- Joined
- Jan 15, 2014
Oh look, it's the Rat King's favourite superhero, Straw Man! In his most recent issue, he developed the power of invisibility because Labelle is too fucking lazy to draw a figure twice. Alright, well, let's look at this.
PANEL 1: The argument against trans athletes is specifically against trans women rather than all trans people. Trans women, being biologically male, naturally have a larger build, stronger musculature and denser bones than natal women, advantages which are not altered by HRT. Thus, they have an unfair advantage over natal women and in the case of some sports, such as MMA or boxing, they physically endanger their opponents. I haven't heard anyone arguing against trans men competing against natal men, because they're at a natural disadvantage. The use of the words "would beat everyone" is quite sly, implying that the other athletes are sore losers rather than the victims of a technicality.
PANEL 2: Nobody asked for trans people to be banned from the military because they're "weak and useless." The argument was that the special requirements for trans people (e.g. medical care) are not justifiable in terms of resources.
So basically, this is some pretty bad writing. Satire often involves exaggerating points or selectively wording statements in order to make a joke, but this doesn't even do that. The joke doesn't work at all, relying as it does on a complete misunderstanding or mischaracterisation of the trans military ban. Any good writer would have abandoned that joke and thought up a new one. This gives us a real insight into Labelle's creative process. Just go with the first thing she thinks of, make a bare minimum comic strip, eat poutine and retouch selfies for remaining 23 hours 50 minutes of the day. That's the kind of respect she has for her readers.