Chapter 4, Muhammad's Ghost: Religion, Censorship and the Politics of Intimidation of Dr. Ted Gournelos' The Tao of South Park: Dissonant Visual Culture and the Future of Politics book performs textual analyses of episodes of South Park that critique the relationship between religion of the state and the liberalism in censorship.
Known for it's explicit content and plots that seemingly poke fun at current controversial issues, South Park has largely dealt with issues of censorship and American Cultural topics. As stated by Gournelos' article, "the show breaks down polarizing or reductive rhetorical binaries by attacking not the individuals that propose such binaries but rather the discourses and institutions that frame and allow them" (144).An episode not mentioned in Gourneos' article but I find to be an example of this breakdown is S18 E3, "The Cissy". The Slate Writer Christin Scarlett Milloy states that his trans friends were worried about being "the joke of the week", but were relieved to find the jokes were "based on disrepectful stereotypes" and it seemed as if "the tables turned" in regards to the way our media portrays trans issues. The episode was centered around acceptance, as seen in the clip "Sharons Speech" posted on Milloy's article.
While there has been speculation regarding how the church should respond to transgender issues (such as sticking to the belief that God put us in our bodies and we should not try to challenge Him), This episode calls into question a genetic or inherent predisposition to gender- for the characters are 10 year old boys. Issues that trans people face are brought to light, most notably by "Cissy" entering a gender-based restroom. Principal Victoria had a solution; bathrooms marked "men", "women" and "others"- "other's" for people who have a problem with those that are trans.
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