Four Simple Questions: Part 3

Trans Media Action is having a "Trans Camp" at Channel Four on the 13th January 2012 and they are asking Transgender people to make short videos answering four questions. These videos will be played during the Trans Camp.

I've decided that doing this is a very good idea and am answering these questions. However, the videos must be no more than one minute in length, and those of you who know me know that I tend to waffle on in my videos! Thus, I am going to answer these questions here first to enable me to make my videos as short as possible.

The third question is "COMEDY: How do comedy portrayals of trans people affect you?"

To start, let me just say that I hate stereotypes and I hate them even more when comedy programmes portray them. To me, using stereotypes in comedy material is not only outdated but is also very infantile and immature. Yes, I'm aware that comedy in it's purest sense, is immature and it is this immaturity that the audience often finds funny. My question is "Are the use of these stereotypes really necessary?"

Think about it - stereotypes strip away the humanity of those being made fun of. And that's what it is - making fun of a group of people. To make a logical leap, when people witness a group being made fun of, what is their first reaction? Answer: to join in. This creates a loop and it often doesn't take much to nudge the "Let's make fun of this group" mentality to "Let's ridicule and abuse this group because they're different" mentality.

By all means, keep the comedy coming, but let's keep it real and get rid of outdated stereotypes, ok?