no sex just death.

Floor Writes Uncomfortably: it's kind of weird

floorwritesuncomfortable:

that i am upset at stephen colbert for using the dreaded word, but i still fucking love it’s always sunny in philadelphia, which has a trans woman character, and, unfortunately uses that same word to describe her.

HERE IS THE DIFFERENCE.

the character (carmen) is (so much as can be achieved on…

Okay, I will admit to not having seen every episode of It’s Always Sunny, so I could have missed something, but I don’t remember Carmen ever being treated respectfully or as a legitimate woman or as a character having any qualities other than being trans. The whole joke in the first episode where Mac is dating her (I want to say it’s “Charlie Has Cancer”) is that he’s so shallow and self-absorbed that he would sink so low as to date a trans woman because she compliments him on his body even though she has a penis which is so totally homo and etc. So yeah, the joke is supposed to be on Mac more than on Carmen, but it only works under the assumption that Carmen being trans makes her super gross/actually a man and that there’s no legitimate reason anyone would ever be attracted to or actually want to be in a relationship with her. So the show doesn’t directly make fun of Carmen because it doesn’t really see her as human; she exists to make people who associate with her (Mac) look ridiculous for daring to interact with/date/be attracted to a trans woman. This is pretty much the same in the episode “Mac Is a Serial Killer” in which he’s so ashamed to be dating her that his sneaking around and acting all guilty/suspicious makes the rest of the gang think he’s a serial killer. Of course, when they do find out that he’s been dating her, they just react with disgust, which reinforces the idea that he was right to be ashamed. I suppose there’s a slight bit of decency in this episode in that Carmen gets sick of Mac’s shit and breaks up with him, but the show’s overwhelming message that she’s subhuman is strong enough that this doesn’t really make it seem excusable.

And back to “Charlie Has Cancer,” there’s also the scene at the end where Mac “accidentally” punches Carmen and then tries to convince the two men who see it happen that it’s okay that he hit her because she’s “really a dude,” which they identify as a hate crime and chase him down. Now, someone might read this as affirming because Mac is shown to be at fault and the two men assert that punching a trans woman is totally not okay, but the fact that it’s using violence against a trans woman to set up a joke is incredibly disturbing and I don’t think the fact that the show agrees that Mac is in the wrong even begins to make up for that.

Finally, I saw a short segment from a newer episode in which Mac is trying to convince Carmen and her new boyfriend not to get married because he believes it would count as a “gay marriage,” which he says is a sin or will send them to hell or something. Now, I will admit to not having seen the rest of the episode and therefore not really knowing the context of this scene (the impression I got is that he’s upset that she’s dating/marrying someone other than him now that she’s had GRS, because obviously she belongs to him/owes him because he was “willing” to date her when she had a penis), but it’s still pretty clearly sending the message that Carmen’s entire existence as a character is defined by an attempt to make as many cheap jokes about trans women as possible, as well as continuing the fixation on her genitals.

So basically, I disagree.

(Source: floorclaudiuscaroline)