Re-read the Wendy Carlos interview after all these years...

[Hazumu]

I admit, I kind of sneak-read it when it originally came out, thanks to the internalized shame and the fear of getting caught (I could look with mild interest at ***-books, but that interview was different.)

I've always had a copy of Switched-On Bach handy since it came out, and somewhere I've got a disk of the Clockwork Orange soundtrack, which I like for the sadness and apprehension it evokes.

And I watched Wendy in her appearance on the Phil Donahue show...

And somehow I recognized myself, but I was afraid to act--

Well, recently I decided to revisit the playboy interview.  The problem is, the website wants a subscription authorization to view their archives -- no pay-once-only-for-thirty-days-access options.

So I found a copy of the playboy issue through an eBay store.

I just finished reading it.  Many things are still the same as they were in 1979.  The wisdom is still the same.   It was amazing to read her comments and think, 'Yeah, I went through that, too,' or 'that's the way I felt'.  She didn't like the word transsexual for the same reason I don't like it -- it makes str8s focus on 'doing it'.  The only thing that's really changed is things are a little more open, and there's a LOT more information and communication about the issue going on.

I'll risk one fair-use quote from the article:

Being a transsexual makes me a barometer of other people's comfort with themselves.

I think this should be a candidate for the TG Required Reading list.

Karen

[cindianna_jones]

I've always hated that word "transsexual" for the exact same reason.  It has nothing to do with "sexual".  I wish that it could be called polardicongruity or something that does not have "trans" and "sex" in the same word!

I never read the Carlos interview.  It's in a magazine that I've not ever read.  I've had a few peeks mind you, but I never really had access to it, neither did I have a genuine interest in having my own personal copies.

What we ARE is such a non event. I wish the world could just get over it and move on.

Cindi

[Shana A]

I've always hated that word "transsexual" for the exact same reason.  It has nothing to do with "sexual".

I also dislike the word transsexual, and generally prefer to use the word transgender instead.

I never read the article, but Wendy was an inspiration to me both as young transperson and musician.

zythyra

[RebeccaFog]

I hate the word "transsexual" too.   I use it sometimes to differentiate TSs from other TGs, but I don't like it. I usually just use the blanket term Transgender.

[Sandy]

The term transsexual doesn't bother me in the least and in fact I prefer it as a more accurate representation of who I am.

Regardless, though, I had SOB *before* her name was Wendy.  I first heard the album as a senior in high school, just as electronic music was getting popular.  I was hooked!  I had to have the album.  And bought more as they came out.

Then later when I got an album by Wendy Carlos, I was again hooked.  This time for her courage to go forward with her change AND keep her career as a pioneer in music.  She is one of my heroines.  Right up there with Christine Jorgansen.  She is a trailblazer and her personal courage made my transition easier.  That is a debt I can never repay.

I've never seen her interview in Playboy or Donahue.  I wish I had.

-Sandy

[Lisbeth]

Ok, I'm going to go all technical on you, so those of you who don't like that about me have been warned.

Both history and science have influenced the language we use when talking about sex and gender.  Originally there was no understanding of the distinction between the two.  "Sex" had to do with people's anatomy and "gender" was one of the features of linguistics.  So there was this focus on "sex organs."  They came up with the distinction of "primary sexual characteristics" and "secondary sexual characteristics."  Primary being things like penises and vaginas.  Secondary being things like breasts.  So, in this system, a "transsexual" was someone who had changed their primary sexual characteristics, swapped a penis for a vagina or vise versa. 

During the last hundred years people have struggled through defining the concept that "gender" is a social construction that is different from anatomy.  Virginia Prince was the first one to say, in effect, "I am living full-time in a female gender role, but I have not changed my primary sex organs.  Therefore I am a 'transgender.'"

But the medical community has never been able to find reasonable psychological differences among post-ops, pre-ops, and non-ops.  So they gave up and started calling them all "transsexuals."  No longer having a well-defined referent, the term "transgender" became rather nebulous. 

We are now at the point where picking new words makes sense.  How can we make it happen?  Not unless we can develop a certain momentum.  Otherwise we are going to be stuck with what history has given us.

[The Middle Way]

Wendy Carlos is a big hero of mine. I was in music school, about to switch majors to electronic composition, and this revelation was huge.

It is interesting that on her website there is NO mention of anything trans, only a single statement that 'my sexuality is no one else's affair, and this is not the place to consider that past'

I am circa 50/50 on her compositions, but as an arranger of electronic music, and especially transcriptions to that instrumentation, she is nearly peerless.

(I was talking with a representative of a digital music sales organization I used to do business with, and I mentioned some advanced features of the workstation that Wendy uses and endorses (Logic), which I was considering migrating to, and the guy says: 'you mean Walter Carlos, heh', and I quit buying from those guys.)

[Lisbeth]

(I was talking with a representative of a digital music sales organization I used to do business with, and I mentioned some advanced features of the workstation that Wendy uses and endorses (Logic), which I was considering migrating to, and the guy says: 'you mean Walter Carlos, heh', and I quit buying from those guys.)

I hope you told him why.