Alice Fortt
Dave Chappelle’s latest Netflix-produced comedy special, ‘The Closer‘, expressed the comedians transphobic, TERF-aligning views, triggering a domino effect that launched a company wide protest.
Netflix did all that they could to cover up the internal complaints regarding the special- including firing three opposing employees. However, leaks to the public have revealed a poorly handled HR nightmare.
The Cause
In ‘The Closer’, Dave Chappelle follows his usual style of shock-worthy, dark comedy, winning laughs with his snappy, well-timed comments on popular culture.
After discussing COVID-19, defending DaBaby’s anti-LGBT+ rant from last August, and the #MeToo movement, Chappelle moves onto jabs at the LGBT+ community. The comedian states that ‘gender is a fact’ (incorrectly associating genitalia with gender identity), and calls himself a member of ‘Team TERF’. This is followed by Chappelle defending JK Rowling, who similarly revealed herself to be a TERF a few years ago. His jokes follow a line of pitting the black community and the LGBT+ community against one another, ignoring that queer people of colour are amongst the most likely to experience racial discrimination.
Finally, Chappelle closes the segment with some jokes about trans women’s genitalia, comparing them to plant-based meat options. Overall, not great. To Chappelle, transgender bodies and identities are invalid, disgusting, and only useful when they can act as a punchline.
What is a TERF?
TERF stands for Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist. It’s effectively a movement that refuses to accept trans women as ‘real women’ or acknowledge their place and history in the feminist movement; and generally opposes the rights of transgender people. According to Katelyn Burns, as trans people ‘experienced a dramatic increase in visibility… that visibility has resulted in a growing cultural backlash… some extremist ‘feminists’ have decided that trans rights go too far’.
Most recently JK Rowling, best-selling author of the ‘Harry Potter’ series, made headlines in 2019 when she tweeted that ‘sex is real’ in support of openly trans-exclusionary feminist Maya Forestater, and since has liked numerous transphobic tweets and continually stood against the inclusion of trans women in feminist spaces. Chappelle directly referenced this in ‘The Closer’, defending Rowling’s views and aligning himself with her transphobic ideologies as part of ‘Team TERF’.
A Long History of Controversies
‘The Closer’ is the sixth and final Chappelle special to be released on Netflix. Previous special ‘Sticks & Stones’ (2019) garnered both Grammy and Primetime Emmy award nominations.
This newest show, however, is not the first to showcase Chapelle’s controversial comments and opinions. Jelani Cobb has named Chappelle a master of ‘cancel bait’, or, a comedian that knows how to turn questionable statements into profit. After all, ‘The Closer’ hit the number one spot of the Netflix top ten on the day of it’s release, Chappelle played a sold-out show at The Hollywood Bowl a mere twenty-four hours later. His gimmick is to shock, and to laugh at those that react in disgust or anger, as it has been the premiere of Chappelle’s Show in 2003.
This is not the first time that Chappelle has been accused of transphobia. He previously defended President Trump’s ban on admitting transgender people to the military. Stating in 2016 that he did not want a ‘woman with a d*ck’ using a urinal next to him. Chappelle is no stranger to this kind of controversy, and ‘The Closer’ is far from the first expression of his discriminatory views.
A Poor Handling
Netflix have been accused of handling the situation, to put it bluntly, dreadfully. Rather than pulling the special after both external and internal outcries, they rather fired those that stood against it, and effectively tried to cover up all evidence of employee protest.
Terra Field, a trans software engineer at Netflix, was suspended alongside two other employees who also publicly protested the special. ‘Our existence,’ Field tweeted, ‘is ‘funny’ to [Chappelle].. it doesn’t feel good to have been working at a company that put that out there’.
In a memo leaked to the public via Variety, co-Chief Executive Officer of Netflix Ted Sarandos defended the special and the company’s decision to not remove it from the streaming service. ”We don’t allow titles [on] Netflix that are designed to incite hate or violence, and we don’t believe The Closer crosses that line,’ Sarandos wrote, going on to call Chappelle’s comments an expression of ‘artistic freedom’. Sarandos has later acknowledged that he ‘screwed up’ the internal handling of this; however, this was only after the memos were leaked to the public.
The Aftermath
Immediately following the airing of the special, worldwide LGBT+ charity GLAAD released a statement abhorring Netflix’s handling of the situation and Chappelle’s comments themselves.
‘Dave Chappelle’s brand,’ GLAAD wrote, ‘has become synonymous with ridiculing trans people and other marginalised communities.’. Netflix stars such as Jonathan Van Ness (Queer Eye), Elliot Page (The Umbrella Academy) and Jameela Jamil (The Good Place) have supported the protestors. Page has stated that he stands ‘with the trans, nonbinary and BIPOC employees fighting for more and better trans stories and a more inclusive workplace.’.
These are not the only public figures to stand with those protesting; many media figures have spoke against Netflix. Others, however, still support Chappelle; Brad Pitt, Tiffany Haddish and Sterling K. Brown, amongst others, were spotted at the comedians Hollywood Bowl show the night after The Closer premiered.
On the 21st of October 2021, and for subsequent days afterward, workers at Netflix and others who support the cause have been protesting Chappelle’s comments, Sarandos’ call for silence, and the blatant disregard of transgender employees at the company. Those participating are urging Netflix to pull the special, push for more inclusive and non-discriminatory content on the platform, and support trans and non-binary artists. The full list of demands can be found here.
In his first public remarks on the controversy, Chappelle has bemoaned being ‘cancelled’ for his transphobic comments, and stated that he is ‘not bending to anyone’s demands’, but that he is ‘open’ to talking with the transgender community on these issues.
If there is anything to learn from this, it’s that there needs to be more trans and nonbinary stories in the media, from trans and non-binary artists themselves.
Reducing trans people down to a cheap joke alienates the community from the heteronormative dominated media world even more, and stops the general public from seeing them for who they are; simply people trying to live their lives peacefully and happily. The question we have to ask ourselves is, when will this ridicule end?
Featured image courtesy of Thibault Penin on Unsplash. No changes or alterations were made to this image. Image license can be found here.
Alice Fortt
Film and English graduate living in Wiltshire, and twitter editor here at Empoword! Lover of all things thriller, science-fiction and camp (and my cats of course)!.