Transverse: National Geographic Attempts Trans Issues on Taboo, Fails
By Thomas Page McBee Fri., Oct. 5 2012 at 7:30 AM
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/exhibitionist/2012/10/taboo_trans_national_geographic_gender.phpYou know that sound a fork makes when it scrapes across a plate? That cringe is basically the same reaction I have when the dramatic, high-pitched suspense music queues up on some self-serious, slick television show and a vaguely alarmed anchor says over a quick-edit, rotating full body shot of two trans folks something like "In their twenties, and trapped in the wrong bodies, Gail and Don take the path toward self-destruction."
To be clear, I think some trans people genuinely feel that "trapped/born in the wrong body" is an accurate description of exactly how they feel. I think many of us struggle with the serious side-effects of not feeling physically aligned with our internal sense of gender. I know I've had dark days and I don't doubt that if I hadn't transitioned when I did, that darkness would have grown worse.
But I also am suspicious of the reductionist quality of the narrative, how the rich experience of gender is sacrificed for the clean and palatable template: My body trapped me, but I liberated myself. Non-trans folks can kinda wrap their mind around that, right? I was born broken, but medicine fixed me!
Not me, I want to shout at the television (instead I talk about it). I was born in the right body and I'm a medically transitioned transgender man! Hold that complexity with your serious anchor voice and foreboding music! Seriously, though, I don't think there's anything "wrong" with me, and I definitely think you shouldn't either.
