Maury Povich and Jerry Springer

[perrystephens]

Does anyone else remember those shows as being their first exposure to trans people? I've been watching some clips on YouTube recently, and it makes me sick, really. It seemed so normal when i was like 6 trying to figure out which women were really "men" on Maury. It was confusing because they were all clearly women but I remember my mom explaining it as "some of them were born as boys but then decided they wanted to be girls." It's just sad to me that so many shows in the 90's and early 2000's were so openly and insanely transphobic. I really wonder if Maury or Jerry ever took a step back and wondered how much damage their shows may cause in trans youth. Like they could have taken advantage of the opportunity to speak to their guests about what being trans means and how it's okay to be trans but instead they brought them there to fight with exes or lined them up and told people to guess their sex.
so my question is what was your first time seeing a trans person in the media and how did it affect you?

[Cindy]

I do remember a comment by Jerry Springer. His statement was 'I'd never watch the crap on my TV shows, I'm just paid to make it'

[Miss_Bungle1991]

I was watching the shows that came before it: Donahue, Sally Jesse Raphael, Geraldo, etc. It was one of many things that kept me in the closet. (I got busted a million times for wearing my mom's clothes between 10 and 12...but...yeah.)

[Cindy]

I have to admit they did help me. I realised (before forums like this) that there were women like me. And that no matter the insults and nasty jokes I was and am a women.

I think it also helped that I realised I would face nasty comment and how to deal with them: I may get insults - I never get them twice

[Vale]

I had and still have an aversion to these types of shows...but I remember as a child watching Oprah. She was talking with a transwoman who was retelling her transition. I was probably 9 or 10...Left a bit of an impression on me. That was my first exposure to transpeople.

[Miss_Bungle1991]

I realised (before forums like this) that there were women like me.

I had that occur due to stuff that I was reading on trans subjects in encyclopedias. We had a current set of them, so I could pick up bits of info here and there. I also did the same thing with looking through stuff at the public library.

[peky]

two clowns revealing other clowns....

I think they created the stereotype of the "fishnet-go-go-boots, leather skirt, tons of make up-yet i can see your beard, loud mouth trans----" 

[Miss_Bungle1991]

two clowns revealing other clowns....

I think they created the stereotype of the "fishnet-go-go-boots, leather skirt, tons of make up-yet i can see your beard, loud mouth trans----"

I'm a million miles away from that. Although...I can be a loud mouth. But I can be very mellow and soft-spoken as well. It just depends on the surroundings/circumstances.

[Jill F]

These afternoon talk shows are a good part of why I nailed my closet door shut for as long as I did.  My worst experience was when my uber-conservative boss had taped an episode of Phil Donahue where the subject was "These women had sex changes to become lesbians." and I was invited to his house to watch it with him over a few beers.  My boss spent the whole time just ripping them apart for what seemed to him was the worst possible thing one could do, where the whole time I was thinking, "Well, if I was a girl, I'd still like girls, so no big deal. Good for them." and wanted to cringe and hide permanently in my closet.

I also wish I had ripped Jerry Springer a new one when I saw him in person.  The damage he has done to our community may take an extra generation to heal.

[Devlyn]

Jill, I'm going to make up some statistics* right on the spot, I know you'll approve!   

Most (probably 90%) of the people I know get up in the morning and go to work. Been doing it their whole lives, and have heard about these shows, but never seen an episode. Let's distill it further, of the 10% who have, how many realized they were watching a television program with a script and actors. How many that thought it was real formed an opinion on it, and how many of those people formed negative opinions? It becomes clear it's just the usual vocal minority. And marketing.



'No statistics were harmed in the making of this post.

[IAmDariaQuinn]

Jerry is pretty much how I know coming out to my mom, eventually, is not going to be easy.  Of everyone in my family, she'd be the most tolerant to it, and... it's not going to be an easy go.  If I were simply gay, she'd be fine with it.  But transgender and gay?  She'll end up asking me "why not just stay male?"  Just because it might be easier doesn't mean it feels right, you know?

The good news, I guess, is that at least it's not going to be a question of how she'll react. 

[Joelene9]

  Long before Springer and Povich. There was Christine Jorgenson doing a tour in the mid-1960's. She dropped by our local TV channel that had an evening talk show. The host was a very congenial type who had all sorts of big name people come on his show. While she was being interviewed, my mom told us kids that she wasn't a homosexual, which was something you can get arrested for back then. I came out to my mother in 1977 and I went to my first therapy session then. My shrink suggested that I at least hold off due to the negative press that Renee Richards and others were getting plus the new study out of Johns Hopkins that said that those who went into surgery for GID was no happier than those who didn't.  That study has been discounted quite a bit later. I had to put up with the dysphoria along with those talk shows that sprang up since then.
  Jerry Springer: I had to endure with his shows about every aftenoon at work. We were a consumer electronics repair center and our TV tech had to "burn" the sets before he sends them back out to the customer. Jerry was on every afternoon and the last location of the shop for 2 years was in a warehouse with no acoustic ceiling and open benches. Anything audible a tech did was heard on the other side of the shop, including what's on TV. That garbage on these shows was one of ther factors that prevented me to get additional help till this time. Those shows did do a lot of damage to the transgender community.

Joelene