The concept of ‘misgendering’ may not have been a part of the public consciousness back in the 90s, but the co-creator of Friends has gone ahead and apologised anyway for not using the appropriate pronoun for Chandler’s transgender parent.
Obviously it’s been a while so you may have forgotten even meeting Chandler’s parents; Charles Bing and Nora Tyler Bing. His dad was a Vegas showgirl and his mum wrote really sexy novels, which goes some way to explaining why Chandler was so f*cked in the head I suppose.
Marta Kauffman told BBC News how she regrets the representation of the character, who was played by Kathleen Turner:
“We kept referring to her as Chandler’s father, even though Chandler’s father was trans.
Pronouns were not yet something that I understood. So we didn’t refer to that character as she. That was a mistake.”
The character was the butt of jokes from others, including Chandler himself. I’m not even sure the writers at the time knew whether the character was meant to be a drag queen or a trans woman, as she wasn’t explicitly acknowledged as trans in the programme, being referred to as gay and shown working as a drag artist called Helena Handbasket in Las Vegas.
Just in case you’re not convinced that Kauffman is a trans ally these days, she also told the BBC about a recent incident on the set of another TV show where she “fired a guy on the spot for making a joke about a trans cameraperson”.
Furthermore, she went on to say Friends “did not have enough representation of black people” and that she was “clearly part of systemic racism in our business”.
“I was unaware of that, which makes me feel stupid. That was a very valid, extremely difficult criticism which still… I get emotional about.
If I knew then what I know now, there are certain things I would have changed. But I didn’t know them and I have since learned.
Admitting and accepting guilt is not easy. It’s painful looking at yourself in the mirror. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t know better 25 years ago.”
I don’t know that she needs to feel so bad about it all but if she wants to feel like she’s making amends for her inadvertent contribution to transphobia and racism then I guess she’s going about it the right way by expressing her feelings on those issues now.
Even Kathleen Turner, who played Charles Bing, now says she wouldn’t accept the role if it were offered to her and would instead like to see a trans person have it. Who would have thought this would be a conversation when we were enjoying Friends back in the 90s and early 00s eh? The times are changing, indeed!
For the time David Schwimmer was completely rinsed by Marcel’s money trainer in an interview, click HERE.
