The Trans Tragedy of Lady Ballers 

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the main characters never learning anything makes them accurate representations of conservatives

10:38 "man makes movie to show his fear because he cant find real world examples" sounds like an onion article

So according to this "film" being homeschooles by right wing, conservative, transphobic, homophobic, and religious parents would prevent someone from being trans. None of that stopped me from being trans. It just made it really painful and difficult to come to terms with it after decades of struggle.

If you ever feel fed up with the state of things, just remember that 15 years ago this movie pitch would have had a real chance of being picked up by a major studio and shown in theaters, but now it's confined exclusively to a shitty grifter platform that no normal person knows exists. Progress!

They don’t show any training scenes because the film is based on the faulty premise that even the most unprepared, coach potato man can beat a professional female athlete.

God, the part where you talked about "eggs who grew up in a conservative area with conservative friends" Yeah, I did. My dad basically belittled and mocked me until I started parroting his right wing views. And all of my friends were conservative. When I came out as trans, 3 of them literally said "It's not really a woman unless they're born with a (p word)" ...needless to say, I ditched all my old friends, and my politics went from far right to far left within a few months of coming out. It was really hard growing up with a conservative dad. If it weren't for him, if I just grew up with my mom alone, I would've transitioned at 20. I basically already had at that point. But instead, I ended up cutting my hair at 23, and tried fitting in with men for a decade. ...it didn't work. I literally wasted ten years of my life because of that bigot.

I will never understand how they managed to make a parody about themselves and not even realise it

It’s sad for Steven crowder that he left the daily wire before they made this, I bet he would have loved to do drag again

All I know about this movie besides it being extremely transphobic was that it was gonna be a documentary but they couldnt find any examples of anything similar happening in real life or something so they just made stuff up instead

I now believe Alex needs a solo movie where she breaks away from all that

This film normalizes lack of empathy. Thanks for viewing it through an empathetic lens to expose their dangerous thinking

Last night I came up with a terrible joke I just can't help but want to keep. Consider, if you will, a noir detective story where the grizzled, jaded protagonist takes on a very difficult case... That makes them realize they're actually trans. "Hard Boiled: Sometimes, even the toughest eggs... crack."

It’s such a small point to get hung up on but their little list of “what it takes to be a woman” is buckwild considering every woman I know would be absolutely mortified by the thought of crying at work

I love the idea that Ladyballers isn't even a good movie for conservatives because how toothless and confused it is.

The fact you put yourself through this film deserves a medal, a cool hat, and a nice teacake

I don't get this idea that women are bad drivers like....they pay less for insurance in most places LMAO. Statistically saying they're worse drivers is just wrong.

17:17 funny thing is our flag means death, an amazing queer show, has a joke very similar to this one in ladyballers but it works because of the context there. the set up is the group of pirates is trying to sell a hostage and someone mistakes that as them selling sex. the misunderstanding is quickly rectified and the humor is on the captain not realizing he looked like he was selling sex rather than the fact sexworkers exist or that gay people do. a joke like that works when the audience is laughing at the absurd actions/reactions of the main characters, not that random extra said a gay thing

0:08 I unironically want those. "Feelings don't care about your facts"? "Pride month is every month"? "The earth is literally going to burst into flames any day"? They are incredible!

There is this whole fucking speech levied at Alex to show that they're wrong and should be ridiculed. Instead, Alex just looks like a tragic character. Nice move, Mr. Boring.

I like that they clearly meant for this character to be a punchline and a vehicle for Jeremy to finally do the speech he's clearly practiced for years and assault someone, but then is the most sympathetic and interesting character in the movie.

Also also, It’s horrifying how OK conservatives like this are with assault. The coach likely just ruined Alex’s chance for biological children, if she wanted them. The coach would be in jail on real life if they did this. It’s so weird to me that they see and embrace men as these violent creatures, and women as so different from them. Ugh this whole thing just makes me so mad.

my headcanon on the horrible editing is that the pauses are there for DailyWire viewers to explain to the normies what the joke is, because they think the jokes are SO FRESH AND NEW that they'll fly over the heads of anyone who doesn't already subscribe to DailyWire.

So, I am likely intersex, I masculinized so little at puberty. In high school, I grew my hair long (despite the sexist dress codes). I literally looked like a cis girl. This was in the early 2000's, so of course bullies called me Juwanna Mann. 🙄 ...and these idiots literally remade that stupid forgotten movie.

I'm just really glad I'm not the only one still talking about that "discussion panel" with Blaire White where fascists kept openly insulting her and she responded by way of "this is such bad optics"

The type of self discovery story Alex went through was far more common in the past, when being trans was not as accepted as today (I am not saying things are great today, but they were much worse just 20 years ago). People would often find ways to express their gender identity like crossdressing, drag shows, or working at bars like the one in the movie without acknowledging the fact that they were trans. "Oh, I am not a woman, that is ridiculous. I just like dressing in women's clothes, being called a female name, and constantly fantasize about how being a woman would be so much better, but of course I am not actually a women". It is beyond ironic that the makers of Lady Ballers actually portrayed the development of this character so well in an attempt to completely mock it. I guess they wanted to do a typical trans story and use it to show to people who might feel similarly that their feelings are just a mental issue?

I love that the "is this satire, I thought I was actually watching the news" site tried to make an actual news story but failed so they had to make it satire. Now I can't believe in anything anymore.

“Boys are better at rock n’ roll!” Sister Rosetta Tharpe says hi.

Hey Lily, in future could you do a breakdown of the trans episode of CSI? It’s called “Ch-ch-changes” and it’s from 2003 I believe so it’s a little outdated in terms of language, but it portrays trans people quite sympathetically, which is kinda surprising given that it’s over 20 years old

i wholeheartedly believe that there’s a secret queer person on the writers team at the daily wire that’s infiltrating them from the inside.

Maybe I'm part of a stereotype, but I would watch "neurodivergent lesbian" Snow White. The original Disney Snow White character has very little personality, and a Malecifent style spin where the prince's kiss fails, but her queer-coded best friend's kiss works could be fun. I mean, it would be lousy if that's all they changed, but make it a present-day retelling of the story... I don't know... there's room for something there.

Wtf is "physical courage"...? Can they not admit that courage is an emotion? 😅

despite this being about ladyballers, I felt so proud of alex when she came out officially, and despite knowing it would immediately go downhill from that point, I couldn't help but smile

My favorite tidbit is that it originally started out as a documentary idea. But when they found out that just saying that you identify as a woman is not enough and you actually have to transition to get into a sports league, and since none of the cast were willing to go through all that, they had to retool it as a "comedy." They made a movie about a strawman of their own making, which is like the epitome of conservative comedy. They say ignorance is bliss but this lack of self-awareness is its own kind of transcendence. Like it's not Nirvana obv but it's still _reeeeeeally_ far out there. Wow.

Have you done a dig into THE HOT CHICKS? For a 2003 goofball comedy with Rob SChneider, it's incredibly inclusive, queer-accepting and LITERALLY has a kid cross-dressing, wanting to look pretty, and his family accepts him and helps him do his makeup - as well as a subplot suggesting one of the other girls may be IN LOVE with her (girl) friend, and it shows a male lead who is actually IN LOVE with his girlfriend, is NOT just sex-crazed, and spins the sexist douchebag "friend" bro as unlikable and "a bad guy". It's a favorite of mine, and surprisingly holds up while others of that era DO NOT.

These videos are super for when I want to explain transphobia to my anti-woke grandfather- he doesn't take it well but they are super great explanations!

Little detail that never stops fascinating me - why those people always pretend that being hit to the groin only hurts when you have a penis?

You know, in any normal film, a scene where all but one of the characters is needlessly cruel to someone smaller than them would foreshadow that character being the one who's MORE psychologically stable.

Side note, please support Dead Domain. Their review was the biggest thing on their channel and The Daily Wire content ID'd JUST their video specifically to fuck THEM over because it was getting too big.

Jeremy Boring has such a fitting name given the quality of the movies he makes

It shows just how out of touch the Daily Wire crowd are when they keep repeating that no one cares about women's sports at the same time the women's NCAA basketball final draws several million more viewers than the men's final.

Omg, it's time. Original take on Lady Ballers? 😃 Go Lily! For anyone who doesn't know Jeremy and Ben wanted to make a documentary but couldn't find ANY trans people in womens sports, something they claim is happening. This movie was an excuse for these people to crossdress (which they OFTEN do in their sketches!) And Jeremy to write himself a love interest half his age licking his face, ugghh

Before I transitioned, i detransitioned in my late teens. Then I spent 15 years struggling with SI and alcoholism among other issues. Transitioning gave me a chance to live.

Thank you so much for taking this on, Lily! I grew up in a fundamentalist Christian church, in the 80s-90s, pre-internet. I knew that there was something going on with my gender, but I didn't have the context to describe or express it. I did, however, check out the only book in my public school library about lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals (and the people who know Them) for an essay (I chose the topic myself lol), and, after I read it, I came out of denial and admitted to myself that I am bisexual. My experience coming out as bi to one of my closest lifelong church friends was extremely similar to Alex's scene with the coach, only without physical violence. Same too when I came out to my father before I left for college. A lecture entitled: "no, you're not!" and an appointment with a therapist (she was affirming, and I had seen her the year before for... related issues I wasn't ready to talk about, thank goodness) I wonder if anyone involved with writing this mess of a movie was ever on my side of the conversation, on Alex's side of the conversation. I have a feeling, though, that someone involved wad on my friend's side, my dad's side, the coach's side, fantasizing about enforcing "reality" on ppl like me and like Alex 🖤

It's still baffling to me. They really did go "What if Benchwarmers, but instead of grown men beating children it's guys beating girls." And then they unironically ran with it without any self-awareness at all about how pathetic their own main characters look in the framing of the film.

i watched big joel's vid on conserative comedy and yeah....this is good supplemental viewing for sure. I could not believe what they did to alex 😭she deserves a better movie

"Comedy horror" is exactly how i'd describe this movie from the clips i've seen circling the internet. Because it is truly horrifying to see into the minds of american conservatives, though calling it a comedy is debatable.

Since this movie is already fanfic, my headcannon is that Alex decides her therapist and friends arent supportive of her, so she drops them and finds a lgbt+ firendly therapist who helps her understand that she's trans, and starts her transition a few months after the movie ends.

I'm glad other people noticed this failed subplot. Dead Domain's review of the movie mentioned the Alex character, and it had me wondering if someone out there was going to dig into it. Hell, I'm sure someone could write a knockoff script (or Ao3 fanfic?) redoing it for the better.

Recommended things to cover: The episode "Jupiter Jazz" from Cowboy Bebop The character Vivian from the video game Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (yes, there is sort of a canonically trans Mario character who is not Birdo. I say sort-of because it depends on the localization) The Owl House (if you want an episode that focuses on the enby character, "Them's the Breaks, Kid" and "Eda's Requiem" focus the most on them). "Let Them Play" from the Quantum Leap reboot "The Serene Squall" from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (rare example of an openly trans actor playing a character who is never explicitly depicted as trans) The video game Mother 3

Since you asked at the end, I think it'd be awesome if you checked out the trans rep in the Dragon Prince! Terry/Terrestrius is canonically a trans man, and Kazi is non binary (though that is never mentioned). There's a lot of other queer and disability representation in TDP but those two are the only trans rep we have so far

Do they not realize that getting punched in the groin will hurt pretty badly no matter what you have down there?

Candace Owens got to be too antisemitic for Ben Shapiro. That's funny.

I'm actually surprised how honest and insightful this film is ( I mean "Ladyballers"). Note it depicts conservatives exploiting trans people for their own benefit. Conservatives in fact made a comedy about themselves.

I had never heard of this until it came up in Lily's community posts

Its ironic how their main character is essentially bullied back into the closet with physical abuse. This undermines their entire conservative argument.

lily i adore your videos. this one was really cool to me because when i was in high school, we had a moment talking about chaucer's canterbury tales, specifically the wife of baths. the teacher let us know that it is considered feminist literature, and asked us why we might find that strange. we came to the conclusion that chaucer himself was not a feminist, and was actually making fun of women who believe they deserve the same rights and respect that men have. when she asked why it was still considered feminist literature, i said i think it's because it inspired women who read it to want that for themselves, even if they knew he was making fun of them. the teacher said that none of her students had expressed that before and was allegedly impressed (so it stuck with me.) i really hope you see how i think this relates to your interpretation of this film!

I was almost in this film as an extra. They started raising the extra rate by a lot, so I figured something was up. I looked into the production and realized it was by the daily wire so I dipped.

I would love to hear you talk about Tokyo Godfathers. Lily, you're a treasure!

A drag restaurant sounds like a fun idea, but in this movie it looked rather lackluster.

I’d highly suggest Zombieland Saga, as it has a major character arc dealing with a trans main character alternatively, Warhammer’s numerous books. They do a good job of having trans people without having trans episodes or trans storylines And while I’m at it, the trans icon that is Bridget from Guilty Gear

It really seems like the people who made this movie don't even really know what they were trying to say with this movie

My personal fave example of "screw you, imma read it trans anyways" , a running joke in Eurotrip, where Cooper constantly misgenders Jenny (a cis girl) just to be a little shit head, his only character trait. He does a fine example of the absurdity of what that one friend looks like, you know the one, the guy who knew ya from before but REFUSES to update his perspective regardless of how long or how far you've come in transition but treats you with basic respect outside of the sideways cracks and treats the comments like simply harmless jokes claiming he figures the punchline of which is that he's still doing it after all that time 🙄 Only sharing as offering of omnomnoms for the algorithm.

I wish trans men hadn't been quite so stealth during the late 90s and early 2000s, I had no idea it was even possible for someone to transition FROM being a woman, and would have come out a lot sooner

I'm happy you went into this reading of the character, and that you made the point that to accept the protagonist's own lens is not a reliable gauge of Alex's gender identity. Of course she's ultimately just a character written by people who don't accept or respect self-ID, so in that regard it makes sense to interpret Alex as a caricature more representative of the people who wrote her than of the people she supposedly represents, but that's somewhat unavoidable in art. Accepting her ID is tantamount to accepting that any of them are the things they claim to be- not an enormous concession, especially in contrast to the "hippy", or like... all of the female characters having the personalities they have. If Alex isn't a woman bc of the shitty cishet male writers who conceived these characters, the others aren't either. It seems that the catch-22 the writers are trying to push about gender identity/feminism by writing Alex the way they did. I think their idea is such: if you're inclined toward feminist ideals, you shouldn't accept her gender ID because it is born of degrading notions about womanhood(per Alex in the scene when she's filing her nails, talking about how easy it is to be a woman). If you accept her ID to be inclusive, you're accepting that to be a woman is to be predispositioned to fragility, such that your only role is to nurture children(per the MC's daughter) and your fellow women, who are weak like you. I think they want to force anyone contesting this portrayal, which isn't as bad of a strawman as one might otherwise expect, to choose between feminism and trans-acceptance. But these writers are neither trans-inclusive nor feminists of any stripe- they really do believe most of the trash they say about women. As the MC states (shortly before punching her in the crotch), her female ID is the result of having failed to be a man. It isn't befitting of her XY superiority, it seems, to ID with womanhood- these writers really think that way of cis or trans womanhood alike, and so don't bother the with TERF approach of "just accept yourself as a feminine man." So if it's between accepting self-ID or accepting feminism... this movie doesn't tempt a real trans-inclusive feminist to accept their concept of feminism in the slightest. Therefore, why are we supposed to be bothered about the "quality" of womanhood Alex embodies, if she's basically just parroting the misogyny all around her? It wouldn't change the fact that gender, in the world of the movie, is an achievement- that is, a set of socially-constructed roles. If any of these writers were to look up the definition of "internalized misogyny" their brains would short out.

9:58 the jokes about jeremy boreing's last name are always funny to me since my last name is boring

Have you considered covering the trans representation in Yoshihiro Togashi’s work? He has had three trans characters (as well as a couple gender ambiguous ones/crossdressing themes). The first was a one off single episode character in Yuyu Hakusho whose portrayal is…bad (she’s groped, the fact that she’s a trans woman is used as an excuse for why beating her up is okay but doing the same to a “real woman” would be bad, and when she insists her heart is a woman’s she’s essentially told she would have to medically transition to be accepted). The second is a one off trans character in his more anthology-like Level E, who’s…better handled but still has some transmedicalist undertones (intersex trans man who gets force-masced by aliens and is happier afterward). The third is Alluka in Hunter x Hunter, who’s the only non-one off character (a central character of her arc though it’s a fairly short one) and the best handled so far (implicitly rather than explicitly trans unlike the others but misgendered and dehumanized by her family but accepted and gendered properly by her brother who’s explicitly shown to be the only family member who understands her and the one we’re supposed to agree/identify with)

posted ten seconds ago?? i keep accidentally getting here so early, so glad to see you made this one lmaaao

a show i think you should check out that does good non binary rep (imo as a cis straight man although i have seen very positive things about them from people who identify as lgbt) is a show called The Owl House, the character is called Raine Whispers who's introduced in season 2 of the show and plays a prominent role from there, its kind of like the Rubble and Crew show where they dont really explicitly say it in the show but outside of it they're confirmed to be non binary and in the show they consistently use they/them pronouns and all the characters use those pronouns, though there are already a fair few videos about them so i'd understand if you think it might be a bit overdone

32:16 "There are people out there who will not nut-tap you and send you to Jordan Peterson." What a banger line, it genuinely made me laugh. But honestly, if someone had told me that I would've come out way sooner.

I swear to god lily, i rhink that i could watch you read out an excel speadsheet and watch till the end of it without skipping anything

Alex has the same story line as Finster 😂

I absolutely love how this digs into a very real trans story that I had glanced over while watching other people’s reviews of this movie. Thank you so much for bringing me this awareness!

Commenting on your video, spreading kibble for the algorithm

Thank you so much for covering this… “movie????” 😂 You considering going on Nebula?

Thanks for making this! I really enjoyed it. Especially after seeing ads for this movie in your channel last year!

I watched Big Joel's video about Lady Ballers a few days ago and I haven't stopped thinking about the tragedy of Alex since... I'm really really glad you made this video!!!

Love where you took this video. Thank you Lily:)

This might be one of your most important vids yet. Keep up the good work

If this was on any way shaped in reality, i would hope someone like Alex could find a way to cut ties with the toxic people around her, find a better and more supportive community and love life as she want and not one where she is contantly broken down by others

I'm so glad I've never heard of this movie before. Also that I'm nice and early for once. [EDIT: This honestly seems like the anti-Ted Lasso. That Is A Very Bad Thing To Be Indeed.]

I’ve loved videos from the back catalogue based on shows I remember so thanks for that! You’re awesome 👏🏽

Mister Boring should be legally obligated to use (last name, first name) when writing his info Just like mister Dick Wolf.

Holy shit, I just saw a reddit post about Caitlyn Jenner the second you said her name lol

We definitely need to claim Alex as a trans icon just to spite The Daily Wire. The fact that they managed to write a compelling and emotional journey of self-discovery that is actually very relatable for many trans women, all completely unintentionally, is absolutely hilarious.

It's always fun to see the references to other videos I watch. The Some More News video was very good. I appreciate you drudging through this pile to bring us your analysis, Lily. It seems like a slog, and it can't have been easy to keep the energy up to make this.

The real tragedy to me is that the Daily Wire came closer to giving us a trans story than "woke" Hollywood usually does.

is an egg the same as a closeted trans person? The way I always thought of it, an egg is someone who hasn't realized they're trans yet, which is different from being in the closet. To me, being in the closet means you KNOW you're LGBT, but you just haven't come out to other people. That's distinct from my definition of egg, so do you mind clarifying for me?

She did it… she finally did it

You should cover she Zow! It’s this 2012 cartoon, about a guy who inherits this ring from his aunt which turns him into a girl superhero

This is the first video, I found of yours. I'm glad it popped up, in my algorithm.

Top 10 best videos I've ever clicked on that I was only semi interested in, to only be nodding my head going (ok, what a good premise with great points) Blessings on your work.

I'm glad you made a video about this! i feel like this was a much needed exploration

I appreciate your in depth thoughts/analysis so much, Lily - another banger here though gotta agree a tragic one. I wanna feel proud of Alex for standing up to the coach; you know what, I AM proud - challenging what amounts to a father figure for her can't have been easy but even with how little it was touched on through the movie it implies that Alex gave it a LOT of thought/introspection before finally asserting her identity and I'm proud she stuck to it despite the disgusting response and violence from coach.

I did'nt really expect you to make a video on it tbh,

They couldn't make the documentary bc real life shot down the premise by refusing to accept undercover men pretending to be women and they didn't think "hmmm maybe this isn't a thing after all."

DAMN I DIDNT REALIZE HOW CLOSE YOU WERE TO 100K!!! CONGRATS 💞💞💞

Unrelated to the video, congratulations on almost 100k subscribers!!!

The best part of anything even somewhat tangentially related to this, IMO, was Jeremy Boreing going on Twitter to accurately and succinctly define dog whistles, and even give relevant examples of how they could be used. Plausible deniability? Dashed. No excuses, now. ☺️

only in the BSCU is a character like the Coach a Good Guy. everywhere else he's a villain from a Mel Brooks film