Apparently the cult for NPR's lisping, pan sexual is so enamored that they accept anything.
That would explain the use of "retarded" as a punch line and it would explain the same 'comedy' routine featuring an Anglo White man doing a stereotypical and offensive Latino imitation. And it's so great and so okay, apparently, that Ira Glass Vanity Plates Studio has backed a film of the routine.
It just flew by the Cult of Ira. It stood out like a sore thumb to our ears.
But what really stood out was the story on transgendered children. Specifically, Ira's reaction to them.
Ira expressed, after the segment on two families with a transgendered child, that he didn't know what to think about a family that would allow their child to dress as another gender.
Our shock was on many levels.
Firstly, and most obviously, we wondered, "Does Ira not get how effecte and flaming he comes off on the radio? It really sounds like Ira sees himself as something other than the wisp of a boy he comes across as."
Is he trying to tell us that Mr. and Mrs. Glass butched him up as a child?
If so, great.
Let Ira Glass be Exhibit One in the evidence that 'butching up' does not turn a boy into a man.
Our second shock was over the fact that Ira Glass thought, in 2012, on NPR, he could get away with the pose of "I just don't know what to think of these people."
Please note, if you haven't heard the story, this is after a heart ripping segment aired, after two young girls talked about how badly they wanted to be normal, after one of the mother's explained her child told her she was angry at God because she was born in a boy's body and begged her to admit that she knew her child was a girl.
All of that got left by the wayside so Ira Glass could pose as 'manly.'
Our third shock was that out of the five people who'd been telling us about this special edition of American Life, not one had expressed disgust -- or even dismay -- over Ira's little commentary which clearly demonstrate transphobia.
As a father in the segment stated, if your child is gay, these days, even people who may not 'approve' can figure out what that means and what box to put it in; however, with a transchild, there's an attitude of you're indulging your spoiled child.
Let's further add that the report originally aired three years ago. Ira Glass has had more than enough time to find his 'comfort level' with the story.