I'm not a fan of Glee. And I personally think it's reprehensible what they did with Rocky Horror.
I understand it was network demands. But they had a female character play Frank (thereby completely undermining the entire point of the character), censored the word 'transsexual' (which is a great big slap in the face to any actual transsexuals watching), and overall butchered the attempt.
This is 2010. It's time to wake up.
They should not have done the episode at all if they couldn't do it right. This just sends a message out that discrimination is okay and that heterosexism and heteronormative behaviour is the only acceptable behaviour. This is especially shameful considering how Glee has tried to appeal to a gay audience.
I urge you all to write the network and demand an apology for this. It's not just that they've butchered something that I like, Rocky Horror...but the way that it was done, it was clear that it was nothing more than phobic attitudes against the GLBT community.
Write, contact, and boycott. This will not be allowed to stand.
You can contact Fox at askfox@fox.com.
Let them know that their censorship was unwelcome and bigoted, and that it is unacceptable in this day and age. Forcing the cast of Glee to place a female character in a male role because of clear homophobia is unacceptable, as is the censorship of the word 'transsexual', which sends a message of intolerance and hate to all transsexuals in the audience.
Tell them that you will be boycotting their network and all products and businesses advertised on their network until they issue an apology for their interference. It is not only their destruction of a beloved classic, Rocky Horror, but even more their open assault on the GLBT community, some of whom love Glee for its otherwise positive portrayal of gay characters.
Contact GLBT organisations and let them know you're not happy about this. And contact advertisers whose products appear on Fox and specifically on Glee. Let them know that this is not acceptable, and that when the GLBT community comes together, it is a thing to be reckoned with.
And if you would, sign my petition here and give Fox the message that what they did with Glee won't be tolerated by their GLBT audience. I may not like Glee, but to do that to all those who do is a slap in the face.
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As a transgendered person, I wasn't offended personally. I watched it on Hulu and there was no censor present, so the censor of transsexual may have been a regional thing (since anything censored network-wide is generally left censored on the online versions as well).
ReplyDeleteAs far as the premise of casting a female in a transsexual's role, it was clear that the decision was made because none of the male students were comfortable with the role (or allowed to take part in it). If it were a real high school, I can definitely see something like that happening. Besides, there is a real life precedent for this, where an actor of the transperson character's psychological gender portrays the character, rather than someone of the transperson's physical gender.
Being pansexual and transgendered I find Glee to be one of the most avant-garde mainstream TV shows regarding the LGBT community to begin with, featuring both gay and lesbian adolescent couples as part of the main cast.
Actually, they had wanted to have Kurt be Frank, who is not transsexual but is a transvestite. He's from Transsexual, Transylvania -- which is a planet in a system, if you weren't aware. They nonetheless censored the name of it and removed the word from the episode, if you didn't notice.
ReplyDeleteDue to Fox's insistences, they were forced to alter the episode in several ways, those being the two most prominent ones. Fox refused to let them have a male character be Frank, as they also censored the word 'transsexual', even though fans of the film would know it is the name of a planet in the story. So if you think this wasn't a bigotry-motivated decision or that these decisions weren't homophobic...think again.