Goddammit, people are just saying the same things I said before I made my reply to what they said the first time. That's not how you have a debate. Lost some respect for people here. And no I'm not the only one that thinks this.
http://www.ifge.org/Article37.phtmlAs you can see the counter arguments are of course the typical "Lighten up it's humour :D" crap. Even if other trans think it's okay, that doesn't mean it is. We're like the doormat minority in many cases anyway, this has always been my experience, even if some are assertive in some areas there'll always be somewhere where a trans will have to concede defeat in an attempt to remain sane.
Reading up further on this whole issue and on other forums has made me dispise South Park and some of it's fans with a passion. I am by no means saying this is limited to the transsexual episode either, I find the way they deconstruct atheists, environmentalists and many others to be based mostly on popular misconception. I don't understand why if they're going to make fun of someone, they can't do it based on what they are rather than what society thinks they are.I don't find that style of humour funny and even if I ignore it, in general the popularity of South Park is dragging us back decades, socially.
There's a very good essay I found on South Park/Team America:
http://www.flakmag.com/tv/southpark.htmlI think most people don't realise they're quite right leaning (though centrism can be offensive by itself too). It's a shame to see a mostly progressive forum, but this is exactly my point - because it's humour even some very intelligent people normally become completely uncritical towards it, and the viewpoints it expresses become more and more acceptable even if they have no logical basis.
I also don't understand that if according to what some trans South Park fans "argue", that you're not meant to take Mrs. Garrison as a model transsexual, why s/he is the only one in the show and no "proper" ones were shown as a contrst. The general public is not going to be able to distinguish. All the defenses for that episode and others like it are back pedalling and apologism.
Also, In Go God Go Matt and Trey do heavily suggest transsexuals are undesirable, when Richard Dawkins runs away from Mrs. Garrison not because of his/her personality or not being a "real" transsexual, but finding out that he was a transsexual. I can't think of any rational explanation for his, and again, any explanation is going to be a priori reasoning setting out from the position that Matt and Trey can do no wrong, which drives me nuts.
Honestly Devi, things that make people like us uncomfortable are everywhere which is why we don't need more. Though I'd normally have a lot of respect for you otherwise - you've fallen into the trap. You're basically not allowed to take anything on South Park seriously ever, or disagree with it(you cannot deny the ironicly vast amounts of pressure to take it lightly even in this thread), and if you're somehow upset about it, you need to cross analyse it until you agree with it. If you look at this from the outside, it's insane. Satire has always been used to drive in a particular viewpoint - in the days of chivalry long ago bards were feared for exactly this reason, if the various lords did not pay them off, they would write songs mocking them and take them with them wherever they go. This is why I hate when people insist because something is funny, it can't be expressing a serious viewpoint. It's the exact opposite of the truth and always has been. Satire is a weapon.
It is not true that people who would attack trans with that episode on a basis, because many young people who have little or no idea what a transsexual is will see that episode and make presumptions. There is no real way of denying this. It's irrelevant if there's a deeper layer of complexity you found watching it again and again, - that's not what the younger people are going to take from it and it should be obvious to Matt and Trey. Heck I got thrown out of a house once by two guys, and caught them making comments over their Bebo which did highly hint they got most of their views from South Park and Jerry Springer. Ignorance can spread like a disease, and shows like South Park are big fat scammy rats.
The problem with being a transsexual is that the media really IS out to get you, so to live and function properly you have to convince yourself things aren't so bad. This is why transsexuals have always been the easiest minority to pick on, we're extreme and we're small in number, but there are points at which we'll give up asserting ourselves in the hope of a vaguely normal life. And of course with South Park, nobody can complain about anything anyway or you're the BUTTHURT one because look at all the other people they complained about and aren't raising a fuss. It's bullshit Encyclopedia Dramatica level logic. This makes me hate South Park in of itself, since it's the enemy of rational thought.
I didn't even remember the scene about the toilet, now I'm more angry. Again, without any kind of contrast there's no reason to presume that they're only trying to represent extremists. There is no rational transgendered character actually putting in the effort to fight the good fight. This is why it makes me so angry that people want me to just accept they're not meant to be sterling examples - where ARE the sterling examples then? South Park may show everyone as somewhat stupid, but it still shows certain ways of thinking as more competent than others. Big Gay Al was undoubtedly a "better" person than Mr. Garrison.
To think that we're not to take the strawman they show as at least resembling what they represent, is entirely and utterly a presumption, and a mostly unbacked one at that. It is giving them undue credit. In a position where they could both poke fun and educate, they instead just tear down strawmen. There is little enough logical thinking as is.
I suppose there's a lot of american mentality vs. european mentality in this thread with certain points, as americans don't tend to view there being a knock on effect from these things, don't tend to buy into the idea of memetics, etc. this has been my experience but it's not an absolute rule, just a very slight trend.
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