Channel surfing I ran across a show on the Style channel that was supposed to be about transgender people.  The first one they featured was a MTF fashion designer.  The next was a MTF makeup artist.  Both looked passable but as soon as they opened their mouth the jig was up.  I have never been able to understand that.

That part was okay but it did bother me the public was being educated to believe that we are gender benders (female appearance - male voice).  Then the next feature came up.  Hookers.  As I sat and watched I began to squirm.  But I figured this part would end shortly as the others had.  Wrong.  They just kept showing one trans hooker after another.  Finally I got up (Julie was still watching.)

What I learned from what I saw is when you're trans you are first and foremost trans.  If you're MTF, you are attracted to men and most likely speak with a male voice.  And if you work it's in some design/fashion world (yeah, I know, it's the Style channel) or you're out on the street hooking.  And we wonder why the mainstream thinks of us the way they do?

Yuk

Porno, fantasy, excitement

Documentary?   NO

Lets see who the Kaddish girls are ->-bleeped-<-ing tonight that should be fun.

Yuk

But you subscribe

I cancelled last week. No I'm not holier than though, I just gave up.

Cindy

Another reason I am thankful I don't have Pay TV and won't be getting it. Seems like you have to take a heap of rubbish to get the one channel you want.
Karen

I saw the preview on TV, but didn't actually watch it. That show aside, the style network isn't a terrible network.

That's always with tv programs about transmatters.
They find some people who want their hour of fame.
Most tg's just want a (normal) life, where they are noticed in the gender they are and they don't want to stand in the spotlights.

But a lot of people like shows about the subject, remember the Jerry Springer shows....honey i have to tell you something.
So many people say, hey this is crap....but they were all looking, every time again.
If you want to score as a station with these kind of programs, you don't take a tg from what nobody will notice it's a tg, that seems to be boring.
It's a shame because of the informative meaning of it is lost, and the people who are watching thinks that all tg's are like that.

Quote from: Julie Marie on July 18, 2011, 06:28:33 AM
Channel surfing I ran across a show on the Style channel that was supposed to be about transgender people.  The first one they featured was a MTF fashion designer.  The next was a MTF makeup artist.  Both looked passable but as soon as they opened their mouth the jig was up.  I have never been able to understand that.

That part was okay but it did bother me the public was being educated to believe that we are gender benders (female appearance - male voice).  Then the next feature came up.  Hookers.  As I sat and watched I began to squirm.  But I figured this part would end shortly as the others had.  Wrong.  They just kept showing one trans hooker after another.  Finally I got up (Julie was still watching.)

What I learned from what I saw is when you're trans you are first and foremost trans.  If you're MTF, you are attracted to men and most likely speak with a male voice.  And if you work it's in some design/fashion world (yeah, I know, it's the Style channel) or you're out on the street hooking.  And we wonder why the mainstream thinks of us the way they do?

That is why I voice so strong against those threads that perpetuate the negative sterotypes, like prostitution is OK, she-males are Ok, dressing like a slut is OK, etc. All of this is pushing me to thing that perhapps the proponents of separating TS from non-TS in GID may be right.

Kate D

  This is one of the things that keeping me back from crossdressing.  I am definitely not a whore!  I get this feedback from the ladies my age that I should of dated (I never dated nor got in bed with anyone) before going to them to ask for a date.  As if they put out this business sign:  "EXPERIENCED ONLY NEED APPLY, INQUIRE WITHIN".   I don't want them anyway, too much of the "Been there, done that"!  I'm clean and I don't know where they've been!  YUK!  Jesus said a Greek word for these kind of people, I won't.
  Joelene

This isn't the first time my stomach twisted in a knot over a TG show.  I'd say it happens about half the time.  To the mainstream, we're still a freak show and that's what they want to see.  Very passable women speaking with a male voice.  Street walkers hooked on crystal meth.  Men with 5 o'clock shadows wearing dresses.  "Yep folks!  That's what these people are like!"

I know maybe 20 or so TSs and that many again CDs.  Not one is into fashion.  Not one is a makeup artist.  And certainly none of them is a prostitute.  The only fashion designers I know are gay men.  The only makeup artists I know are GGs.  And I don't know any hookers.  The people I do know are lawyers, business people, IT people, construction workers, and even one judge.  But what fun would it be featuring any of them?  Who would we gawk at?  Who would we talk about at the water cooler the next day?

One has to wonder where the heck these transsexual people are found in the first place...or moreso what successful transsexual person would want to jump into being advertised as a transsexual rather than who they are.  These shows don't know about the first thing of transsexuals but want to make a show about them...I wonder what would happen if better examples of transsexuals stopped by their shows.

Quote from: kate durcal on July 18, 2011, 07:59:12 PM
That is why I voice so strong against those threads that perpetuate the negative sterotypes, like prostitution is OK, she-males are Ok, dressing like a slut is OK, etc. All of this is pushing me to thing that perhapps the proponents of separating TS from non-TS in GID may be right.

Kate D

I say this with great respect for you Kate, but that is really just dealing with something through ignorance.

The issue here is the image, which we fear, the public might take as being representitive of all of us.

The reality is, these TV programs are made by producers who are seeking to make a point. They select those who they best feel will make that point.

Last year, there was a link to a posting in Yahoo, where someone described how to 'Tell if the Chick you're with is Transgender or not'. There isn't any need to go into the details, since I'm sure we've heard them all before.

But if we insist that we are only concerned with active transision, for example, then we immediatly create a necessity to prove something for admission. That will be a tremendous mistake. Those that pass really well, will simply deny what they started with. Those that retain any evidence, be it physical or even simply history, will mark themselves as targets.

By concentrating upon self expression, who we each are becomes irrelevant. But that means that we must accept the cross dressing prostitute as much as we accept those who have very successfully transioned.

If we need to make moral judgements, then it should be about prostitution, not how people are dressed.

Frankly, I see no reason why anyone should not be free to wear a pink frock with muscualr arms and a beard. Any more than someone should not wear jeans and a sweat shirt with breasts and feminine hips.

Sitting here and gnashing our teeth about how other transpeople are ruining our cause, or causeing us to be viewed in a negative light accomplishes nothing.

We can scream and wail how we are not like this person or that person but it amounts to nothing.

I keep reading how no 'real' woman or TS would want to be caught dead in one of these productions. That is very judgemental and it is othering to the nth degree. Who amongst us has the right to say that anyone else is not real or authentic?
Just because someone is doeing something we disaprove of or would not do ourselves does not take away from that other persons humanity.

Personaly I would do a TV show about my transition and life. In fact I have auditioned for a show once. But my life is pretty boring and so is my transition so I didn't get a call back.

Life is about selling ourselves in one fashion or anouther. Some ways are more pallateable to the mass than others.
Those who sell their time to a TV producer for a show are just selling themselves like everyone else.

Quote from: Muffin on July 19, 2011, 11:53:47 AM
A ->-bleeped-<- is a ->-bleeped-<- is a ->-bleeped-<- is someone who "thinks" they're the opposite sex!?!1 conventional wisdom at it's finest. :/

How too offset this societal (mis)perception?

Preaching to the choir wins no converts.

This isn't about being judgmental.  This isn't about morality.  This is about perpetuating a negative stereotype that hurts trans people when it comes to equal rights, discrimination, prejudice and hatred.  When an all inclusive ENDA comes to the house or senate floor for a vote and the politicians (and the voters who vote the politicians into office) have images of hookers in their head when thinking of trans people, how do you think they will vote?

I don't care what these fringe groups included under the transgender umbrella do for a living.  It's their life and they can do what they want.  But when the media takes these exceptions to the rule and features them without mentioning "these are not your average trans people..." it keeps us down and sets us back in the area of civil rights.  It is a well known fact that if you want to hate another without feeling guilty about it, just dehumanize them first.  "They are not real people."  We have to be seen as real people or we're going nowhere.

And Muffin, I fight not because I don't pass (I do with people who don't know my past), I fight because I lost so much when I transitioned, my kids, my siblings, my friends, my job.  No matter how well I pass, I lost them because they knew me before as a man and they couldn't deal with my transition.  And they couldn't deal with my transition because they believed the negative stereotypes.  Society conditioned them to believe trans people were scum.

As long as it is only the attention seekers and those who are desperate for a buck that are presenting themselves to the media it stays as it is.
If there are no 'average' transwomen and men willing to be public then the only public face we will have is a pack of ->-bleeped-<- hookers and some ->-bleeped-<- porn stars.

I second muffin!  I wanna grow up to be a total psycho~ x3

...Sorry.  I felt like we needed some lighthearted air.