The Joke’s on You

The Artist D

In the words of Freddie Mercury, “Nothing really matters.” Except all of the things that you make matter. Life is a matter of perception and stories. What’s your story? What’s her story? Then there is his story. We learn to laugh at each other through these stories and more importantly laugh at ourselves.

Whenever there is a portion of our culture getting dragged through the mud we find someone talking about offensive jokes. Then there are people talking about the people talking about offensive jokes. Hello!

There have been a lot of transgender jokes and memes cropping up lately making light of how people identify themselves. This, of course, as the bathroom “debates” continue. What is a man? What is a woman? Society doesn’t know. They’re very confused. So, they joke. Of course most of the jokes aren’t really jokes. They are people verbalizing the most idiotic things that come to mind. If he feels like a woman then can’t I feel like a lizard? It all echoes back several years to wondering about same sex marriage. “What’s next, I’ll be able to marry my dog?”

I’ve been around long enough now to see several such battles and have heard plenty of what they call jokes. At the end of the day people need to make light of serious issues they do not understand. Does it harm the community? Apparently many people would say that it does. I say turnaround is fair play. If they get to make comedy of me then I can make comedy of them until we’re all laughing. Because laughter leads to acceptance even when it was born out of uneasy tension. Unfortunately our fragile-hearted members of each bullied society would not agree.

We are a joking society. A mean and spiteful “joking” society. Of course, these jokes are not really jokes. Jokes are supposed to be about chickens crossing the road. It looks like people are confusing comedy with jokes. Comedy in poor taste is really what is going on here. Discrimination against our fellow humans veiled in a set of chattering wind-up teeth.

Throughout the decades I learned to defend myself against this comedy with comedy and a lighthearted perception. Living my life in the hallways of the gay drag world helps prepare one for some good or bad jabs. I laugh when I see a silly transgender meme about how someone identifies. Because my story does not involve me getting what I would call “butt hurt.” We decide our stories. My story is to not be offended and continue living my life without taking their foolishness seriously. Your story may involve you becoming completely offended as you spend the rest of the week working on your latest poster board picket sign. Whatever the story is, we should be at peace with it.

When someone laughs at you, you should be laughing back.

Tags: bathroom debate, comedy, featured, jester, jokes, theartistd, Transgender

Category: Transgender Opinion