conscious.)
Or is Emily simply son (daughter?) of Dick Emery??!
PS Was up in your neck of the woods recently Becky. Craned my neck out of car at Kings Lynn (en route to agreeable West Norfolk holiday let) to see if I could spot the girl who has made the Tranny Capital of the Fens famous! Alas you must have been otherwise engaged ;-)
Hans
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