Gender Norms and Satire in South Park Season 19

Introduction: Satirizing Transgender Culture in Season 19

In the first episode of South Park's nineteenth season, the figure of Caitlyn Jenner was satirized in a move that reinforced traditional gender norms. At the same time, however, the character of Caitlyn was embraced by Mr. Garrison — the show's fourth-grade elementary teacher, who (like Caitlyn in real life) had undergone a sex change several seasons prior, transitioning from man to woman and then back again. While Mr. Garrison is often portrayed as a crotchety, no-nonsense anti-gay mouthpiece, his own homosexual tendencies are simultaneously used for laughs.

In this first episode of Season 19, entitled "Stunning and Brave," a new principal arrives in South Park to take over South Park Elementary. His name is PC Principal, and he is a young, politically correct warrior fresh from college. He is aggressive and well-trained in the art of PC admonishing: not only does he verbally berate anyone who challenges PC principles, he also physically beats them up. When fourth-grader Kyle refuses to espouse the PC dogma that Caitlyn Jenner is a "stunning and brave" woman, he earns the full wrath of PC Principal. Thus the show satirizes PC culture and transgender culture in particular.

Mr. Garrison, Caitlyn Jenner, and the Subversion of Gender Norms

At the same time, Mr. Garrison befriends Caitlyn Jenner, and as he decides to run for President of the United States, he chooses Caitlyn as his running mate — a development introduced in episode two, entitled "Where My Country Gone?" The show therefore both reinforces traditional gender norms and subverts them by displaying a kind of tolerance and acceptance of Caitlyn Jenner and Mr. Garrison even as it alternately mocks them. One running gag has Caitlyn Jenner mow down pedestrians every time she gets behind the wheel of a car.

The show clearly enjoys making fun of nearly everyone. While there is some upholding of traditional, patriarchal American values — Mr. Garrison, for instance, decides to run for President because he is sick of (Canadian) immigrants coming to South Park and being unable to speak English properly, part of a long-running joke targeting Canadians — the show simultaneously adopts a shrugging attitude of acceptance toward both transgender culture and the PC culture that has come to dominate modern discourse. By the end of the season, PC Principal transforms from the show's villain into its hero in a climactic showdown against an even greater antagonist: advertisements. PC Principal agrees to stay on for another year to make South Park more PC, while Mr. Garrison and Caitlyn Jenner ride off into the sunset to campaign for President and Vice President of the United States.

Mockery and Acceptance in a Changing America

What is strange about this cultural text is the mix of mockery and affection shown toward every type of character — from the formerly (and perhaps still) gay-bashing Mr. Garrison to the obviously troubled Caitlyn Jenner and her hordes of adoring followers, all of whom are mocked, to the PC-obedient Randy Marsh, who converts to political correctness in order to fit into the new local fraternity and immediately begins spouting PC verbiage. Meanwhile, the boys simply want things to return to "normal," even as they are keenly aware that yesterday's normal is not coming back.

There is, then, a pervasive sense that times and cultures are shifting in America, and that there is no real way to maintain the old order or the traditional gender norms of a prior era. The way people have changed — mentally and physically — means that a new "norm" must be accepted. And the show, oddly, seems to accept it even as it pokes fun at it. As sociologists and cultural critics have noted, gender norms are not static; they evolve alongside broader social transformations, and South Park dramatizes precisely that uncomfortable evolution.