Butch Femme Planet - LGBTQ Representation in the Media

Entertainment media and the distance we have to go
By Adam Bink

A colleague brought up the interesting point the other week about which I’ve been pondering in the wake of the SNL anti-trans skit (we can’t embed the video here due to tech reasons, but you can see it in John’s post). He made the point that the entertainment media landscape had changed from years and years ago — GLAAD had essentially fulfilled their mission of getting more gay and lesbian characters on TV, showing loving gay/lesbian couples on TV, making gay struggles like those of Kurt Hummel on Glee accessible and sympathetic to the rest of America.

But then we have moments like this, where SNL has men with facial hair and dresses, meant to represent transgender women, in mock estrogen replacement commericals. And it reminds us we have a long way to go on the “T” side of “LGBT” in many, many facets of America.

The other thing I would say is that we have talked a lot about violent rhetoric contributing to politically-motivated violence here in America. I had a conversation with a friend yesterday about the brutal and often dangerous treatment of transgender detainees in immigration detention. Mocking and dehumanizing transgender people like this is the same thing- if you mock people as confused, stupid as silly, and laugh at them on TV, I wouldn’t be surprised to see that’s how they’re treated in real life.

GLAAD’s statement is below.

This Saturday, on an airing of Saturday Night Live, NBC (a subsidiary of Comcast) broadcast a dangerous and blatantly transphobic segment which they called ‘Estro-Maxxx’ – the punchline of which was the lives of countless transgender people across the country.

The piece was a mock commercial for estrogen replacement therapy and featured men with facial hair wearing dresses, meant to represent transgender women. This segment cannot be defended as “just a joke” because there was no “joke” to speak of. The attempted comedy of the skit hinges solely on degrading the lives and experiences of transgender women. Holding people up for ridicule simply on the basis of their identity fuels a dangerous and hurtful climate and puts people in danger, especially given how infrequently the media shines a fair and accurate light on the lives of transgender people.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation calls upon Comcast and NBC to apologize and remove the segment from Hulu and all future airings of the show.