High Points
This Morning ITV1 with trans couple Felix and Helen
Low points
The Sex Clinic, Johnathan Creek, Security Men and 8 Out of 10 Cats.
Big Brother Luke Thread here
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3040
and our blog post about how the show has improved in 12 months here
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3235
Read his interview here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSHoeBNa ... OA&index=9
Don't forget our Soap storyline Archive here
Jason Archive in Hollyoaks
viewtopic.php?f=48&t=434&p=18228#p18228
And what has been happening in Coronation St here - not good.
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1441&start=10#p16796
All the following clips have been archived for evidential purposes should they be needed.
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Jonathan Creek
01/04
BBC ONE
David Renwick'S scruffy slueth returns in the Easter whodunit genre special with a trans character.
Full review
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3655
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Snog Marry Avoid?
01/04
BBC Three
"Pod computes you look like a pantomime dame!"
AT LAST - HOORAY!!! PROGRESS! All the twitter efforts and having a go at the BBC, FINALLY seems to have paid off. A year ago she would have been as 'bad as a tranny!'
Small steps but progress!
Well Done SMA
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8 Out of 10 Cats
01/04
4Music
The everso kindly Channel 4 now over 2 years since their all singing and dancing Memorandum of Understanding party where they agreed to treat transpeople with dignity and respect rerun the infamous Tim Minchin and Sean Lock - Tranny episode.
I think they used the terms for laughs about 5 times. When it originally aired I remember Tim apologising on Twitter to his fans and was embarrassed about it.
However this does not stop Channel 4 re using the episode unedited and it is like nothing has changed.
A real shame.
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Ugly Betty
'Betty's Wait Problem'
03/04
E4
Drama series about an ugly secretary working for a fashion magazine. With Henry back in her life, Betty finds herself distracted by yet another man, Mode's new sandwich guy, who both annoys and intrigues her. [SIC]
This is old news but as it is currently being repeated on E4 (Channel 4 UK) Then it is new news.
In this episode Alexis Meade (Alexander Meade after having genital surgery) played by Rebecca Romijn sits in bed after losing her memory.
E4"You didn't have to go to so much trouble!"
"Well Someone has to teach you how to be a woman again!"
"Its so frustrating its like I finally got the sports car I always wanted but I forgot how to drive a stick! Maybe in the case it is more like an automatic!"
[..]
E4"Alright, alright girls! C'mon, off! Off! She's a tranny! Not a drag queen!"
Ugh! - I wonder what they are thinking when they put these words on paper.
Whilst it is 'nice' for a transsexual to be portrayed by Rebecca Romijn, it's at the very extremes of the transgender community. 'Ugly Betty' is a daft show we all know America who plays UB actually looks like this - http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/ ... 7-1222.jpg - so it is all a bit of a con tbh. But E4 are broadcasting 'tranny' just before the kids leave for school at 7am. I dunno. I think it demonstrates what a big hill we have to climb. And just how much bigger the problem is than Channel 4 realised. I knew it was huge but they were so out of touch with their content when they promised to stop all this. How could they know? Only needed to ask me.
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3659
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Big Momma's House
03/04
E4
The first of a franchise. This original movie was no more than a black version of 'Tootsie'.
However, it plays to racial stereotypes, crossdressing for laughs. Despite the best efforts of the actors, it was an impossible plot.
Had they left it there then maybe it would be put down as another crossdressing comedy. But they then made a followup and that's where they ran out of ideas and really scraped the barrel.
Watchable, but for all the wrong reasons.
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QI XL
03/04
Dave
Eddie Izzard appears in this intellectual comedy panel show hosted by Stephen Fry repeat about 'House and Home'.
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Benidorm
03/04
ITV2
Joyce organises a dance competition, with rehearsals supervised by her old flame Cyril Babcock, an ageing playboy who soon gets impatient with the talentless contestants.
More goofing off with Tim Healy crossdressed.
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Ugly Betty
Series
03/04
E4
This is on every day so will only post this once and we all know about this show by now.
It was interesting just how quickly they got bored of the transgender Alexis Meade and dropped the character.
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3659
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Family Guy
03/04
BBC THREE_2013_04_03_22_57_00
Mock Jerry Springer show does the "I have something to tell you - I used to be a man! Then says I used to be a horse etc...
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The New Normal
'Goldie Rush'
04/04
E4
US sitcom. Bryan and David decide that if they want more children they should start making plans. Gary wants to replicate their success but can't find the right guy, so Bryan and David set him up with Bryan's ex-boyfriend Monty, a legendary party boy. However, their plan leads to more than they bargained for when Monty asks Goldie to be his surrogate.
I Always a worry when a new gaycentric sitcom hits the air. As the 'Gay Licence' over transgender people tends to rear its ugly head. We have seen it in shows like 'Will and Grace', Graham Norton, Paul O'Grady and Alan Carr.
This new series for E4 (Channel 4) didn't disappoint either but in the wrong way.
This happened whilst the credits were rising...
E4"I have been on Eharmony and J-date! But for some reason I just get paired with LOSERS!!!"
Cut to restaurant
E4"And then at aged 6 I learned I am intersex!"
E4Cut to: Reaction Shot...
E4LOSERS?
Of course almost all the gay men in it are young buff and have lovely pearly white teeth.
To quote the disabled series' The Last Leg' "Is it OK if you ..."
So is it OK if you are GAY to mock transpeople because there is some loose affiliation to 'Pride' and gay bars... No it isn't as most transpeople do not go to pride or gay bars, in fact we could safely say most trans people may not even identify as gay.
Another Fail!
This so easily could have been improved, why suggest the transperson is a LOSER at all?
And then singling out 'intersex' - that must be a new low. If this is the 'NEW Normal' they can stick it. Have to keep watching though as I get the feeling they are not done yet.
E4Then 'Reading' A lesson in putting people down through insults - try that in most UK towns you would wake up in A and E. Its like the 80Sand RuPaul was still in vogue.
This is normal? The only normal people are the character leads. Everyone else is there to abuse.
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Have I Got a Bit More News for You
04/04
Dave
Extended version of the popular news quiz, with team captains Paul Merton and Ian Hislop, guest host Martin Clunes and guest panelists Grayson Perry and Jimmy Carr.
Grayson was at least there to field some of the insults and that's OK
I am not a party-pooper.---
Embarrassing Bodies
04/04
Channel 4
Man with Gynecomastia was covered - not trans but relevant as he had the breast tissue removed - ironically without 2 years of psychiatry?
But then he was 'normal'.
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Elementary: Snow Angels
04/04
CBS
Full Review
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3690&p=34098
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Alan Carr's Grand National Specstacula
05/04
Channel 4+1_2013_04_05_21_57_00
He makes a castration gag but aims it at Janett Street Porter.
And he crossdresses of course for one gag.
But I think we got away with it this time.
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All New Trisha
08/04
Channel 5
Series 1 - Trapped In The Wrong Body: 3 Men Born Female
50 minutes
First broadcast at 11:10 14 Jan 2013
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Never Mind the Buzzcocks
08/04
BBC TWO
...#Puts me in the mood...Danny from McFly responds, "There is a rumour being spread around that she could be a dude?" Jack Whitehall (Host) retorts, "cooks in the nude! Not used to be a dude!" Danny, "Oh that's the live version!"
Big Laughs...
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"Ah the Butterfly...Nobody suspects the Butterfly!!!" To quote Bart Simpson.
Butterflies
'An Empty Cage'
08/04
Yesterday
Nicholas Lyndhurst wears a Tshirt with 'I am a transvestite' on the back for a gag.
Butterflies
'Ruby's Crisis'
09/04
Yesterday
Nicholas Lyndhurst wears a Tshirt with a Bra painted on the front for a gag. Quite clever T-shirts that could be used again by T-shirt manufacturers...
Comment
Butterflies is a classic 70s sitcom, at this stage he had cut his hair and was doing double duty with the then fledgling 'Only Fools and Horses' as Rodney. In fact a bit a' trivia about this is that Nick was one of the first cast for OFAH long before David Jason - but that's another story.
'Butterflies' http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081838/ has what I would describe as 'Perfect Pace' (like perfect pitch) it is a 'sleepy sitcom' written by the then high flying (in the wake of the 'Liverbirds') Carla Lane. It is one of those shows when watched all these years later has not dated that much - apart from cars and technology, the studio set decor could work today. The actors were top of their game. So it was a very ahead of its time sitcom. Still works.
So when we see anything trans for a laugh we can sometimes forget that this was 1978-83 the height of punk, a time of incredible social and political unrest in the UK the news dominated by Racism and police violence. So I think its success was down to it being somewhere like a 'big fluffy pillow' people could escape to. A bit like the 'Good Life' in that sense. Carla Lane placed women at the center of her sitcoms so had a very different and more modern feel than the more sexist 'On the Buses' with Blakey and the gang of a similar time.
Better than Horlicks
(that's a bedtime milky drink to aid sleep for younger people).For this reason if you saw 'I am a Transvestite' on Nick's back and heard the laughter you have to put it in the context of that time - at that same time the BBC were airing 'A Change of Sex' with Julia Grant.
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=238
So it was not all bad. Today is far worse. If anything we could see Nick as almost behaving in an anti-establishment brave way saying, "Yeah I am a transvestite! What of it!"
I would be surprised to see that today. People would be scared to do it.
So a mixed couple of programmes that personally I can easily overlook. After all its a long time ago!
P.S The score http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0pkn9evgKs used for the show softened up with flutes by Ronnie Hazelhurst (genius) is still as catchy today... "#Love is like a butterfly..."
I think the script writers today could learn a lot from this show! Sometimes being crude is unnecessary and warm and fuzzy is nice.
Yesterday/BBC
Yesterday/BBCOf course what is more interesting is the actor here on the left Nick's Brother, Andrew Hall who went onto star as crossdresser 'Marcia' in 'Coronation Street' here
ITV1More... viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1441&start=20#p23533
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This Morning
09/04
ITV1
Woman who has a beard - proudly shows it off - not trans as such but relevant as she walks about/around with a beard!
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Snog Marry Avoid
09/04
BBC THREE
"I look like a man in drag."
A gay man uses this term and what a welcome relief, we have complained in the past to the BBC about this show's use of, "Bad as a tranny!" (We have it all on record). The show's producers seem to now have got the message and are making a conscious effort to avoid it and possibly pre-briefing their contestants before they speak...
GOOD STUFF!
We maybe hard on TV broadcasters, but credit where credit is due! And few others are as well placed to request these changes be made for our community.
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The Cleveland Show
"The Hangover: Part Tubbs"
09/04
E4
Animated comedy. Donna decides to run for a place on the school board, and attempts to keep Cleveland away from her campaign in case he embarrasses her. Junior discovers that he is naturally gifted as a diver, but his ambition to succeed in the sport is threatened when he is too frightened to wear the school diving team's uniform of tiny swimming trunks.
Junior does a high dive and the coach comments...
"I have not seen a tuck that good since silence of the lambs."
Well this is factually incorrect and aimed at genital tucking - trans tend to do that... But Drag does too of course. In 'Silence Of The Lambs' just 'it' was held between the legs when posed.
Not the same...
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American Dad!
'Stannie get your Gun'
10/04
BBC THREE
Hermaphrodite insult gag.
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Big Momma's House 2
10/04
E4
The follow-up to BMH and what a disappointment.
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The Sex Clinic
11/04
Channel 4
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3676
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Celebrity Juice
11/04
ITV2
Keith plays 'Catchpharse' with the new Host on ITV (Sundays) Stephen Mulhern.
The cartoon character in the show is called Mr Chips.
In this Keith calls him 'Mr Nips' and has him wearing a bra...
A big laugh...
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The Security Men
12/04
ITV1
The mall is closed but the guards on the night shift plan to skive off and watch the boxing on TV. They get into a shop with a skeleton key but then the plan goes horribly wrong.
Peter Wight/Bobby Ball/Brendan O'Carroll/Dean Andrews/Paddy McGuinness/Ben Ryan Davies/Denice Hope/Archie Kelly;David Drury;;
A few 80s favourites like Bobby Ball but also features Brendan O'Carroll (AKA Mrs Browns's Boys).
It was interesting to see how good an actor he is without the frock, and as I suspected - not very!
He just sounded like Mrs Brown - it was a tad disconcerting actually.
Forgettable, and of course the writers (or he) exploited the crossdressing links in a few lines from what denier tights to wear over his head to this one...
"Would you wash yer Mammy?" [Is this another Mrs Brown's Boys title?]
"My mother's dead!"
"You were at the funeral Jimmy!"
"Well let's pretend she is not dead!"
Bobby Ball chips in - "I don't think he has got a mother! I think he is doing a Norman Bates and he just dresses up like her!
They all laugh...
Dredging up Norman Bates - seriously? The psycho trans...
Lazy laugh at mental health and crossdressing rises to the top once more.
This script was written by Caroline Aherne who writes the Royle Family in their Christmas Day Edition last year they gave us 'Tranny Avenue' gag and a trans stereotype.
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This Morning
18/04
ITV1
Sir Bruce Forsythe makes a faux pas on this daytime magazine show.
Phillip - So is your wife is a Lady? [Meaning as Bruce is now a Knight 'Sir Bruce' ...]
Bruce - She is a Lady yes - she is the only Lady in Puerto Rico!
Philip - Is she really?
Bruce - No I didn't mean it like that, no because there is a bit of a 'district' there... but...
Philip - Laughs.
It was not said with any malice but its always the same - what is funny about people often living in poverty putting their lives at risk to get some health care? We all know the horrific numbers that are murdered in the sex trade every year (Google 'TDOR') - but hey enjoy the laugh.
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The Wright Stuff
16/04
Five
Matthew wears high heels. He did it for a section about are High Heels damaging for women and are women just the puppets of men who want them to be sex objects.
Harmless fun.
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Embarrassing Bodies
16/04
Really
Curious real-life medical cases. Amy's life-saving surgery for ovarian cancer has left her with an unsightly bulge. Elliot's enlarged tongue proves difficult to diagnose.
Jenny-Anne Bishop (a TS and trans activist from Manchester) has breast augmentation and Facial surgery courtesy of the TV show. I have spoken to her on how that came about suffice it to say it was free and she was pleased.
Alright for some eh?
One of the BEST EB episodes ever for transpeople
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Lee Nelson's Well Funny People
16/04
BBC THREE
Violent Headmaster sketch - plays a headmaster furious that it is mufty day and screams at a few students.
When they leave, he presses the intercom.
"Rosemary I am ready to see the boy who came in a skirt."
This was restrained and a left to the imagination sketch as to what will become of that poor soul?
It is touched upon but not actually seen.
However, why mention it at all? Unless the intention was to originally have a go at a boy in a skirt and the BBC were not having it!
So Not sure here, it seems a bit of a half-way measure as in there is no actual transphobia but the build-up maybe enough to suggest there is.
Lee Nelson AKA Simon Brodkin has got some 'previous' re transphobia when he bussed on a group of women and asked the audience to spot the tranny.
I'll Leave it there.
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American Dad!
'Helping Hands'
16/04
BBC THREE
8/10. Helping Hands: Stan wants Steve to be popular and goes to desperate measures to make him better and part of the in-crowd at school. Contains adult humour. [S]
Steve grows breasts and becomes popular as the boys can 'feel him up'.
Sorry. this sends out mixed messages, that a boy has breast tissue then it is OK to sexually assault them, plays into any number of problems from transpanic, to excusable abuse.
"A transwoman is not really a woman so it is OK to feel their breasts as its actually a man..." Is often an excuse for this behaviour.
A teenager FTM who has breasts, as he is a guy then its OK to feel him up? A teenager ('biologically male') boy with Gynocomastia (I understand this condition very well) is 'fair game' to abuse mock and humiliate?
This is a non starter.
It is a case of the level of sophistication of the viewer here and if they can understand the difference. Or the 'Alf Garnet Defense' regarding racism. In other words by exposing a racist character to us for comedy, we feel sorry for them rather than see it as racial for laughs. Doesn't work though as that's the mechanism for the laughs no matter what the end result. It relies too much on the viewers being able to understand all this. We know the UK struggle with anything remotely trans so lets not give them anything other than clarity!
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Benidorm
17/04
ITV2
More Les/Lesly the transvestite played by Tim Healey for laughs.
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Models, Misfits & Mayhem
18/04
ITV2
Documentary series following students and staff at the London School of Modelling. Principal Debbie and the teachers try to turn 15 students into models in just four days. With casting agents turning up at the end of the bootcamp, the staff have their work cut out for them. The students are told that they must do a nude photoshoot, but how will they react? Plus guest designer Anoosh causes fireworks at a shoot when he has a run-in with Demetri, the school's head of hair and make-up.
The return of this show, and its trans studio 'runner' Toni.
Toni Described as Runner, P.A, Whatever and the VO says, "Plucked from the dole by Debbie this is Toni's first chance to make a splash in the world of fashion."
Plucked from the dole - this is like 'we are doing you a favour' very patronising - I think its the other way around as without Toni the show would not have that interesting element.
This was the show that first turned down Jackie Green as a potential Model - who left in tears. However, that episode - coming later - did have a nice moment where Jackie and Toni chatted on the swings and to quote Toni - "Oh wow so your mum did it properly!" Meaning early intervention.
One to watch.
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Benidorm
20/10
ITV2
Tim Healey decides what breast forms he wants for his tv character Lesley by holding up fruit.
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Rude Tube
'Complete Pranksters'
20/04
E4/E4+1
Steve Cardinal, the 'crossdressing prankester' who tricked people on chat roulette, well he then performs to Katy Perry's 'Firework' in a shopping mall/IT Store.
What he does is his business, as this is a YT clip. However, it does fog the issue when terms like crossdressing are used for inappropriate behaviour in real life, the idea that trans are something to fear applies here and some parents with children did think someone was having a 'mental breakdown' in the store, there was concern around and embarrassment. A bit like pretending to be black and causing mayhem reflects badly on black people, some may say that Channel 4 should try and avoid this sort of thing. Is it fun or a public nuisance in the name of the transcommunity?
The clips are his and can be found on Youtube so I wont be linking directly he has had publicity enough.
There is a fine line between freedom of expression and just being a dick...Frightening the public, do it as a gorilla next time then at least it will have less fall out.
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2 Broke Girls
'And the Silent Partner'
21/04
E4
US sitcom about the lives of two New York waitresses in their early twenties. When Max sees Sophie depressed after problems with building her dream house, she offers to make her a silent partner in the cupcake business.
No stranger to the transphobic utterance, TBG is a pretty good sitcom, it is sharp witty and fast paced, the actors are first class. However, they need to stay away from trans issues they are always negative stereotypes and cruel.
Boyfriend - "I am nervous, I came to tell Caroline something big."
Waitress - "What you have a secret family on Long Island?"
B/F - "No."
Waitress - "You have Hep C, D or one of the new Heps?"
B/F - "Nope don't have any of the Heps!""Wow, just telling somebody I am in love with her is just going to sound boring!"
Waitress - "you are going to tell her you love her?""Andy this is a Diner, this is not somewhere you tell somebody you lover her! This is where you tell someone their SEX-CHANGE looks passable!"
Another Channel 4 gift - thanks E4!
Already logged another problem for next month with this show but you will have to wait for that or scan our media section for early comment soon.
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Bomb Patrol
21/04
Channel 5
Interesting this one as due to the recent events in America they replaced this programme with an episode of Paul Merton in Europe. In this episode her wears a frock on the back of an Italian Lambretta - he pretends to be picked up in a sexy man on his moped routine.
Harmless - and kinda shows Paul to be very matter of fact about the whole crossdressing thing - something he has done in a number of shows and beyond the studio doors. Whilst being filmed of course, not suggesting he is trans.
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Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day - Episode 4
17/04
BBC TWO
A visit the Gender Clinic at Charing Cross. Where we see Iffy Middleton and Guri Sandhu doing a tracheal shave.
Full Details
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3684
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Fresh Meat
18/04
E4
In previous episodes they have used bad as a tranny comments...
In this one there was a eunuch gag.
Nothing serious but applicable nonetheless, in the same way making a skin colour joke regarding a stain on a wall could be interpreted as racist without a back person being present, this is kinda the same and still applies. After all in 2013 who are the modern day eunuchs? Transpeople...
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The Body Shocking Show
19/04
E4
Gender Varient Pete Burns (who still uses male pronouns) talks about cosmetic surgery that nearly killed him with a lip infection - he went on to sue the doctor for a 'considerable settlement'!
He has a lip line tattooed on his top lip - TBH after what he went through I would not have anyone coming near my top lip!
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Celebrity Juice
20/04
ITV2
Interesting one this. Miranda Hart is spoken about by Keith to one of her hit series co-stars who happens to be on the panel of Holly's team.
Miranda is a tall woman and it is not my place to be offended on her behalf, she did an entire episode of her series where she was mistaken for a transgender woman and serviced in a trans lifestyle store with some hideous stereotypical outfit.
No, what often happens with her is she is used as a proxy for transphobia. She is a biological female (as far as I know) and as such this means she can have trans jokes fired at her knowing they have no currency. A bit like calling someone white by a black racial insult. It is pointless as it is untrue and obviously so. But who are affected when this is done? The trans community.
Keith - you are the star of that massive Miranda show! Is he a nice fella?
Laughs
Keith - c'mon can you go drinking with him though?
Guest - you are talking about a dear friend of mine who is a lovely lady!
Keith - It's a Lady?!!! I told you Kelly I told you!!!
Kelly (Brook) - I didn't say anything!!!
Keith - I told you it were a woman!
Reading between the lines here - 'IT' describes the person if she is not a woman - or him.
This also happened in 10 O'Clock Live later in the week below.
In other words they are still making trans gags but in a roundabout way, leaving the audience's own transphobic and stereotypical feelings to fill in the blanks.
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Snog Marry Avoid?
20/04
BBC THREE
5/12. Jo and Kristie: Makeunder show with Ellie Taylor and POD. Jo has always known that she was a girl trapped in a boy's body but POD can't see why that girl has to look like a stripper. [S]
Comment
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3686#p34041
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Embarrassing Bodies
23/04
Really
The show is introduced every week with this line - even if there are no trans on it.
"We are on a journey of life changing procedures! From extreme facial surgery to a transgender transformation!!!"
The funny thing is after speaking with Jenny who took part she said that originally they wanted to film the GRS part, but as she had already had that done they asked if there was 'anything else' she fancied doing - to which she said sure breasts and face? So Nice work if you can get it!
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The Cleveland Show
23/04
E4
US animated comedy. Cleveland throws eggs at the house of Arianna the Bear after she argues with Donna.
Cleveland is in Jail.
Crying and shaking as he applies lipstick in the mrror in the police cell.
His family prove is innocence.
"Daddy Daddy - first of all you look really pretty..."
Cleveland - "I...I am never going to be the same..."
Trans prison rape, "you got a perdddy mouth..." and so on has been done to death! Quite often prison couples are consenting as Louis Theroux proved in his documentaries about the US penal system. Nevertheless, there is always this joke around being in prison, and more often than not it is either homophobic or transphobic but it is allowed because prisons are places that society likes to detach themselves from. In other words who cares(?), they are 'wrong-uns' and deserve it. 'Othering' of the worse kind.
This same joke has already been done in 'Family Guy' btw...
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Plebs
'Saturnalia'
23/04
ITV2
Sitcom set in ancient Rome. In the final episode of the series, Marcus hopes that the Roman festival of Saturnalia will provide the perfect backdrop for him to finally woo Cynthia, while Grumio makes it his mission to salvage as much sacrificial meat from the city-wide celebrations as possible.
This is basically 'The Inbetweeners' set in ancient Rome with a few 'Up Pompeii' Frankie Howard gags thrown in with a nod to 'Life of Brian', to me is too much of a stolen identity for it to be any good. Take away the Roman sets and its a pretty thin script. Even the slave is a direct copy of Baldrick from 'Black Adder'! Of course it is interesting that the black character was not made the slave and a white actor was - so that is an interesting thought process and quite right too. Shame they didn't hire a transperson to play one of the characters, the slave could have been a 'genuine Eunuch' after all?
And of course being set in Rome sooner or later the Eunuch gag was bound to rear its head.
"Whats all this about Cyprus?"
"Cyprus where you will be castrated and continue your training at the graduate palace.."
"Oh - is it hot Cyprus..."
The joke being the 'thicko slave' has not understood what this means...
Then he asks, "What's castration again?" and is seen running for his life...
But it is another proxy gag, as today in 2013 there are a group of people who undergo this daily in the UK, Transpeople, and of course the other group are people with testicular cancer. To me neither of which should be laughed at. As for these groups its not funny. It is funny for those looking in...
Is this another minor passing comment or another negative drip to add to the bucket with all the others that are now almost daily?
The main argument here is well in biblical time they had Eunuchs, well we still do but is every show doing Eunuch gags? Sadly they are - but by a different name - see you in another 2,000 years. That said being a Eunuch was not a bad thing it was honourable, not 'a laugh', as this guy proves!
http://library.transgenderzone.com/?page_id=2503
So this is an area that needs more attention - historical dramas and comedies must try and avoid rewriting history for a 'Family Guy' audience.
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Transamerica
23/04
Film4
Comedy drama. Pre-operative transsexual Bree receives a phone call from an imprisoned 17-year-old-son who does not know she is becoming a woman. Her therapist insists she deal with this relationship before her final operation is approved, which leads to a road trip across America. [SIC].
Oscar nominated performance for this road movie.
Only downside was no transperson in the lead - that's strange as you wouldn't have the Life Story of Muhamed Ali played by Woody Allan.
Other than that, a few cameos by trans in the middle. It was watchable, but it just lacked something. Today Candis Cayne in the lead would have solved that of course. But would it have gone mainstream? This is the problem with films like this. It needed a non trans famous actress to get attention but that very attention undermined its true message.
Thus a Catch 22. One we continue to face.
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Benidorm
24/04
ITV2
More Transvestite Tim Healey Les Lesley search our forums for more...
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10 O'Clock Live
24/04
Channel 4
Les Dennis Drags up as Margaret Thatcher and sings a song...
But the subtle transphobia is actually hidden somewhere else...
Jimmy Carr makes the comment that, "the Leader of the opposition has been secretly dressing up as the Primeminister since he was 4." It gets a big laugh.
Now if that is not a transgender gag cleverly hidden then what is?
The audience and he, and everyone watching now understands the secret dressing from childhood transgender people struggle with. It is made light of, but in reality gender variant children are confused to the point of ending their own lives. It is not funny to anyone who understand this in the slightest, crying on a bed every night as a child wishing god will make you a girl (or a boy) in the morning followed by horrific puberty is so distressing it is cruel to make light of it even by association. Hiding transphobia within other jokes shows two things. That the comics and writers are now aware that what they say is wrong when it involves transphobia, and two, hope that the audience now has a sufficient level of sophistication to understand the transgender link and laugh at it.
Best person to tell this joke is a transperson - really. But would they?
This is an interesting turn of events and it also happened in 'Celebrity Juice' about Miranda above. The hidden transphobic comment is here and we have to listen that little bit harder to catch them. It changes nothing if they use it.
I mean it is like making openly transphobic and abusive comments about say a car tyre.
Example
"This car tyre wants to be a remould it has a booking for surgery after it has lived as a radial for a year!"
Its a trans gag... But indirect - is that acceptable? What is the difference? Other than they may think we won't notice. We did!
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Russell Howard - Right Here Right Now (2011)
24/04
BBC THREE
Russell does a pink thong underwear gag - well, men wearing women's clothes is 'hilarious' isn't it?!
RH - "Watching your girlfriend wearing your underwear is sexy - doesn't work the other way around though does it then it is weird and creepy!!!"
Sean Lock already did this Joke Russ - way back. The only difference is he didn't wear the thong.
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Models, Misfits & Mayhem
25/04
ITV2
More trans shenanigans from Toni the agency/modelling school runner.
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This Morning
26/04
ITV1
Felix and Helen
Transgender couple one FTM and the other MTF tell their story.
More...
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3695
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Amsterdam Nights
28/04
Pick TV
A look at the seedy, vice-ridden underbelly of one of Europe's great cities, following the tourists, police officers and others who live and work in the Amsterdam night. In this edition, the cameras go behind the neon windows to reveal the secret life of a transvestite prostitute, the murky world of sex performing and the dangerous streets of the red light cops.
She seems to be trading as a rent boy that by presenting as female can get more business - is this trans or gay sex by another route? Not sure if I should say she or he as either could offend, nevertheless an interesting view of life as a sex worker in a country that boasts its open door policy with adult entertainment the world over.
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The Simpsons
29/04
Channel 4
X-Files agents Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate Homer's claims that he has had an encounter with an extraterrestrial. Featuring the guest voices of David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson and Leonard Nimoy.
Shows a photo on the wall of Edagr Hoover in a dress. For a laugh obviously.
If you want to know more about who J.Edgar was click here...
http://library.transgenderzone.com/?page_id=2425
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The Jeremy Kyle Show
30/04
ITV1
Formally a lesbian couple and one is now transitioning to male.
Very nicely handled.
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So endeth another month of happy transempowering television (Sarcastic as always) - see you next time!
Don't have nightmares
