Gender, sexuality should be respected, not mislabeled

“Two and a Half Men” has never been a show I took notice of. But because it reaches so many viewers, I’ve heard plenty about it, especially the controversy of Charlie Sheen being fired.

Last year, Angus T. Jones, who played the child, “half-man” on the show, found religion and declared the show was “filth” and that he no longer wanted to be a part of the messages “Two and a Half Men” sends.

So the producers are in a bit of a bind, you know? The show has to find someone to replace its title character of “half-man,” otherwise the sitcom’s name just doesn’t work.

Amber Tamblyn is going to be replacing Jones, and will reportedly be playing the long-lost lesbian daughter of Charlie Sheen’s character, Charlie Harper, who is a sex-crazed chauvinist. Apparently, his daughter is the same.

Wait. How can you have two and a half men if one of them is a woman?

The creative (ha!) minds behind “Two and a Half Men” have decided the most adequate way to fulfill the titular “half-man” role is to fill it with a lesbian character that is as much of a womanizer as Sheen’s character is.

Because a lesbian isn’t a woman. She’s trying to be a man.

Clearly, Executive Producer Chuck Lorre and everyone else involved on this show don’t have a lot of respect for women and for the LGBTQ community, but instead are alright with portraying them to a large audience as less than human.

Initially, the character is to appear in only five episodes, but if CBS viewers don’t raise hell about an LGBTQ character ruining the sanctity of marriage, she could become the half-man regular.

While I think it would be awesome to feature a lesbian character on a hugely popular sitcom, this is not the way to do it.

The LGBTQ community is often treated as though they are less than human and are denied basic rights every day. Having one of the most popular sitcoms on television label a lesbian as half-man is harmful because it implies she is half-human.

The producers are implying that a woman who is attracted to other women is clearly just trying to be a man, and isn’t fully human.  In doing so, they’re implying that men are the ideal “whole,” and women are only half of what men are.

Who better to replace a child than a lesbian, right?

Chances are, on a show that has featured some pretty sexist characters (and actors), adding a lesbian character would lead to some pretty distasteful jokes at the expense of lesbians, and at the expense of all women. But the biggest insult of all is this character being called a “half-man” right in the title.

Lorre has said he likes the idea of a strong female character on the show. “I think it would be great to have that voice on the show from a different perspective,” he told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour.

Maybe if Lorre wanted to treat the voice of a strong female character with respect, he’d be willing to change the title of the TV series to something that doesn’t poke fun at her sexuality. But the name will stay the same.

I thought it went without saying a woman who is a lesbian is not a half-man; that a lesbian is not half woman. If a person identifies as a woman, they are a woman, no matter which gender they are attracted to.

But apparently people, and perhaps especially TV producers, need to be reminded of this.