You wanna see the trans community really pissed off, you can forget about Israel Luna’s transploitation film — look no further than last night’s “Family Guy.”
The animated series, which is historically very gay-friendly while also being patently offensive to gay people (for instance: Baby Stewie is clearly gay, while they have songs that mock AIDS) went all-out hateful against the trans community in last night’s episode, “Quagmire’s Dad.”
In the ep, womanizing neighbor Quagmire introduced everyone to his dad, a heroic veteran who announced he is having sexual reassignment surgery.
At first, the jokes are silly but funny-ish about the discomfort people have with transgenders. (“Do you miss your penis?” someone asks.) But the discomfort escalates, especially after Brian the dog has sex with the post-op woman, and upon learning she was trans, violently vomits for 29 seconds. That’s a long time on TV. And there’s no coda at the end, no “let’s make up and be friends” apologia.
But really, should we be surprised? Animated series like “Family Guy” and especially “South Park” have long pushed boundaries of good taste and political correctness. I think it’s possible to just take the episode as another “ah, well, they have no sacred cows.” But I can imagine the trans community being up in arms.
What does everyone think: Humor we just accept as legitimate satire? Or line-crossing insensitive claptrap?
You can watch the episode here.
9 Comments
Still not offensive as the South Park episode “Mr. Garrison’s Fancy New Vagina.”
Of course it’s offensive. I laughed my ass off at the ‘Family Gay’ episode, although it was utterly ridiculous and cast gay men as hyper-sexualized hair stylists who had no higher reasoning beyond finding the next man to sleep with. If it’s wrong to have been entertained, then I’m ‘guiiiiiiltyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!’
Yes, we will need to forget about Israel Luna’s film if we are going make an issue of this. Family Guy makes no pretense about what it is doing. It is comedy. The show makes no claim of being ’empowering,’ and it certainly doesn’t allude to real hate crimes against (trans)women as its basis.
I laughed when they made fun of gays, Muslims, Christians, Jews, republicans, Down Syndrome, migrant workers, Texans, you name it. But we must focus on the differences here. Family Guy has shown its readiness to lampoon ALL groups mercilessly and with no exceptions. Israel Luna made one film exploiting the trans experience and violence against women. Family Guy never tried to dismiss the concerns of any of these groups and misrepresent their aims by claiming ’empowerment,’ as Israel Luna did.
My perspective as a cis white man is that the conversation surrounding TTWK is far worse than the film itself. The discussion has laid bare the disregard the queer cis community has for its trans component. I was not nearly so opposed to the film until after I saw the real need for education about and awareness of the trans community and their unique challenges.
But at least you, Arnold Wayne Jones, seem more concerned about discrimination of a community that is not your own (privileged white gay cis-male) when it is done by someone you don’t want to bone. But then again, Seth McFarlane ain’t a bag looking guy.
Arnold, these past few months you’ve seemingly spent all your energy dismissing what many in the trans community think and even taunting us for having an opinion about how we’re portrayed. Why on earth would you bother concerning yourself about it now?
@Gina…the purpose of Arnold’s post is to continue the aggravate and taunt the trans activist community. He’s actually challenging/ daring activists to show outrage over the most recent FG episode. Afterall, we all totally blew the TOTWK controversy out of proportion, right? Darn those hypersensitive, irrational, hormone-driven women (cis or trans). Why don’t you give us a nice smack on the butt for not staying in our place?
The trans community faces a lot of challenges. Their numbers being even smaller than gays and lesbians, many people don’t even know someone who is transgendered (or at least they aren’t aware of it). In fact, I’d guess that there are many gays and lesbians who don’t have personal relationships with transgendered folks outside social entertainment settings. It is a topic of great sensitivity and it takes a great deal of patience and understanding. I think its a good thing that people are even exposed to the idea because it removes the taboo nature of the topic.
But even in spite of all these issues, the trans community isn’t immune from satire. No one is. I think the Family Guy writers have often gone out on a limb by including trans characters, and it was no different here. The writers, while making plenty of jokes, proposed a character who proudly served his country, was honest and open about his sexuality and gender identity, and who, in the end, was accepted by his son. The jokes aside (and they were hilarious), this wasn’t a negative portrayal of the trans community. If anything it was the reactions of others which was satirical in this episode.
Arnold, I think you do, and always have, been a thoughtful voice on these types of issues. It always appears to me that almost no one can make the trans community happy. Whether its the HRC at Black Tie, a local gay bar, a movie with local trans actors, or a local journalist – no matter what is said and done the trans community lashes out.
To quote Stewie… it is a “casserole of nonsense,” and I believe trans activists need to think about whether or not its serving its own cause best by alienating everyone.
@Texan
That’s exactly what I got from the episode…I felt like FG was bringing to light the outrageous and extremely hurtful things that we say about the trans community. I’m not saying that FG is a trans advocate. They definitely have a niche for insulting every sub-culture of society. If you got past all the crass one-liners, it was actually a good episode about being proud and acceptance in the end. That is what I got from it.
Of course, I am a FG fan and take their jokes with a grain of salt. My sisters absolutely despise the show and says it’s racist. DUH!!! But I respect my sisters’ feelings on the matter and try not to tell them that they are being oversensitive or overreacting. That’s where the LGB is going wrong with this matter when it comes to the feelings of the T community. Stop trying to tell them to get over it and just let them be offended. Stop trying to control the message that comes from our community. They have every right to be upset with this episode.
Tisha (and everybody else): I think you hit the nail on the head- “Stop trying to tell them to get over it and just let them be offended.”
That applies in so many many situations. None of us, as individuals or as a group, has the right to tell someone else what they should or should not be offended by. We can say: “Hey, I and a lot of people in my spcific community find this word offensive and we ask that you not use it.” But we can’t tell another person or group or organization that they also have to be offended by a word (or show or situation or whatever).
If I say or do something to offend you, tell that I have offended you. Then I have the right to decide how to respond to that. But I don’t have the right to tell you that you should NOT be offended. And if my response does not satisfy you, then you have to decide how to respond thereafter. But you can’t tell me I HAVE to respond a specific way. (Does that make sense?)
Example: You call me a dyke. I have the right to be offended or to not be offended. And either decision I make does not make me a “good lesbian” or a “bad lesbian.” If that term offends me, I tell you it offends me and ask you not to call me that. But I can’t tell you not to use that word with other people, other lesbians, who are not offended by it.
We all have our own levels of tolerance or intolerance, of acceptance or non-acceptance. And we have to learn to respect other people’s right to make their own decisions, and to make our decisions accordingly, whether we respect those decisions or not.
And just for the record, I personally have no problems with the word “dyke.” And I personally do not find “Family Guy” entertaining.
Family Guy was my favorite show of all time in the mid 2000s, when it was about stupid humor, an evil baby, an anthropomorphic dog and a dysfunctional family. The humor made me laugh at all the pop culture references and heavy satire. The stretching of Political Correctness was perfect and I could not miss an episode.