I’ve been feeling down lately and I started re-watching futurama for some good nostalgia, but it keeps making transphobic jokes which is kind of just making me feel worse. Anyone have any suggestions for comfort shows to watch?
If you’re of OG Futurama age, King of the Hill is pretty good about not being transphobic. I will always love Hank refusing to speak to Peggy’s friend Caroline when she answered the phone in boy mode. No, he’s looking for his wife’s friend Caroline. Please don’t try to confuse him with stories about who she used to be. He used to sell jeans, and only people close to him know that.
30 Rock is my comfort show - it’s on Hulu rn. It’s definitely a little dated, but is still very funny! Also Bob’s Burgers is pro lgbtq+ and has over a dozen seasons, so plenty to keep on all the time! Also on Hulu
Bob's burgers is kinda nuts. The quality of the show has never dipped. I don't think they have a bad episode. In my mind it's still "the new show" but the Simpsons was already going down fast at season 10
My partner and I were going to rewatch Futurama soon, since we wanted to watch the old ones before getting into the reboot. I’m not going to enjoy that as much as I thought I would, am I?
As for recommendations, I don’t know if I would call it a comfort show since it can get really disturbing at times, but Doom Patrol is a great show, lots of fun and super queer.
There are a few episodes where being trans is almost the entire premise.
There are two different “Gender Bender” episodes where Bender is either cross dressing to act as a heel in pro wrestling, or surgically altered to become a fembot and compete in sports.
There is another episode where an alien removes the gender differences for the crew, and then changes the gender of the crew. They shoot a saucy pin-up calendar.
And then there’s the Dungeons and Dragons episodes where Hermes is a hermaphrodite centaur.
Oh, and the mind swapping episode where everybody changes brains, but that’s more Freaky Friday than gender swapping.
Core egg memory unlocked, I was obsessed with the Freaky Friday remake with Lindsay Lohan And Jamie Lee Curtis and would watch it again and again wishing I could wake up and be a girl in about 7th grade.
I’m sure most guys spend this amount of time and energy on that thought hehehehe
Maybe? What were your thoughts on the movie The hot chick? It was another one of those movies from that time in my life. I liked that Rachel’s kid brother would crossdress and when the parents found out, all dad had to say was “If you’re gonna wear heels, you gotta learn to walk in them”.
Dear God, It’s a Rob Schneider Adam Sandler flick. Sure it was during their golden years, but even their good stuff is pretty middle of the road garbage. Not that it’s a bad thing, you should just know when you’re gonna go dumpster diving to have a fun time.
I like shit fest movies like the Room and the weird B movie Lloyd Kaufman films like Poultry-geist from time to time, but rewatching some of those is hard.
Pardon me if it’s rude to ask but do you mind explaining why those episodes are transphobic? Specifically the Bender gender swaps, I don’t remember the other examples you mentioned.
The wrestling one is just somewhat off kilter? It’s not outright transphobic, more just kinda silly. It doesn’t reference gender as an identity as much. More so gender as performance I’d say. It’s a comparatively brief portion of the episode compared with the Olympics based one. The rest of the episode is pretty great tho and is all about a misogynistic asshole getting his comeuppance from a downtrodden woman who’s always been told that fighting is for boy’s. It’s actually a great episode.
The Olympics one is self evidently transphobic. The premise is he’s not actually a woman, he’s doing it to beat fembots at the olympics. In the episode he undergoes hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery… well the robot versions of those things. He is portrayed as having done this purely to win at sports. There has long been an established hate conspiracy narrative about trans women transitioning to beat women at sports. It was around back then, and this episode plays into the narrative quite a lot.
Futurama is my favorite animated show of all time. I love it with all my heart and for literally about a decade I skipped the gender bender Olympics episode every single time it came up. But I’ve come to appreciate some aspects of its very transphobic very misogynistic narratives. It’s not something I’d sit and watch for fun, but as time as passed some small moments have stood out to me as being kinda interesting deconstructions of what gender is and the complexities of personal identity. Like when bender struggles with the idea of “detransitioning”, even if it’s for the wrong reasons and doesn’t accurately portray any kind of transfeminine struggle in a genuine light. You can tell they sorta had half an idea what gender identity was and the ways in which trans people struggle with it. But the motives are never gender in and of itself, it’s never about who bender is but always what he gets from gender performances.
Make no mistake though. It’s among the worst. Not because it’s the most hateful vile episode of any animated show ever, but because it’s Futurama. I hold that show to a very high standard, as do a lot of people. They punched down on trans and gender diverse people there. They had no reason to do that. They played into a frankly insane amount of misogyny to make it all fit together too, in a way they hadn’t done as much with other episodes. Look at Kif, look at all his episodes and the many ways his character deconstructs gender and sex in positive ways that show tolerant and informed viewpoints. It’s not like they didn’t know how to handle gender complex characters.
But with that one episode they just really gave a big fuck you to gender diversity, to gender diverse people, to trans women, and broadly to gender and sexual minorities as a whole. The whole thing is profoundly disappointing to me to this day. It’s not enough to ruin the show for me, I love the show way too much for that. But it’s embarrassingly bad and dishearteningly bigoted from a show that I expect so much more from.
Well, I still don’t entirely understand what specifically about the episode makes it transphobic but I appreciate you taking the time to respond.
This is a weird grey area for me. I see it as a silly episode where bender does some reprehensible shit, sort of learns his lesson but than continues being a shitty person. I don’t remember anything about the episode that makes it stand out from other episodes where he similarly exploits some facet of society (foster kids, soup kitchen, pimp are a few that come to mind). However, given my perspective it’s very likely I’ve overlooked aspects of it and I am not trying to defend the episode just understand what I’m missing.
Again, I’m sorry if I’m being rude or this is not the place to discuss something like this. Feel free to ignore me or tell me to go away.
This is a weird grey area for me. I see it as a silly episode where bender does some reprehensible shit, sort of learns his lesson but than continues being a shitty person.
That episode really bothered me – decades before I realized I was trans it was my least favorite episode of the entire run. It just came off as too mean spirited, and relied too heavily on the man-in-a-dress “joke”.
I was waiting to see, because my nostalgia probably blinds me, but I know it’s 80’s Star Trek. If I had to guess in the misogyny, it would probably be that the outfits for women are completely different than the standard issue uniform everyone else wears. In the first episode they had one guy wearing a Skant, then you basically only see them on women a couple times, then the women lose their brains because they gained cleavage, and lose cleavage to gain brains.
I really don’t have a guess on racism though. As far as I knew, Star Trek was always ahead of the curve on the round of race. William Shatner for all his problems intentionally botched every alternate take of the scene where he kissed Uhara to force them to include the first televised interracial kiss. They even had one episode in OG Star Trek where a race of half back half white people were fighting with the half white half black folks pointing out the absurdity.
Yeah… I suppose it’s been a while since I’ve watched them with my eyes instead of my ears, so I just queued it up. Why did they decide to cast the ligonians like that 👀? I knew it wasn’t a good one, but jeez. Anyway, it’s like the 4th episode of the whole series, and considered the 2nd worst piece of Star Trek in total.
I read that when the episode was pitched, it was going to be lizard aliens with a society similar to feudal Japan. Somewhere along the line, it turned into… that.
Even Sillier than that is a British comedy called “Red Dwarf” and as far as I recall there is no transphobia. The closest I remember is an episode where the main character ends up in an alternate dimension with the female version of himself. They hit it off and the male main character of the series ends up pregnant, to his distress. At the time I remember it being a really interesting way to bring up gender dynamics without being too laboring, though it’s been a while, and I also haven’t seen the new seasons they apparently made after the show got cult status.
Edit to add: a Reddit thread has this to say about Red Dwarf and being trans
In series 8, Kryten is assigned to women’s prison wing, just because he doesn’t have a penis when he clearly resembles a male, sounds like a male and acts like a male. That’s regardless of the fact that he has no chromosomes because he’s an android (not even gynoid, so another good point). The show makes it out as ridiculous that the only reason why he’s treated as female only because of his lack of penis.
Also, in the episode DNA, it’s shown that when he’s turned into human male, he’s still an android on the inside because he clearly feels discomfort from certain dysphoria, where he finds appliances sexually attractive and inability to adjust to human biology lacking robotic features.
Edit to add to the edit, I forgot the ships on board computer actually does upgrade themselves to present female
I joke. But Farscape got me through more than one breakup. Very queer friendly. It didn’t shy away from being fetish friendly as well. Rigel in a dominatrix suit still delights me. Described by one critic as, “One American’s introduction to the Australian S&M scene.”
Since most of the effects were practical, they aged far better than my other faves, DS9 and Babylon 5.
The Expanse is the best television I have ever seen and is extremely queer friendly. It’s dark, but so was Farscape.
Eh I'd quite confidently say Farscape is far less problematic than any other show of it's era and a great many after it.
And humans are not superior in that universe, they once believed they were and evolved into universally hated (but really hot) hyperfascists. Bringing them down was one of the biggest eventual arcs in the show and it wasn't done by Chriton being superior, he just had wormhole weapon tech in his head that he didn't want and believed nobody should have.
Chriton is one of the most basic life forms in that part of the galaxy too, he's barely more sentient than food and it's mentioned almost once an episode. He gets by by the skin of his teeth and his only real skills are maths and making friends/pissing people off.
(I do like that he also looks like a bit of a gormless idiot too, and testament to the writing and actor as he never comes across as an entitled white boy either.)
Babylon 5 has held up better than DS9 in my opinion, like both are good but B5 is just very clearly much better. The Expanse is fantastic though I agree with you fully there.
(Btw I'm not really arguing with you about anything here, I just wanted to rant about Farscape a little as I love it dearly.)
Just make sure you pay your TV license at tvlicensing.co.uk, other wise the license officers might pay you a visit and charge you a fine of £400 with their “TV detector” vans. /s
Oh heavens, you do what your conviction tells you, I’m just a cheeky American that grew up with RuneScape and an endless supply of British media that wanted to be in on the joke.
One of my favorite episodes of the Young Ones was when the TV license officer comes to inspect their house and they’re trying to hide the TV.
They’re not fiction, but two that work for me are Great British Bake-Off and Taskmaster. The people on GBBO are so positive and helpful, it’s a welcome change from American cooking competitions. Taskmaster is creative and silly, always good for a laugh.
Second the recommendation of Ted Lasso. Ted is a wonderful example of a person who doesn’t understand something, knows he doesn’t understand, but his heart is in the right place and he wants to learn.
Great Canadian Baking Show is similarly positive. Everyone is so nice it hurts! They often help each other finish challenges and it’s a competition show :)
Unless you count the gender bending jokes surrounding Trill issues that have been made once or twice. Or the time Kira ruined a deal Quark was trying to make by editing his hologram program of her to have his head on a female body to disgust his buyer.
Actually curious what people think about those, along with Drew’s brother on the Drew Carry show.
I also think there was gender swap in 3rd rock played for laughs, but I might be misremembering gender differences for an alien. I also don’t recall the episodes so not sure if it was just poking fun at gender as a whole.
Similarly, I think scrubs has some references that may be unpleasant but on the whole they tend to be good or thoughtful when dealing with subjects that at the time weren’t always represented well.
Unfortunately, a lot of older shows have unpleasant jokes. We just have to realize that jokes were a way to discuss the taboo and if we didn’t have those jokes back then, we might not have the progress to today. That’s not to say we want them now but we should judge the media on the knowledge and morals of the time.
There’s also an episode where Quark undergoes gender reassignment in order to close a deal, which is played for laughs and includes lines about women being sensitive because of their hormones. It sticks out because it’s just horrible, while she show is generally good.
I don’t have discord server I use, just hop around a bunch of em like Mint Blitz, 3d Printing, LTT, EVE online And also trolling around Lemmy Don’t use much else
Mash and Allo Allo both have no shortage of jokes about cross-dressing and plenty of casual sexism. Fawlty Towers … is also a product of it’s time, any good parts get outweighed by the bad parts.
The cross dressing in MASH was Klinger trying to get classified as a crazy (section 8?) And isn’t making fun of trans people. Allo Alloonlyl never made fun of trans people, cross dressing in that show was not about making fun of trans people but making fun about how Germans are kinksters (I’m assuming herrflick in lingerie) every other ‘cross dressing’ was for disguises. Do you also take offence to this
Klinger wants to get classified as crazy by wearing dresses, which implies that wearing different clothes is a sign of mental illness. Herr Flick gets sexual gratification from wearing women’s clothes, thus implying that wearing different clothes is something only a sexual deviant would do. Both of these stereotypes continue to be used to harm Trans women.
Klinger wants to get classified as crazy by wearing dresses, which implies that wearing different clothes is a sign of mental illness
Until very recently you’d be kicked out of the army for being gay or trans. Klinger was simply taking advantage of a broken system, we have no idea what his personal beliefs on crossdressing were.
Though seriously, if they want to trans ban me from WW3 with China, Russia, and North Korea I really don’t mind at all. Go send all the cis-hets to die in countries they can’t point to without a labeled map to spite me.
Luckily they realized after Vietnam that draftees who don’t want to be there don’t really give it their all. You bring up an interesting point though, all men in the country have to register for selective service at 18, I wonder if that still applies to trans women who haven’t updated their paperwork yet
Anyway, hypotheticals aside, I think it’s good that gay or trans people who want to serve in the armed forces have that option now
Absolutely, there shouldn’t be anything to stop those individuals from serving on their own volition.
luckily they realized after Vietnam that… (conscripts) … who don’t want to be there don’t really give it their all.
It was 2006-2007 I was a really big 9/11 truther, any time people would talk about a draft I used to rebut “I don’t want to go there, and I want to die anyways, go ahead and give me a gun and force me to go, let’s see how many Americans I can kill with sabotage and a rampage.”
It blows my mind that we still have people who think a conscription effort would be anything but detrimental.
Speaking of, anyone else notice the semantic propaganda that is the word draft/ conscript? Our enemies are evil and they conscript their men to fight in pointless wars, but we on the other hand draft our young heroes to selflessly serve their country.
To be clear, having seen M.A.S.H, this is correct. And you’re right about the way that the narratives it plays into continue to be used to harm trans women.
If that’s how ya wanna take it, you do you. Ya notice how Klinger was a main character that everyone else regarded as being mentally fit? I think that speaks volumes more than a single negative Once again, Germans are kinksters, are ya kink shaming Herflick now?
Came here to say Bluey!! My partner and I (both grown ass adults) watch it together and cry tears of joy as we let it re-parent us!! Such a wonderful show!
To tack on “kids shows that are just fine thank you very much” I really enjoy “Tinga Tinga Tales” The animation is crazy, music beautiful, the stories interesting (folk tales) and the characters fun. Great way to wind down for 20 minutes, finding out Why Frog Croaks.
My partner and I have been really enjoying Spy X Family. Its a nice little found family/comedy series with very wholesome content.
The premise is that the titular Spy has an assignment to make contact with a total shut-in who only appears in public for events at his son’s school. So the Spy adopts a child from a shady orphanage and meets a woman who is willing to fake being his wife to get his child into the elite school. Of course, the child he adopted can read minds and the woman he fake married is secretly an assassin. No one but the child knows the truth about everyone and they’re each so focused on hiding their own secrets they don’t catch on to the others. The series isn’t complete yet, but so far the major theme is them coming to genuinely value their little family as more than a convenient facade.
Its just such a cute show, and I go back and forth between cackling and tearing up at how cute they all are. The only thing I think is particularly off about the show is the assassins brother. He’s a secret police officer and also incestuously obsessed with his sister. Its a weird inclusion, but he is made fun of by the narrative for his behavior and that is enough for me to still enjoy how good the rest of the show is
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