My Worst Nightmare Lunch with Coworkers and the "Maury Show - Man or Women?"

[Shana A]

My Worst Nightmare Lunch with Coworkers and the "Maury Show - Man or Women?"
Posted by Kelli Anne Busey at 6:53 PM

http://planetransgender.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-worst-nightmare-lunch-with-coworkers.html

Imagine when approaching your break room for lunch to be greeted with shouts "oh no I won't do that, he's really guy' and a non stop cascade of laughter and jeers as coworkers compared factual features and body types of contestants as they tried to 'trick' the studio audience into believing they were born woman.

To a cisgender man or woman this maybe great fun. To a transgender person who has just started working part time after being unemployed and homeless for 8 months, this is your worst nightmare.

[Julie Marie]

"I just love the smell of ignorance in the morning."  Or at lunchtime. 

Guess we still got a lot of work to do.

Julie

[Dawn D.]

Guess we still got a lot of work to do.

I'm punched in!


Dawn

[Tank Grrl]

Wow, she turned off the TV and now has to meet with HR to explain her behavior. I really hope she lives somewhere with Trans inclusive anti-discrimination laws. It's great that she stood up to that crap!

[Suzy]

One of the sickest things I have ever seen. 

Kristi

[Tammy Hope]

A. It's Maury fercryinoutloud. It's hardly like such shows treat everyone else with respect and good taste.

B. It's done in fun. I don't see anyone there being "creeped out" or hating on the people on stage

C. These shows couldn't happen if there were not DQ/CD/TV/TS....SOMETHING ...willing participants.

Once again I find myself maybe out on a limb by myself but to me, when a moment gets all "protesty" over tiny little incidental things, they make it harder for them to be taken seriously when the grievance is serious.

Persoannly, I find Maurey and Springer and their ilk tasteless and crude no matter what the subject they address - I'm happy to protest their very existence. but I can't be bothered to take personal offense about episodes like this - heck there's a part of me that just wishes she were pretty enough to be on that stage....shallow though that thought is.

[Tank Grrl]

The issue was that her co workers were watching this garbage at work, and I can understand her feeling very uncomfortable in the situation. Yeah, I know the shows are terrible, all the more reason  they shouldn't be watched at a place of employment, any more than say, Rush Limbaugh should be. And I'd throw a fit if anyone was listening to that wanker at work. People are completely free to be haters... in the privacy of their own home.

[Julie Marie]

As far as the participants go, they made a circus side show out of TGs.  They willingly got up on stage, paraded themselves around then, the worst part, identified themselves as men.

Of course to the ignorant public, any person born with a penis will always be a man regardless of presentation, self identification or brain gender.  Thanks girls, er I mean , guys!

Julie

[Tammy Hope]

The issue was that her co workers were watching this garbage at work, and I can understand her feeling very uncomfortable in the situation. Yeah, I know the shows are terrible, all the more reason  they shouldn't be watched at a place of employment, any more than say, Rush Limbaugh should be. And I'd throw a fit if anyone was listening to that wanker at work. People are completely free to be haters... in the privacy of their own home.

Just out of curiosity...would you say the same about Olberman or Mahr?

[tekla]

We have TVs at work, sometimes we watch them for hours.  Want a big fight?  Turn it on.  See, everything is objectionable on some level, to some people.  Oh, shows like this are obscene.  Right.  So is pro sports, perhaps even more so, but few say it. 

Turn on the news (any news, not just Keith or Faux, even the local will be good enough) and as one of the senior guys says "Hey, hey, get that off of here, you're only going to get them going."  And he's right.

So, news and current events are right out.  So too is anything dealing with the music industry, or music.

Sports, not everyone loves it, and those who don't like it, really don't like it.  Moreover, if its an important game (favorite team, playoff stuff) the emotions run too high.

Mainstream TV stuff, like House, ER, CSI, NCIS - at least we tend to be in agreement here, we all hate it, don't watch it and don't want it on.  Exceptions being classic TV, particularly Streets of SF, and Ironsides.

No game shows, no soap operas?  What else is left?  30 minute infomercials on detox/recovery centers?

So we watch, old cartoons Ren&Stimpy, Rocco's Modern Life, Simpson's, South Park, Family Guy, American Dad.  Odd, that's about the most offensive stuff on TV - Jerry Springer can't say 80% of what they get away with on South Park and Family Guy.  Oh, we watch lots and lots of nature documentary, that and Euro-trash zombie/cannibal movies.

[Tank Grrl]

Just out of curiosity...would you say the same about Olberman or Mahr?

Hmmmm...no I wouldn't, but if someone was offended by it and didn't want to hear it, I could understand.

I actually had pretty much the same thing happen to me, a few years before I started hormones. I didn't say anything while my co workers were saying things like, "look at that FREAK!" "What a sicko!" and on and on. I felt terrible and left early, and had a fit on my way home.

So I may be a bit prejudiced.