"I'm gay so it's okay for me to make fun of trans people!"

[Guest Risu]

Last week I began browsing youtube for new video uploads from my favorite Trans singers.

Then I stumbled upon a song called "Girl's a Geezer" by a duet called "Supergirly". Type those into youtube and the song should pop up. The song is a parody of Dana International's 1998 Eurovision song contest winner "Diva". Just type those key words into youtube's search engine and I'm sure it will pop up in the results. I can't post a video link here because the image supplied of the lovely ladies who wrote and sang this parody is of one making an inappropriate gesture, so if you're interested in giving the video a thumbs down and backing me up on the ignorance of the song in the comments section you'll have to find it yourself.

For those of you who don't know Dana International is an Israeli Transsexual singer who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1998 with her song Diva. Diva is in essence and in not so many words, a song she wrote the music and lyrics for, and is about the struggles of women, trans women and also about powerful women in history like Cleopatra and Aphrodite.

The parody, as stated above is done by a duet called "Supergirly". I don't know anything about them other than they make offensive parodies. The video on youtube shows only one image of these two lovely ladies, one making an inappropriate gesture. The song itself, opens true to the original english lyrics as penned by Dana and is all well and good until we reach the chorus. From the first chorus onward the song continues to go down hill undermining trans women's identities, the process of transition and even SRS. Some of the song's lyrics, all in good fun include:

"Can't tell from the rear but when you get near her, the girl's a geezer!"

"Long hair and lipstick, lopped off her dipstick! The girl's a geezer!"

"It's hard to believe there's a guy underneath there! The girl's a geezer!"

"I'd hate to wake up and see her without make up! The girl's a geezer!"

"Don't get a shock she's a (rhymes with frock) in a frock! the girl's a geezer"

and

"her body may look good, her feet are like big foot! The girl's a geezer!"

among others.

They also included a chorus of unmelodious "ugh~" sounds between refrains of the chorus which slowly build until a climactic vomiting sound is reached. Obviously this is their opinion of Dana International and trans women.

Personally I find this song offensive. Do I think Dana International would care? Probably not. But she wrote the song herself and the offensive nature of the song is aimed at all trans women and not just Dana, so if she were offended she would have every right to be. However, the song, as you can see by the lyrics, is nothing but a collection of crude name calling, undermining the identities of trans women and the process of transition.

When I left a comment on the video voicing my complaint, which I will admit wasn't exactly tactful but said nothing more cruel than the lyrics of the song itself say, the gentleman who uploaded the video basically defended it by saying:

"This is not intended to be offensive in any way at all, for heavens sake get over it. I am a Gay Male, my best friend is an international female impersonator. I have many transexual friends & none of them find this remotely offensive. It's done in fun & not intended to insult anyone"

somehow I doubt anyone who is trans and actually took the time to listen to the lyrics wouldn't be offended. Essentially his defense says to me "I'm gay so I can make fun of trans people and it's okay", well actually it says "I'm gay so I can make fun of trans women because they're all just gay men too right?". It may not have been intended to offend anyone but it does. Making fun of a socially oppressed and outcast group of people is never acceptable or funny! It certainly doesn't help anyone that's for sure.

The whole fact that the poster of the video had to go back and edit the details after I commented and add that "It's not intended to be offensive" makes it blatantly obvious that the nature of the song IS intended to be offensive. He may not have posted it at all in an attempt to offend but the song itself does so very well.

If you would like to show some support, please locate the video on youtube and give it a thumbs down. Let this person know it is offensive and hurtful, that it does and can hurt the body image of transitioning trans women. If you want to, leave him a comment but my guess is he won't approve it if you're not showing support for him and his replies to my comment.

Thank you ladies and gentlemen of Laura's for taking the time to read this.

~Risu.

[Guest cassie51]

Risu,

I went to you tube intending to give that person a piece of my mind and what I thought of his comments. I was doing a slow burn. The video has been removed by the user it says. Maybe you shamed him into pulling it by your comments. Thank you so much for standing up for all of us!

{{{HUGGS}}}

Cassie

[Guest Svenna]

Risu,

The video has been removed, it seems, after only 25 views....

YAYYYYY!!!!

Good job, girl! Way to go...

Sometimes people are too eager to get a laugh at somebody else's expense. Yes, the lyrics ARE offensive, VERY offensive...

Thanks for stepping up and saying something.

Love, Svenna

[JJ]

Risu, thank you from me too.

You may never know what a difference you may have made in someone's life. Not everyone finds Laura's or has any support or even feels good enough about themselves to protest as you did. In fact something like that can tip them over the edge and the really nasty thing was it was people searching for trans singers who were going to be lead there by search. It would most draw those most likely to be damaged.

You did great!

Johnny

[Sally]

Nice job!

It is not often that offensive material is puled but I am glad that this was.

It is always amazing to me that each group must be singled out and people told not to make fun of them, we were told not to tell Polish jokes because they were offensive, the same with each minority one at a time someday they will get the message that trans jokes are offensive to us.

We do need to keep a sense of humor about ourselves, that is what keeps us sane but offensive is never acceptable.

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest Risu]

Wow O_O

I am glad its gone, but after the lengths he went to in defense of this song (that wasn't made public) were quite extreme. I figured he'd leave it up to antagonize. All I really said after his replies to my initial comment was what I said here. The song is crude, offensive and undermines trans women's identities and the transition process. Perhaps others had already complained and their comments on the video were removed.

Thank you all for your support. It is truly appreciated and I am glad some of us here were willing to let the uploader know that song just isn't acceptable.

*Hugs to everyone*

~Risu.

[Michelle 2010]

Good job Risu...

taking on injustice and righting wrongs, How cool is that

Huggs

Michelle

[Guest John Chiv]

WTG Risu.

John

[Guest RainbowGoth98]

I did the same thing for this video, no response.

Edited November 28, 2011 by RainbowGoth98
Removed as being too sexually suggestive

[Guest Risu]

Um wow... that's pretty awful too. I wouldn't say it's totally disrespectful and crude but it certainly doesn't handle things in a sensitive way by far... and that Video they claim was Rhianna's reply... just awful... some people have waaaay too much time on their hands and where do they get the ideas to make fun of one of the still most oppressed groups in the world today? But I guess that's "Normal" people for ya.

Thanks for sharing Rebekah.

[Cyndee]

I thought about that video after watching it earlier today as I was working outside, it was really bugging me, and I thought about it probably way too much. I agree with Risu's comments above. It's really a cheep shot by this "artist". Free speech is fine, but this video exploits a real medical / psychological condition that many suffer from and is taking advantage of this to make some sick statement, like "look at me I'm cool and normal" and "look at how terrible these people are". I think Eminem is a punk that's all (my free speech).

C -

[Guest KimberlyF]

As for the thread title, this is how it goes. A whole bunch of drag queens are gay men. They're in the TG umbrella. They get a pass.

So GLAAD gets upset with SNL over Estro-Maxx earlier in the year. The big complaint was the facial hair of the people playing Pre-ops.

http://m.jezebel.com/5748794/glaad-slams-snl-for-transgender-jokes

Anyone think GLAAD will have an issue for Priscilla the stage show that performed during the Macy's parade yesterday? There was some facial hair from a few of the dancers in dresses. It was a hoot!

[Guest Risu]

There is plenty of trans humor I find funny, and even Hilarious. Calpernia Addams has some wonderful videos on youtube that are extremely trans friendly and funny.

Harisu, the woman in my avatar did a comedy movie in her native country of South Korea called "Emergency Measure 19". The story goes that in the future Michael Jackson would become the president of the united states, Elton John is the Prime Minister of the UK and the South Korean Presidential election is about to come up soon. In his fear a pop star would be elected to take his place he has all pop singers arrested by the military police and put in Jail. In Harisu's scene she is running from the MPs when she passes by some restrooms, so she throws her purse or hat or w/e in front of the door leading to the ladies room and then runs and hides in the men's room. Of course the MPs check both bathrooms and all the stalls. While they search the women's room Harisu calls someone from her cell phone and sobs to them that she thought she had been exempted from military service a long time ago. That is funny. When the MPs come into the bathroom to find her they knock on the door of the stall she is in and tell her to come out. So she changes to her male voice and demands they go away because they have the wrong stall. That is also funny in it's own way. As they begin to drag her out of the stall she causes a fuss and tells them she can walk by herself and then pretends to faint and tells them to carry her instead. This is trans humor at it's finest. It's honest and not totally degrading.

The clip in question~ www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLZtgs5OO1c

The song by Supergirly was just crude, rude, and insensitive. Totally ignorant.

The parody of Eminem's song wasn't great, but it was sensitive in a way to the fact that there were two young men who idolized their grandpa and wanted him back. Did they handle the trans issues very well? No, not really but I'm not exactly blatantly offended by it.

I looked the Estro-maxx add from SNL up on youtube and personally I didn't find it funny. It makes a mockery of our lives and as the GLAAD article said, our lives are the punch line. Do many pre-op trans women have facial hair? Yep. Are there bald pre-op trans women, yup. One came to my support group saturday night, dressed in a really nice outfit but no wig. Is any of this funny? No, not really and it's a sensitive issue for many trans women. If they had had a passable drag queen or MtF playing the pre-op transwomen in the estro-maxx add it might have been better, but personally I don't find anything about that funny.

So, will GLAAD have a problem with Priscilla? Does it make a mockery of our identities and our lives and the struggles we face during transition? The problem here is not that trans people are represented poorly, it's more that we're represented poorly and mocked and degraded at the same time. We're being made the punchline of CRUEL jokes instead of ones like the scene from Emergency Measure 19 with Harisu.

I am all up to laughing and making jokes about our pain and struggles so long as it's handled the right way. We shouldn't have to feel like trans issues and experiences need to have a dark cloud over them all the time, but we face enough discrimination and pain and hardship all the time and songs like "The Girl's a Geezer", That Eminem parody and the Estro-maxx add don't help. They make it okay for cis-people to mock us and laugh at things that truly do hurt us in a just plain cruel way.

[Guest KimberlyF]

Humor is a personal thing. I talked to a friend of mine after watching the parade yesterday. I was much more annoyed yesterday than with the SNL skit. It turns out so was she. I didn't find the SNL bit funny at all. But I find most of SNL on the sleep inducing side. She thought the skit was funny. I like Calpernia. This other clip I just watched from Harisu I didn't find funny. But if you are in the LGBT club, like the last two, you get away with it.

Just like in the post above. If SNL had perhaps used an attractive drag queen...

What? Their unfunny sketch would be okie dokie?

[Guest Risu]

There is nothing SNL could have done to make the Estro-maxx ad funny or PC. The whole concept is just awful but that's just my feelings on it.

[Guest KimberlyF]

There is nothing SNL could have done to make the Estro-maxx ad funny or PC. The whole concept is just awful but that's just my feelings on it.

This is my whole point. Humor and the pain and feelings stirred during transition, are all very personal things. At least at the time of making Finding Your Female Voice, Andrea James (who made the vid with Calpernia) would not appear on camera using a male voice. This was a personal and painful thing and she doesn't want to be tied to that. She is a woman and it is important to her.

Harisu obviously doesn't have the same issues and you found the clip funny and posted it. I wasn't offended. But I didn't laugh and it didn't particularly make me feel great about myself.

Possible discussion questions

Would it be PC if it turned out the crew from SNL were all CDs and it was just an unfunny sketch with zero malice?

If people are offended by the Harisu clip, does that become non-PC?

Will anyone take the side of Eminem not being a douche?

[Guest Juniper Blue]

I found the Eminem video to be very offensive. I have never liked his work because of his tendency toward this kind of disrespectful behavior and cheap, immature shock approach to writing lyrics. Also, I am tired of his "Just Kidding " attitude.

I am glad to hear that the other video was removed. I will continue to boycott and not give my support to things that I find to be racist, sexist, homophobic, trans phobic or are in any other way hateful to any group of people.

There are so many beautiful things in the world that we can put our energy and MONEY into supporting and I am not shy to remind radio stations or other forms of social media about my fiscal options.

In Solidarity,

- J

[Guest MissSiul]

Not into music but about trans humor,any one here watched The Hangover 2?

There is one part that it is revealed that Stu had sex with a transgender woman,who

is played by a trasgender porn actress.

Did any one found that offensive or not?I didn't cared much,because it happens sometimes

here is the scene:

Edited February 13, 2012 by MaryEllen
Inappropriate video removed