girljanitor:moniquill:inappropriateresponses:casual-isms:
Casual transmisogyny is the TV show Community’s use of the t-slur as an “ironic” abbreviation of transfer, even going so far as to have a “tr*nny queen” beauty pageant. Aside from a few raised eyebrows, no character acknowledged how messed up it was and the word was thrown around multiple times throughout the episode.
It wasn’t “ironic”. Canonically, the dean is an idiot (and to be fair, also at the very least a transvestite of ambiguous sexuality himself), unaware of the implications. The audience is supposed to get why it’s horrible. Unfortunately for whoever submitted this, Community assumes a certain level of intelligence and critical thinking from its audience.
So basically your argument is ‘If you don’t agree that this is funny and appropriate, you’re just not smart enough for this show’?
Because that’s a bullshit argument.
If any of the characters are meant to be intelligent, likable, relatable people… why didn’t they address that shit and shut it the fuck down?
I could see it being a thing that a stupid character does and then another character say ‘No, honey, just no’ and possibly it could be salvaged. Possibly. With a bunch of context.
But when no character acknowledges it as terrible? That’s just flat perpetuating of hipster ____ where _____ is the ism in question.
I’m a huge Community fan. I find several of the characters to be likeable and relatable, although “intelligent” not as much and also not necessary for the liking. That being said? Yes, that whole episode and that bit was fucking riddled with problems. The t-slur should have been overtly called out in the show instead of just being loosely implied as “cluelessness” on the part of the Dean. I like the show. The show is problematic.
I find what inappropriateresponses says about the Dean to be kind of offensive; he’s not presented as an “idiot”. He’s overly ingenuous and to me represents a sort of well-meaning white liberal archetype that has no idea wtf he’s talking about, also a raging try-hard. It just goes to show that people are gonna see what they want to, or in some ways, get what they give, when it comes to media.
Are there any shows on TV that aren’t problematic? This is not a defense of Community—I agree 100% with girljanitor—but just basically saying, it’s possible to be both critical of something when things are messed up and a fan. If I didn’t like anything that was problematic…well, I wouldn’t like anything.