Even The John thought it was wrong:
A colleague defended the SNL skit by comparing it to lampooning Sarah Palin – isn’t it okay to make fun of people, he asked. Well, that’s the same as defending making fun of someone for being a “f-g” by saying “we make fun of other people too, so why not make fun of gays? Why are they off limits?” Well, it depends. Are the people you’re making fun of an oppressed minority that doesn’t have full and equal rights in our society? Are they beaten and murdered for who they are, do their young far too often kill themselves because of the perceived taint of who they are? Will they lose their job and their family for who they are?
Gay? Yes. Trans, yes. Sarah Palin? Not so much.
The issue isn’t “can’t we make fun of people?” It’s very much a question of who you’re making fun of and what you’re saying about them. When you use offensive stereotypes to belittle an oppressed minority, the joke is not satire or parody that somehow teaches us all a lesson about tolerance. Rather, like this skit, or the Ron Howard “that car is gay” joke in his recent movie, simply reinforces the prejudice….
You mean like calling bisexuals “part-time gays” in order to score anti-trans ENDA points?
That’s why the SNL skit was wrong.
No…
That’s why, even though its nice to see The John take the position he’s taken regarding the SNL thing, just as with the ‘we thought The Simpsons’ 2005 gay marriage episode was okay even though it was even more transphobic than 2011’s Estro-Maxx, we lauded it and then, a week or so later, limpy chided it for being transphobic’ GLAAD…
I don’t buy the love.
[Cross-posted at ENDABlog]
I don’t buy the love either. Great post.