It was never a matter of laughing at how disgusting trans people are like we hear from someone like Ricky Gervais.īut that’s not what I’m strictly going to be talking about here, what I want to talk about are the actual gender politics featured in Discworld and specifically the book Monstrous Regiment. When he made jokes about gender, species/race, or any other topic like this, the humor was that these people were not conforming to arbitrary standards put forth by traditionalists and subverting expectations in this regard. Pratchett did this constantly throughout his books but the key point in his humor about such matters was that he didn’t punch down.

He would even make jokes centered around these things which is something I find especially funny now because we hear constantly from boomers on Twitter about how you’re not allowed to joke about gender or whatever else. Throughout the series, there are analogies and characters who represent progressive struggles who face hardship on the basis of gender, species, etc. They’re not just fantasy comedy novels, they often contain some really great philosophical and political insights. I’ve read a few of his books in the last year since I got into them and I can say that they’re all brilliant. The man was just in general an absolute legend and someone who sympathized with victims of injustice throughout his entire life and these narratives featured heavily in his books. He even wrote the classic “ Good Omens” with Neil Gaiman which has itself gone on to become hugely popular and is now adapted into a series. He’s one of the most well-loved and widely read novelists in the world with his books having sold almost 100 million copies worldwide.

If you’re someone who grew up in the UK especially, you’ll no doubt know who Terry Pratchett was.

Pratchett monstrous regiment