This is a cut from a different thread, and maybe it fits a little better here, pls pardon parts that seem off topic...........
[Last night we] went to bed and flipped on the TV for a short while, and low and behold, in the episode of HOUSE on Fox network, a beautiful young woman was diagnosed with AIS. And what was the response to their discovery? House tells her she is a man...."a pseudo-hermaphrodite"
"No...."she says..."I'm a beautiful girl"....sobs.......
"No....you're a man. Or a woman....the perfect woman....a man" Then refers to her in a decidedly creeped-out way to the nurses attending as "her-she-him-whatever.....herm". "At least her father will stop having sex with her, now that he knows she's a guy"
So, kids......that's what really matters. Today's society in general is all about being creeped out by transgender and transsexual PEOPLE, and have a tendency to treat us without the dignity we deserve as fellow people.
Why should Fox network promote such a story line, unresolved bigotry included? No, I'm not saying they should have to teach or preach, but they should be held accountable for portraying us as less than people, and apparently honestly believing it themselves.
Another show.....a cop show....I dunno, maybe a year ago. Detectives find a dead transwoman, legs splayed open on a makeshift operating table in a garage....abandoned, unreported. The poor woman is desperate enough to let a quack surgeon change her genitalia, and gives her life for it. So.......the characters are shocked, sickened, saddened........so far, so good.
Then the detective interviews a transwoman friend. He tells her he knows she's ts, and the jig's up. So the transwoman 'comes clean', and begins speaking in her male voice....'her real voice'.
Things like this make me soooo angry! And it won't change. Society at large will view us as less than human as long as we allow it.
I've worked with a number of people who were creeped out, or thought me to be a novelty. But it's very rare that a customer will read me.....as far as I know. Many of the people who were there when I transitioned are still there, mixed in with a lot of new faces. So I'm not stealth at all to the employees, just the customers. But push to shove, I'll state who I am with dignity and pride. Once, one guy I worked with brought his wife into the store under some pretense. She came, she saw, she left, then minutes later, came for a second look.
I whispered to a female friend, "I usually sell tickets to my freak show"
She said, "...please Bev......don't make a scene...."
I love her very much, but maybe, just maybe, I should have told him then and there....."I usually sell tickets"
Well, there's always a next time.
I've determined to speak out, speak up, and be heard by anyone who verbalizes anything wrong about my gender or my sex, and then if they ask, teach them about it. I certainly don't want situations like this, and generally spend my existence blending in with the rest of the real people. But, until people are taught to treat us with the respect we deserve, we will remain 3rd-class citizens. And, like I said, there's always a next time.
*Bristle*
