US network ABC has pulled its cross-dressing comedy Work It after just two episodes.
The show, which has been blasted by critics and transgender activists, suffered from poor ratings since it was aired on Tuesdays at 8.30 pm. According to Entertainment Weekly, the new show managed to bring in 6.1 million viewers when it premiered on January 3, but ratings dropped to 5.1 million for the second episode. It further noted that the modest debut is despite the show’s biggest comedy competitor, Fox’s Glee, airing a repeat.
Work It followed two straight male characters played by Amaury Nolasco and Benjamin Koldyke who are fired from their jobs as car salesman and decide to pose as women in a last-ditch attempt to find work in a difficult economy, was met with negative reactions.
Organisations such as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), a non-governmental media monitoring organisation in the US, which promotes the image of LGBT people in the media, didn't find the premise funny.
"During a period in which the transgender community now routinely finds itself in the cultural crosshairs, the timing couldn't be worse for a show based on the notion that men dressed as women is inherently funny," the organisation said in a blog post titled Why ABC's new sitcom work it hurts the transgender community on its site before Work It premiered.
"GLAAD has seen the pilot and while the show’s pilot does not explicitly address transgender people, many home viewers unfamiliar with the realities of being transgender will still make the connection. Work It invites the audience to laugh at images of men trying to adopt a feminine appearance, thereby also making it easier to mock people whose gender identity and expression are different than the one they were assigned at birth. Said GLAAD’s Acting President Mike Thompson, 'Transphobia is still all too prevalent in our society and this show will only contribute to it. It will reinforce the mistaken belief that transgender women are simply ‘men pretending to be women,’ and that their efforts to live their lives authentically as women are a form of lying or deception.'"
After viewing the pilot for Work It, GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) launched a campaign against the show in an effort to stop the airing of the new television series they say is offensive to transgender people and mocked transgender struggles in the workplace. The two organisations went on to place a full-page ad in Daily Variety magazine and write a joint opinion piece on the Huffington Post firing back at ABC for airing the comedy in the first place.
"[ABC] should know how offensive this show is, and that it even has the potential to jeopardise the safety of many transgender Americans in the process," the ad said, among other things.
Upon hearing news of the show's cancellation, Herndon Graddick, GLAAD's Senior Director of Programs and Communications, said, "While many of ABC's positive and groundbreaking portrayals of LGBT people have been critical and popular successes, the public had little interest in this outdated show. As a result of this campaign, an important dialogue has been started in Hollywood and mainstream media about the real discrimination faced by transgender people today."
“By encouraging the audience to laugh at the characters’ attempts at womanhood, the show gives license to similar treatment of transgender women…,” the ad read.
The organisations also claimed the show could contribute to the high levels of job discrimination that transgender Americans currently face and will give license for people to mock and ridicule those whose gender expression might not fit with what society considers the norm.
ABC’s head of entertainment, Paul Lee, defended the network’s decision to air the show earlier this month, telling reporters Tuesday that he loved the 1982 cross-dressing movie Tootsie, and I still love ‘Tootsie.'
"I don’t find it to be offensive. So in that particular case I didn’t get it.”
Noting the well-received gay characters on ABC’s Modern Family and Grey’s Anatomy, he added, “We thought there was room for a very, very, very, very silly show.”
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Bring back "Queer as Folk" - that was such a nice program and covered many issues including "mainstreaming" and serious issues while being fun and well acted and written.
As for having another show like Queer as Folk, are you kidding me? On primetime TV? I'm all for gay liberation, but I don't think some of the stuff they showed on QAF would be appropriate for a general audience. I think ABC is doing great with Modern Family and Grey's Anatomy. No matter how they show gay people in the media, even with good intentions, someone (gay or straight) will still be offended. The point of television is to entertain. If you don't like it, don't watch it.
Characters are totally FUGLY and not an ounce of good writing in it. cancelled cos it was just BAD!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080202/
But #6, azn-aries, has uniquely pointed out the value of "Work it".
The minority needs publicity from time to time.
It's unwise to drink poison to quench the thirst when there are healthy drinks around. But when the only drink available is poisonous, it stops the thirst, doesn't it?
Hey, people! Did you totally lost sense of humor?
Jim Carrey and Steve Martin for you then! Uah.-.-.-!
And while you're at it, kindly sort out through dispute resolution or whatever your fight with the former CEO and realise your (and our) common interests in keeping this as one of the best gay websites in the world.
I learned something interesting from Wiki the other day. 377A only came into force in 1938, yes, 1938, not 1860s, and criminalised sexual activity between men other than anal sex, which was covered by 377…377A does not cover sodomy. The Victorian English law on which it's based has never covered sodomy. When 377 was repealed in 2007, it repealed criminalisation of sodomy for everyone. Leaving 377A to cover purely gay sex other than sodomy. So technically, so long as you do nothing except anal sex, it must be legal.
So all the talk of straws up noses in the parliamentary debate - totally irrelevant.
As for comparing it to Tootsie, how dumb can a person be? The character arc in Tootsie was one of a straight man learning what it was actually like to be a woman, the difficulties, the sexual harassment, the dramatic irony involved at a fairly deep level.
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