IASIP, Transphobia, and Material Conditions
Trigger Warning: Discussion of transphobia
I would guess that most people on this hellsite who are fans of Always Sunny have grappled with the transphobia of the early seasons in the context of a fandom that has Queer ships and a show with some iconic Gay Mac imagery. Recognizing the flaws of a show and liking it anyways because we can be critical of the things we like or because it addressed the problems is a great way of engaging in media without expecting everyone to be perfect. However, my understanding of the discourse is that there are two contradictory responses to the transphobia and, either way, neither addresses some other issues.
Responses
Basically, I’ve heard two responses for the transphobia of the show. The first one I heard from Rob McElhenney himself and it’s a recognition that they shouldn’t have used the slur they use to describe Carmen. The second one, which I’m sure a lot of people have said, but Lily Simpson made a solid video detailing, recognizes transphobia plot points and language in the show, but accepts them on account that they characters are awful people, so the show paints the transphobia in negative light.
I think both arguments have some flaws. Lily’s argument centres around the fact that the main characters are framed as awful people, so the audience is supposed to recognize their behaviour as bad. Lily gives a lot of weight to the fact that Mac gets beat up at the end of Charlie Has Cancer. What I think Lily’s recognizing is that a lot of jokes in the show are structured around a gang/normal guy dynamic. The gang says messed up things which is contrasted by normal people who react in shock. We, the audience, are supposed to be on the side of the normal people and recognize the problems of the gang (e.g,. the lawyer calls them anti-Semitic for saying he’s Jewish just for being a lawyer). Other times, the gang just says things that are so horrible that we must realize the problems immediately (like the psychological torture in The Gang Goes to Hell), which is a little like the misogyny in Mad Men.
However, just because the normal points out that the gang’s speech is problematic doesn’t mean it’s explained. Seeing two guys beat Mac up for punching Carmen doesn’t leave the audience with a lesson. It’s almost like they’re showing blatant transphobia with a sigh that says “transphobia” and nothing more. Are they proud of it??
Other times, we see the problematic/normal guy dynamic being played out between Mac and other members of the Gang. For example, in Mac Fights Gay Marriage, the gang is being the voice of reason against Mac’s attack on Carmen’s husband. Mac calls him gay for marrying a trans woman. Here, the gang doesn’t take Mac’s side, but only because Carmen had gotten bottom surgery. Reading the show through a problematic/normal lens leaves us to believe that trans women are women only if they’re gotten bottom surgery.
Ok, that’s Lily’s argument. Then there’s the one McElhenney himself made. His is centred around regret for using a slur and leaves it at that. Rob’s argument neglects Lily’s framework that sometimes shows can show bad things and still be good shows. So instead of rectifying the problem by making the gang learn their lesson or inserting good trans representation (Rob writes and directs several episodes), he simply wrote Carmen out of the show entirely, with her last appearance being in like season six. It’s almost like he’s cancelling himself. This creates a taboo where, once a cis person is told their trans representation has some issues, they start ignoring trans people rather than trying to be better.
Cool, that’s Rob’s argument. Thank you for staying with me. Now, I think there are other problems I want to address. Following Lily’s framework, I posit that the gang members are all awful people and that we can see internal responses to their behaviour. Within that line of thinking, though, we see half-baked responses to transphobia:
In Mac is a Serial Killer, Mac’s ashamed of sleeping with Carmen and the gang validates the shame when they find out. There’s no recognition that you shouldn’t be ashamed for sleeping with a trans woman.
Before Mac comes out in like season ten, the show is a little bit on-and-off about whether he’s gay. We see Mac struggling with internalized homophobia in The Gang turns Racist, but he’s flirting with women in other episodes. I don’t have a problem with that, the show is still finding its stride in the early seasons. However, the fact that he flirts with Carmen in the context of a season where he’s sometimes gay makes it seem like flirting with a trans woman might be gay.
There’s just casual transphobia being thrown around, like when Charlie calls Carmen “the dad” in Dee Gives Birth, or when Dennis calls Carmen a dude in Charlie Has Cancer.
Maureen Ponderosa’s whole thing about transitioning to a cat is basically the attack-helicopter joke. And then Dennis kills her. Dennis basically murders a trans woman, and the issue is never discussed. Yes, the show undoubtedly frames murder as bad, but trans people getting killed just for being trans is a serious real-world issue that deserves more discussion than a jumping off point for a true-crime parody. Fuck. This isn’t even in the early seasons when they were figuring things out.
There’s also a more material problem with the production of the show. There’s an ongoing problem about material conditions of actors and I’d like to write a post exploring this issue using The Gang turns Black as an example. But for now, I want to highlight that Carmen is played by a cis woman, Brittany Daniel. While it’s not always bad to cast a cis woman as a trans woman, it takes away a salary from a trans woman. If you’re gonna make jokes at trans people’s expense, you might as well pay them a salary. It also means that, in a show that makes so many trans jokes, there were no trans people at the table read or rehearsal room improving new lines or making edits to the script.
Overall, I think Always Sunny’s pretty good at showing characters who are problematic but want to try their best (we see this when the gang policing their own language to be good people in The Gang turns Racist and The Gang Goes Jihad). Because of past mistakes, I’d like to see them lean into positive trans representation and hire trans cast and crew members. We see drops of trans representation in the later seasons, but Mac’s comments in 2020: A Year in Review and the plot A Woman’s Right to Chop, the actors still have a lot to learn.
Despite all this, the show has a thriving Queer audience craving more seasons. This is the perfect context for more Sunny, more trans creative workers, and more trans story lines.
Please let me know if you have any opinions on my post. I’m not trans myself, just a simple bird lawyer.
