The Comedic Device of a Man in Woman’s Clothing is Old. And Dangerous.
By: Stella Luna, They She
Tags: LGBTQ, Discrimination, Gender, Transgender, TV Shows

I wasn’t even planning on writing anything. I normally don’t get perturbed or angry about any sort of media, but for some reason, this struck me. My mom just showed me a video from the 70s or 80s of a male gymnast “dressed up as a female” and doing a comedic gymnastics routine. Of course, I didn’t find this funny. I giggled a bit at first to not upset her, but in the end, I couldn’t keep up the charade. I know she didn’t show me the video in a malicious way or even realize that it could have a negative effect on me, but by the end of the video, I was almost sick to my stomach. As I write this now, I can barely collect my thoughts. Is this an overreaction, especially since I’m safe and live a fairly sheltered and calm life? Maybe. However, this kind of “humor” has adversely affected many trans women/nonbinary people without many even realizing it.

Photo by Elmarie van Rooyen on Unsplash

The whole problem I have with this is the “butt” of the joke. Personally, I don’t find anything wrong with a man dressing as a woman. I enjoy drag as an art form, and I even don’t really have any problems with femboys as long as they don’t call themselves trans for dressing femininely. The issue is not with the act itself, but with the implications that treating it as humor has. There was no comedy outside of the fact that he was emulating femininity grotesquely and cartoonishly. Again, there is nothing wrong with men being extremely flamboyant and feminine. The problem lies in the fact that this type of “comedy” makes any man emulating femininity the butt of the joke.

So far, it probably sounds like I think trans women are men, right? Wrong, especially since I’m literally trans! This type of comedy, though, makes it much harder for trans women to be accepted as women because this sort of portrayal lumps trans women in with these men who emulate femininity as a joke. When there are cis men playing trans women in films and shows (even if they do it well) and men parodying femininity by exaggerating and deliberately making satire out of it, society at large tends to have the image in their mind that that is what trans women experience. I’m a bit flustered at the moment, honestly, but if you want a better and much more entertaining explanation of this, watch Disclosure on Netflix if you’re able.

When I was watching the video, I was admiring the grace and power of the gymnast. I hadn’t even realized that he wasn’t a woman at first with how strong and beautiful his movements were on the uneven bars. It wasn’t until I heard he was “dressed like a female” that I knew that I should’ve found the video funny. The whole joke was that he was a man doing women’s things, in simplest terms. Do you see where I’m going with this? Do you see how it can be harmful both to cis men and trans women?

The fact that doing activities outside those prescribed for your gender assigned at birth is an element of comedy creates harmful conditions for anyone trying to accurately express their gender identity and just personality in general, cis or trans. When the expression of “non-congruent” femininity or masculinity becomes something to be mocked or seen as a show, transness becomes a performance for those who don’t experience it. As society has sown the seeds of patriarchy, restrictive gender roles are reaped. Everyone is assumed to be cis, and when someone they perceive as a “man” expresses that they are not a man, or vice versa, it is nothing but a performance that needs not to be respected.

I’m not sure if I explained this well enough, as I’m frantically typing this to not just curl up in a ball on my bed, but this is my issue. The video itself should not have been funny except for when he fell smack on the mats (that, I’ll admit, was funny if you’re into that). Seeing the whole audience roar with laughter at the mere prospect of a man dressing as a woman was jarring, to say the least. It’s funny with the assumption that he gets to say “just kidding!” and take off his “costume” at the end of the day. For us, though, it’s not a costume. We’re not pretending to be anything, and to be treated as such because of this type of “comedy” places us in a very dangerous position.