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Musings on what used to be considered funny or normal
I was thinking about two movies I enjoyed vastly when they came out and now which have darker undertones: Without a Clue and Soapdish, both of which have transgender characters. Unlike other movies of that era that are All About Cross Dressing - Tootsie; Mrs. Doubtfire; To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar; both Without and Soapdish have actual transgender characters -- two people living as women who are both exposed as part of the plot as having been born male.
Without a Clue is playing it as a throwaway joke, but, I'll argue, not a throwaway character. There are hints throughout the movie that there is something up with Peter Giles' daughter - he's described as being uncomfortable with being praised over her beauty, although the first Leslie Giles we are introduced to is undeniably a lovely lady. The punchline is that that's not the real Leslie. The real Leslie is played by Matthew Simms and only revealed as male when Holmes removes a blindfold and takes off the wig as well.
BUT - When next we see Leslie, her wig is back on and she's under Holmes' protection. Watson and Holmes giggle when she flirts with Lestrade, but the closest they get to betraying her is when Watson tells Lestrade, with complete honesty, "Miss Giles is part of a stage review in Paris called 'La Femme Faux'." So while there's a certain amount of laughter solicited by the character being revealed as trans, she's also presented as feminine, successful, still loved by her parent, and treated as her preferred gender by the heroes.
Soapdish on the other hand... Montana Moorehead, played by Cathy Moriarty is the villain. Montana uses her sexual attraction to consistently try to get a bigger role for herself and cocktease one of the producers while undermining all the other actresses. The end of her schemes, affair, career, and perceived attractiveness is when she is exposed, on camera during a live feed as having been born Milton Moorehead. She runs off screaming, the "good guys" and the audience laugh at her comeuppance...
... and that's not even remotely funny anymore.
Looking back, it really shouldn't have been funny then.
Without a Clue is playing it as a throwaway joke, but, I'll argue, not a throwaway character. There are hints throughout the movie that there is something up with Peter Giles' daughter - he's described as being uncomfortable with being praised over her beauty, although the first Leslie Giles we are introduced to is undeniably a lovely lady. The punchline is that that's not the real Leslie. The real Leslie is played by Matthew Simms and only revealed as male when Holmes removes a blindfold and takes off the wig as well.
BUT - When next we see Leslie, her wig is back on and she's under Holmes' protection. Watson and Holmes giggle when she flirts with Lestrade, but the closest they get to betraying her is when Watson tells Lestrade, with complete honesty, "Miss Giles is part of a stage review in Paris called 'La Femme Faux'." So while there's a certain amount of laughter solicited by the character being revealed as trans, she's also presented as feminine, successful, still loved by her parent, and treated as her preferred gender by the heroes.
Soapdish on the other hand... Montana Moorehead, played by Cathy Moriarty is the villain. Montana uses her sexual attraction to consistently try to get a bigger role for herself and cocktease one of the producers while undermining all the other actresses. The end of her schemes, affair, career, and perceived attractiveness is when she is exposed, on camera during a live feed as having been born Milton Moorehead. She runs off screaming, the "good guys" and the audience laugh at her comeuppance...
... and that's not even remotely funny anymore.
Looking back, it really shouldn't have been funny then.
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And y'know... nobody in the movie ever remarks on that and I don't think any of the reviews did either. It's amazing what was just accepted as normal once upon a time.
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(Interestingly, the person who played the trans* character in that went on to play Ra in Stargate and then just... disappeared. I hope that means they made enough money to live comfortably for the rest of their life.)
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In contrast, the moment when Dil is revealed in The Crying Game (which came out a year later) is played for shock value, but there's never really any question of treating her as anything other than her preferred gender, and Fergus falls for her anyway. But this just illustrates why the other movies shouldn't have played the moment for laughs.
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I will, though, slightly defend Without a Clue mostly because Leslie's trans-ness is not the first time we the audience are prompted to laugh at a character's true nature. The whole point of the movie is that "Sherlock Holmes" is actually a risible idiot, with few characters escaping at least one joke at their expense. Leslie, therefore, is not singled out specifically.
ETA: But I can only defend it slightly because Holmes and Watson are laughing like hyenas at the idea of her being able to successfully flirt with someone. Or at the idea of Lestrade having his Crying Game moment. Either way, it suggests that while Leslie is fine in a dress, Leslie out of her dress is problematic for someone.
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I know there's no trans character but, when I was in HS (early 90s), we had to watch one of a selection of a cold war movies as part of our American History II class. The boys were falling all over themselves to get MASH (and Wolverine). I went with an easy pick that no one wanted (Manchurian Candidate, starring Evil!Angela Lansbury), but checked out MASH just because it was running on cable at the same time. I was infuriated. Neither of the teachers who team-taught that class seemed to find anything wildly objectionable (though I wouldn't be in the best place to know since obviously I didn't write a paper on it). They were huge MASH devotees, like a lot of Baby Boomers (I know this because they kept photos on their office walls), but I can't see the movie on cable for more than five seconds without having anger-fueled fantasies of Hoolihan stabbing Hawkeye in his sleep.
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Duke announces that he is partial to blondes, prompting Hawkeye to declare that Duke is attracted to Hot Lips. Duke suggests she isn't a natural blonde; Hawkeye bets $20 that she is, but they have no way to find the truth. They develop an elaborate plan in which Hot Lips is isolated in the showers, and counterweights are used to raise the wall of the shower tent, exposing a nude Hot Lips to the entire camp. The plan works, money is exchanged, and Hot Lips is further ridiculed. Infuriated beyond reason over what happened, Houlihan labels the unit "an insane asylum!" and demands that Blake do something to discipline his surgeons, threatening to resign her commission if he doesn't turn Duke and Hawkeye over to the MP's. Blake, who is in bed with his mistress during this time, refuses to have Hawkeye and Duke arrested and callously dismisses Houlihan's complaint.
Basically, the next time Houlihan shows up, she's a cheerleader on the sidelines of the football game. She's learned not to try to enforce Army rules against the camp bullies, and dutifully shake her pom-poms for the boys on the sidelines.
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Don't recall any episodes with gay or trans characters (not counting obviously straight Klinger), but I think it might have been handled sympathetically.
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The Hot Lips of the TV series had far more agency, even being treated with the casual sexism of the times.