I transitioned in 2002 and got transphobic abuse so bad that I was forced to leave the city I grew up in before the end of 2004. I remember Emily Howard and Florence Rose from Little Britain and Barbara Dixon from League of Gentleman being on television at the time, they really were transphobic characters and I had “Barbara” or “I’m a lady” shouted at me in the street regularly (and that was far from the worst I experienced).
Maybe it’s just I have been through shit so bad that Mrs Browns Boys doesn’t register as transphobic to me.
It could be. But I still would suggest that trans misogyny is something trans women experience more intensely and consistently than trans guys. We’re likely more sensitive to it if not overly so.
And I also understand the abuse. I’ve been shot at. I had a gun twisted in my ear by a cop. Quite a few other things along the way - Though I’m much more comfortable today. I’m no newbie also. My volunteering for the community started in 1984. And I’ve had more than one or two legislative successes regarding our rights along the way.
There were also people that thought that minstrel shows were just silly fun. Here is another video of Dean Martin, probably from around the same time as yours, this time in blackface.
I am not saying that it should never be done; I actually enjoy watching Portlandia. I just wonder whether in the future it will be perceived in the same way as blackface.
I get that you’re saying that blackface is something once (recently!) considered somehow appropriate that is now taboo, and that’s fine. But no, in the future, men goofing around as women and women goofing around as men in slapstick comedy will not be taboo.
I mean if the basis of the holy shit that is hilarious is omg, a man with a dress on! then I guess I would think huh, transphobic, but I probably wouldn’t think too much about it other than I hate humor where the basis is holy shit man with dress, because it is so damn boring.
However - just an example here - white guys with black facepaint, what could be wrong with that? There is a looonnngg tradition!
No really, I do actually think the two are sort of equivalent.
on edit: I see others have made the blackface connection, which is after all a pretty obvious connection to make.
I watched this without even thinking about how it was a male as the lead female character, and watching it again I didn’t detect any of the humor was aimed at that idea. Maybe in other episodes there’s some of that, but from what I saw the characters are the characters, you may as well complain that someone playing a vicar isn’t actually in the clergy-- none of these people are real.
That said, I wouldn’t fault anyone for turning up their nose at fart jokes.
This show is very popular amongst my older relatives, the ones who are always posting on facebook about how MAD they are because they like a bit of wine.
If pantomime dames are a problem, then what about principal boys (women playing male roles)? They are both from the same tradition. And what about drag queens?
ETA: it has just occurred to me that US comedy tends to do man in dress = funny, but the UK tends to do I want the best jokes so I’ll play a woman if I get them. It’s not always true (see the examples I gave above for recent transphobic characters) but it does seem to be true in general.
I am wary of the black face comparison as it is often used by transphobes to dismiss trans rights issues.
(I need to leave, this is bad for my mental health)
