Stop mocking an already brutalised minority

Last weekend I went to the Performing Arts Centre of Penang in Straits Quay to watch a 90-minute variety show showcasing a handful of talented local artists. The line-up included jazz, Teochew opera, boria, tango, contemporary ballet and a few short plays.

I am usually pretty laid back when it comes to criticising the local performing arts scene this as an active participant in this slow-growing industry, I try to support our local talents as much as I can.

However, after watching a short play making a mockery out of a transgender character staged by a well-known theatre group in Penang with more than 15 years of experience, I just cannot contain myself anymore.

The play began with a transgender woman and a man having a conversation on stage. Throughout the conversation, she excuses herself several times to tighten her wig, drawing barrels of laughter from the audience.

The transgender woman then starts making sexual advances towards the man by asking him his favourite sexual position and continues to kneel on the floor like a four-legged animal, claiming it to be her favourite position. Once again, the crowd goes crazy.

As the man declines to participate in the transgender woman’s advances, she begins to touch herself, asking him if he had someone new or if he was cheating on her. And then a third character walks in, a woman, who later accuses the transgender woman of stealing her boyfriend. Watching the woman and the transgender fighting for the man, the crowd starts chuckling once again.

Honestly, I do not understand what is so funny about a transgender woman being negatively portrayed in such a grossly overblown caricature. I personally find it bad taste, highly offensive and am quite frankly sick of watching transgender people being thrown under the bus for a cheap laugh.

Some people think it is fine to joke about the transgender community, they think transgender jokes are hilarious and I suppose if those people are reading this article, they might even accuse me of not having a good sense of humour.

The fact is, there is so much more to transgender people than the one-dimensional characterisation given to them – they are not some sex-crazy, attention-craving boyfriend/husband stealers they are often painted to be.

There are so many layers to what it means to be a transgender. Transgender people are no different from everyone else in their ideals in life is to be happy, to be treated with kindness and to be respected.

The fact is, by mocking transgender people on stage and inviting laughs from an audience, we are leading people to think that it is okay to poke fun and laugh at transgender people.

By associating transgender people with negative characteristics, we are leading people to think that there is nothing more to them than the negative personas we’ve created for them.

Year after year we read about transgender folks being victims of discriminations, bullying and violence committed by those who cannot accept the community as part of our society.

By exploiting the vulnerability of transgender people as a laughline, we are taking part in degrading and dehumanising them. 

This form of exploitation needs to stop. 

No one should be allowed to mock an already-brutalised minority.

Theatre, like all forms of media, plays an undeniable role in shaping our culture. Theatre provides us with a mirror of the society within which we live and where the conflicts we experience are acted out on stage before us. Through theatre, a culture expresses itself, reflects on its society and displays its individuality.

The magic of theatre is in its ability to surface and discuss serious topics in a more casual environment. Producing stories around transgender characters have the potential to spark dialogue, highlight injustice and challenge dated beliefs. But we should expect more from the storytellers who choose to take this on.

Theatre practitioners who take part in degrading and dehumanising transgender people in return for a few rounds of cheap laughs are the laziest kind of artistes.

Theatre practitioners who use transgender people as comic relief by making sexual position and genital jokes are not patrons of the art. They are just producers of trash.

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FA ABDUL is a passionate storyteller, a media trainer, an aspiring playwright, a director, a struggling producer, a photographer, an expert Facebooker, a lazy blogger, a part-time queen and a full-time vainpot. - Mkini