AUST ABC TV Program - Crownies

TMT 387 28^th September 2011

TV – Crownies

Review of last weeks episode of Crownies

Rebecca
Drag Queens at war, was used as a "C" storyline in the episode. It was a self contained story arch, intended only to break up the "A" story (child sociopath) and the "B" story (rape victim). It was used for comic relief as the other two stories were heavy subjects.

Because this was a throw away storyline, the producers appealed to the lowest common denominator of blatant stereotype.

One character is flirty, melodramatic, a bit arrogant, and while dressed conservatively (but understandable for a court room) is still a bit over the top. The other is portrayed as a bitchy femme gay guy, out for revenge, and anything anyone asks of her is just way below her and too much of an ask.

There was no continuity to when the storyline was placed into the show, it was almost like it was used as a filler for where the commercials would go, if Crownies was on a commercial broadcaster.

One character Ben McMahon makes comments about how he loves a good scrag fight", but then questions if you call them by their real name or drag name in court. I can see why this was done, as it was required for people to understand that the two drag characters would be presented under different names later in the show, but it was still an offensive comment to make, as perpetuated the stereotype that the drag characters are just guys in dresses.

When we finally get to the court scene, the two drag characters use bitchy terms towards each other, and the judge is more interested in getting Facebook on an iPad he has been handed as evidence, than the case itself. In fact the judge is just as guilty as the rest of the characters in using inappropriate names and gender markers in the court room.

In last scene the lawyer is shown to have been taken for a ride by the drag queens, all for a publicity stunt, and that the drag queens have no issue at all with doing that, because that's the way things work. It paints drag queens as being untrustworthy, and willing to waste public resources on a frivolous matter. It's not a clean ending to the story, but merely another stab by the show at a minority.

While I can understand the need of the show to have a self contained story, this story arch showed a lack of understanding from the show. They could have used a trans storyline to highlight issues, and still kept it light and self contained, but instead they wasted the time on yet another negative story about trans people in the community.

US ABC's TV Program - Work It

Work It Article

Jayne

The ABC network in the US is launching a new program in 2012 called “Work it”. According to a media release, “with unemployment an ongoing issue and women now outnumbering men in the workforce, the new comedy series “Work It” follows two alpha males who realize the only way to beat the current "mancession" and land a job in pharmaceutical sales is to pass themselves off as women.

The program has caught the eye of many GLBT groups in the US who see the program as stereotyping transgendered people who are already marginalised.

One of the publicity photos shows the two main characters dressed in female clothes standing at a urinal supposedly attending to their bodily needs. Not what I would call a flattering shot.

Now Rebecca, you have been looking at this story and I know that you are not really a happy with it.

Rebecca

That’s putting it mildly Jayne. The new US ABC show “Work It” is nothing but offensive, and it hasn't even been seen yet, Not only is it disrespectful to transgendered people, but also to women in general.

First of all, the show uses a couple of timeless cinema clichés, that any man who wears a dress will flawlessly pass as a woman, and that any woman who sees such a person, will be so dumb, they have no idea this person is not a woman. I'd even say it is a safe bet, even though it hasn't been seen yet, but there will be a male boss who hits on one of the characters, in what can only be described as “ticking all the boxes of why we have a sexual harassment handbook”.

As a trans woman, this show does nothing but enforce the stereotypes that have been forced on me my whole life, which I have been trying to break down since transitioning. I am not a man dressed up as a woman, I am a woman who had a medical condition, for which I received appropriate treatment. And while it has not cured me, as no such “cure” currently exists, the treatment has enabled me to function normally, in the dysfunctional society we live in.

What the show “Work It” says to people, is the life of hardship I endured didn't exist at all. I'm simply some guy in a dress, as are all trans women. Beneath the make up and hosiery, I’m still a manly man. Nothing could be further from the truth. Despite what the posters for the show suggest, it's physically impossible for me to stand at a urinal, and expect anything but wet legs.

The show also suggests that the women who work in the office are unable to spot a guy in a dress, making people question just how dumb the show thinks they are. As such, there will be people, and I fully accept a minority, who will go out of their way to harass trans people, just to prove they are not as dumb as this show makes them out to be.

Jayne

The US ABC network has in the past seemed fairly supportive of transgender people but this seems to be a bit of a turnaround for them Rebecca

Rebecca

“Work It” is undoing decades of education, simply by appealing to the narrow-minded populous, and their sense that anything outside of their world, is comical, worth laughing at, and wrong. Considering the American Broadcasting Company has done much with their news programmes, particularly 20/20, to education the community about Transgendered Issues, it certainly raises questions as to why they now want to undo all that work, just for a few cheap laughs.

Over my time, when people have found out about my past, I've often heard their next phrase been “Oh yeah, I know all about that, I've seen Pricilla, Queen of the Desert, or There's Something About Miriam, or Some Like It Hot; I know all about that kind of stuff”. Well they may know about that kind of stuff, but that's not me, nor is it the majority of trans people out there. It is simply mixing farcical fiction, with fact, and making one hell of a mess.

An analogy that is often used when it comes to being offensive is to relate gender issues to racial issues. Could you imagine the outrage, if these characters were to put on black face to get jobs? Yet for some reason, people think it's ok to make fun of people who are transgendered, by putting on a dress. It simply will not do.

In recent years, we have seen many advancements in the recognition of transgendered people as people, and not second class citizens. We have the right to correct our birth certificates, we have the right to travel on a passport with correct gender markers, we have the right to seek medical assistance, to work, to be treated as worthwhile members of the community. There is still a very long way to go, before we are treated as equal of our peers in society, and unfortunately “Work It”, means it is one step forward, one thousand steps backwards in achieving that goal.

Jayne

Comment from a very emotional Rebecca, you can get off your soap box now and take a rest and play something.