Soft Snow wrote:I'm curious to know what would be a proper portrayal of transpeople? What representation would be most encouraging for them? If we can come to a better understanding of the issue then we can work to avoid offending anyone in the future.
Well, for starters, writers should be invested in doing their research and actually talking to transpeople to learn, or at the very least look into reputable documentaries and articles. I'm not a fan of the idea that writers should only write what they know - That's not how curiosity and creativity are nurturted. However, research is invaluable and definitely not optional.
As a non-trans person, I'm no authority on this subject, but I feel that a big factor is the amount of respect and power involved. Generally, when a joke is made at someone's expense, that someone is the weak party in the situation. Humour is disarming and can often be used to cope with fears or insecurity - We laugh about people we don't like, people we are afraid of, things that we feel powerless against, etc. Obviously, the issue isn't that humour is inherently humiliating, but rather that humour is a powerful tool to validate or invalidate an experience. Tone and delivery really matter here. Gender issues and humour are not mutually exclusive and never should be, but when your tone invalidates/depowers a trans person, that's not inclusive, that's shitty. The line between a friendly ribbing and a tasteless joke is fuzzy and not set in stone, but that's again all the more reason to talk to people and ask them what's shitty and what isn't.
A lot of time, jokes about transpeople come from places of insecurity or ignorance - When your perspective is strictly "men are men and women are women" and you don't see any reason to change that, someone you perceive to be a man in a dress is funny. It's weird and different and makes no sense because why would a man do that, right? Dresses are for women, after all. And the thing is, humour like that normalizes that kinda thinking - It's a selfperpetuating thing. It's easy to think that when a cartoon or a comedian or a show you like portrays "the man in a dress" as silly and nothing to take seriously, that's really all it is. At worst, a joke like that is incredibly dehumanizing, and turns a person with a legitimate identity and life into a cliche. What should be normalized is the acceptance for those identities, not the acceptance of the cliche.
What I (again, as someone who's not an authority, so take it with a grain of salt) felt was a positive spin of the "man in a dress" cliche was a bit in Steven Universe. The titular character spends the whole episode encouraging a friend Sadie to go on stage and sing, wear flashy dresses, bathe in glitter, etc., but it turns out Steven was just trying to live vicariously through his friend who wasn't even comfortable being on stage. Steven ends up going on stage himself, flashy skirt and glitter and all, and totally rocks the song performance. The situation could have just been the same garbage jokes as in other media, but a few key points make it different - The crowd cheers for Steven; he's not wearing a goofily unfortunate or bad looking outfit, it looks good and appealing; no silly sound effects, over the top "man voice" or other audio cues to paint the situation as a joke; no shocked reactions a la "say whaaaa, he's wearing a
skirt?!". Steven is not dehumanized, and he's not turned into the target of the situation. The audience laughs, but not about him, but rather with him, since the situation is portrayed as a fun and endearing moment where Steven gets to fulfill his desire to sing. He's empowered, not humiliated.
Humour is a very powerful tool in social interaction and something that changes and evolves all the time. It has a profound effect on our feelings on things - It can make scary things easier to bear, break ice with strangers, and be a means to bond. But, by the same token, it can also easily alienate and dehumanize. Representation for transpeople is slowly improving, but it's still a tough and often shitty world out there for them, and when the majority of representation still boils down to "look at the man in the dress!", we still got a long way to go. It's like kicking someone who's on the ground and trying to get up - A single shitty joke won't break them, but every single shitty joke contributes to an enviroment that does. Writing about issues of gender involving people rather than cliches would be a start to do better.