How I Learned to Hate Transgender People

[Shana A]

How I Learned to Hate Transgender People

    Cord Jefferson
    June 30, 2011 • 7:00 am PDT

http://www.good.is/post/how-i-learned-to-hate-transgender-people/

The first time I openly laughed at a transgender person I was 12 years old. It was February, but I grew up in Tucson, Arizona, so the movie theater in which I was seeing Ace Ventura: Pet Detective had the AC on. The laughter helped me shake off the chill.

We, the audience, had just learned that Sean Young's character, Lt. Lois Einhorn, was transgender. Prior to identifying herself as Lois Einhorn, she'd been the pro football player Ray Finkle, who everyone thought was an at-large criminal. "Einhorn is Finkle!" screamed Jim Carrey, cracking the case before our very eyes. "Finkle is Einhorn! Einhorn is a man!" Then, more to himself: "Einhorn is a man?" Then he went to vomit.

[Padma]

The only thing I wanted to add to this is that the Jim Carrey "joke" is relying on homophobia too - the "awfulness" of a man kissing another man - which also deserves a mention in the Hall of Shame.

[Amazon D]

Wow, good article.

DITTO

[Julie Marie]

The repulsion exhibited by "straight" men by even the slightest thought of intimacy with another man always leads me to "methinks thou dost protest too much."

[Padma]

I'm ashamed to say I did that myself as a closeted teenager. But that's mostly out of fear of being ostracised, rather than fear of being thought gay. If there was nothing wrong with being gay, men wouldn't fear being labelled as such.

And films like Jim Carrey's are made to capitalise on that fear, and then they reinforce it.

[tekla]

It's a real shame because I remember Jim Carey before he sank this low.  He was a scholar, statesman, a humanitarian and a poet, when he wasn't busy adopting orphans from war zones he was building universities for the underprivileged by hand.  Oh, no.  Wait.  He was Fire Marshall Bill.

The idea was that no reasonable person would, or could, construe anything in Ace Ventura, Pet Detective as serious, realistic or meaningful.

[spacial]

The repulsion exhibited by "straight" men by even the slightest thought of intimacy with another man always leads me to "methinks thou dost protest too much."

I feel the same way.

[Julie Marie]

The idea was that no reasonable person would, or could, construe anything in Ace Ventura, Pet Detective as serious, realistic or meaningful.

You did say "reasonable."  That eliminates a lot of people when it comes to things transgender.

[LordKAT]

You did say "reasonable."  That eliminates a lot of people when it comes to things transgender.

This is the fact that causes me the most grief.

[VeryGnawty]

You did say "reasonable."  That eliminates a lot of people when it comes to things transgender

Fixed.

[Lisbeth]

If there was nothing wrong with being gay, men wouldn't fear being labelled as such.

Well, there's the problem. There isn't anything wrong with being gay; people are shamed into thinking there is.

[Hikari]

This was a well thought out article, honestly I wish more people looked at things an seen just how humor can reinforce negative things in society. It is a powerful thing, but one that needs to be used responsibly.

[arbon]

Throughout most of my life trans people were always portrayed in a bad way by the media, and the message from family and society went right along with that negative image, reinforced it. It was not alright. Being trans (or gay, in my mind at least) was not something you wanted to grow up to be.  Not only did others learn to hate us but I learned pretty young to seriously  hate myself to.

Thank god things are getting better.

[Joelene9]

  I remembered the mess called "Myra Breckenridge" by Gore Vidal.  This piece decries the mechanism of Hollywood more than Raquel Welch's transsexual movie character. 
  Joelene

[justmeinoz]

Local comedian addressed the question of his supposed  gayness a little whils ago.  He took cookery in High School, instead of playing Rugby.
"I'm gay?  Because I'm in here icing cakes with 30 chicks and you're taking showers together?"
Karen.

[Julie Marie]

Well, there's the problem. There isn't anything wrong with being gay; people are shamed into thinking there is.

More like brainwashed...  We humans are big on that.

[VeryGnawty]

More like brainwashed...  We humans are big on that.

Freethinkers don't make good consumers.  They also don't make good subjects for governments.