Quote from: sophieoftn on February 18, 2013, 04:59:58 PM
Then I'm still not clear who you were referring to when you mentioned M.A.S.H.
You could see Corporal Klinger as a way of poking fun at the bann of LGBT people serving in the military. I mean - the time when M.A.S.H ran was before even the days of "Don't Ask - Don't Tell". In those days, they could ask you - and compel you to tell.
I wasn't thinking of presenting a 'good' trans character in a comedy. As people have pointed out, they're practically non-existent. I was thinking good comedy vs bad. I used M.A.S.H. as an example because it represents some of the best of what comedy can be. It was a social commentary on the Vietnam war disguised as a comedy about the Korean war. It changed people's opinions about our relationship to war and allowed us to have a national conversation about topics and viewpoints that most Americans hadn't been exposed to. I did think of Klinger but I specifically didn't mention him because although he's an incremental character he isn't a specifically 'trans' character. I used 'Ace Ventura' as an example because it personally offends me and deserves a worst of comedy award whether we are talking trans characters or not.
While I didn't mean to contrast Klinger vs Einhorn directly as 'trans' characters, I still have some strong opinions regarding Klinger as an incremental character.
In terms of incremental characters... Social change doesn't come as a revolution. It comes incrementally as people's minds and opinions changes. Between Amos and Andy in the 30's and Cliff Huxtable in the 80's there were an number of incremental improvements in the representation of black characters. The Nat King Cole Show, The Flip Wilson Show, Sanford and Son, the Jeffersons, The Cosby Show, Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire... Even if the characters weren't perfect and even if the early shows still had a tinge of racism, they were still stepping stones along the path to eventual acceptance. Each show in turn knocked another stone out of the racial stereotype.
For the 1970's, Klinger was probably the closest thing we could get to a 'wholesome crossdresser' character. He was human, generally liked and accepted by his peers and he was a responsible and dependable, if not very enthusiastic, soldier. He was not a 'reluctant crossdresser' or a 'pervy crossdresser' and his acceptance by his peers was not dependent on his passing as a woman. He had episodes where he struggled with how people perceived him and how he perceived himself. He's not a trans character and he's not a perfect 'crossdressing' character... but like the black character of Rochester from the Jack Benny Show he was a good character for his time.
For a good trans character I could have used someone like Roberta Muldoon from 'The World according to GARP', but I didn't find GARP to be effective as either a comedy or as a social commentary. For more recent crossdressing characters I could have gone with Tootsie or Mrs Doubtfire. Good comedies but not the sort of transformative social comedy that I would be hoping for in a new series.
