Wednesday, February 24, 2010
The Dr. Oz Show and the Transgender Unbrella

Posted by M. Mae at 1:18 PM   

http://transgroupblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/dr-oz-show-and-transgender-unbrella.html

For those of you who haven't seen it, the Dr. Oz show recently did a story about transgender youth. (If you have not yet seen it, you can learn more here: http://glaadblog.org/2010/02/18/the-dr-oz-show-raises-the-bar-for-transgender-talk-show-coverage/). For the most part, I have heard many Trans people applauding the show and the parents/families featured. Although I fully support the parents, the show, and the language used therein, was, difficult for me to handle. For instance, in one "explanatory" segment, the narrator (presumably Dr. Oz), states that "EVERY transgender child" feels they are the wrong sex. The show largely conveyed that the term transgender means, "changing sex" (female to male or male to female). This seems to be a growing trend: when the Trans community gets the chance to be visible in a large medium (TV shows, movies, etc), the term transgender is characterized as synonymous with changing sexes.

Quote"Where is the visibility for GenderQueer, Third Gender, Poly-Gender, Bi-Gender, Androgynous, and all the other diverse Trans identities?!"

Heh androgynous gender identity.. Sorry, but that amused me. 

Hey no_id...thanks for the catch. I changed it on the main post (Trans Group Blog). Thanks again!

M.

I thought the segment was pretty good, but I almost didn't watch it all the way through because of the misuse of the term "transgender." Maybe they don't like using the loaded term "transsexual" to refer to children. I wish we had better terms and clearer definitions.