Work It wipes out

Stars of Work It

ABC’s controversial crossdressing sitcom, Work It, premiered last Tuesday. Unfortunately Work It will probably air again this Tuesday. I say unfortunately as the show has very little to commend it. The laugh track seemed to find most of the unfunny jokes, and the sight of two men in women’s business attire, very amusing. In the course of the half hour I endured the laugh track had a great time. I laughed three times. If you only laugh three times during a half hour show how long will that show stick around?

The premise of the show is that Lee has been out of work for over a year. He’s in dire straits. His last unemployment check just arrived. He’s had to cancel his daughter’s cell phone. He’s bringing home sugar packets, ketchup and soy sauce from fast food restaurants to shore up their food supply. Things are at the brink of collapse.

His wife urges him to get a physical before his health insurance lapses. He goes to the doctor’s office and we are treated to a lame prostrate exam joke or two. On his way out he learns that his health insurance has lapsed and he owes the doctor $900.

Leaving in despair he overhears the receptionist talking with a young woman who turns out to be a drug company representative. She mentions that her company is hiring. Lee butts into their conversation and tells her he’s a salesman and needs a job. She says the company only hires women. When asked why she says  “We’ve had some guys, but the doctors seem to want to nail them less.” The laugh track found that hilarious. I, like Queen Victoria, was not amused.

There was some stuff earlier about how women are taking all the jobs. Now Lee has evidence that it’s true and one day while trying to figure out which items of his wife’s jewelry he should sell to pay his doctor bill he happens to see his face reflected in a mirror above one of his wife’s dresses. The next scene has him all dressed up and applying for the drug company job. It’s pretty handy that Lee’s name is gender neutral but don’t you have to show some kind of identification that might have your gender on it? He nails the job interview by knowing everything about the company’s products and the next thing you know he’s the new girl in the office.

The women there do comment that Lee is a tall woman (one of the jokes that made me laugh revolved around that) but they all accept “her” as another woman. He towers over the other employees and they would have to be seriously gullible, or blind, to accept him as a female.

There are too many holes in the concept to go into them all. The most offensive are: The premise that women are taking all the jobs. If you live on this planet you know that’s not true. Then we’re expected to believe that with no help from anyone who knows how to impersonate a woman Lee, and then his out of work friend Angel (right, another gender neutral name), can dress up as women, get hired as drug reps, and then go to work for full days, five days a week — while Lee hides the nature of his work attire from his wife and family. And lastly, unfunny jokes. When you hear the joke and rather than eliciting a laugh you have a greater desire to scratch, yawn or turn off the television and go to bed, you know the joke didn’t work.

GLAAD and other GLBT organizations have attacked the show as offensive to transgender people. I would expand that to include anyone with a brain. Do you breath? Then this show should offend you.

Addressing transgender issues specifically — the premise that two men can dress as women and pass so completely that they get jobs as drug reps is an insult to the many transgender women who can’t get work because employers see them as men dressing like women. If the story had been handled better maybe two straight men could dress up and learn about the problems women, trans and otherwise, face when they enter the job market. But the producers and writers didn’t bother to go that route, moving instead to lame jokes, stereotypes, and sight gags about smeared, misapplied makeup. Sure it’s supposed to be a comedy but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t educate the audience about real problems. But Work It is not educational. It damages transgender women by making it look like it is so darned easy to become a woman and get a job. It’s misogynistic and full of gender stereotypes. And Work It is not that funny, either. We can only hope that ABC listens to GLAAD and pulls it soon before it does anymore damage.

Tags: featured, opinion, Work It

Category: Product Review, Transgender Opinion