i’m sure you’ve come across these types of images in your travels. yesterday, i suggested to my husband that perhaps the user of such images on their vehicle is much like the use of decoys in hunting, where by placing a number of decoy ducks in a pond would bring along some real ones.
kung fu was probably one of my favorite tv series while it was on the air in the 70′s. maybe two years ago, we picked up the first and second seasons on dvd, and have enjoy watching them. about a week before the recent passing of david carradine, we started watching the series from the beginning again, and when we heard about his death, we went out and finally got the third season.
there are those that thought little of the series, and the philosophies outlined by the characters, referring to it as “zen-lite”, but i thought the world of the series, and david carradine’s performance, along with keye luke who played master po, and philip ahn who played master kan.
i was particularly disappointed to see this kind of gossip, with the tasteless headline “David Carradine’s Friend: He Was Killed by Transsexual Prostitutes”. i mean really, let the man die in peace.
the article, in part, says:
Gunderson says, “I believe he met two Lady Boys in the hotel bar… They are flirtatious, desperate for money and would have zeroed in on a celebrity like Carradine.” Gunderson is convinced the hookers drugged Carradine, hung him and then set about staging what would look like a suicide.
of course, the article hinges on the idea that associating with “lady boys” is inherently bad, and that all “lady boys” are “flirtatious, desperate for money”. of course, there’s no mention of what “loot” the alleged “lady boys” got away with, after allegedly doing their dastardly deed.
rest in peace kwai chang, i will always remember you, your kind and gentle manor, and your eternal wisdom.
lifetime is playing “a girl like me: the gwen araujo story” tonight. i’d never seen it before, so i sat down to watch it. i had to turn it off a few minutes later.
looking at even the movie poster, or the photo preview on lifetime, shows the stereotypical transwoman applying lipstick. um, haven’t we seen enough transsexuals putting on lipstick? and don’t bother reading the comments on the lifetime site.
anyway, it’s just too depressing. i’ll have to save this movie for a different time.
i came across this article on the canadian which reviews isis tsunami’s appearance in america’s next top model. this paragraph caught my eye:
Yet while she looks and acts like a woman, which might serve to educate the mainstream as to the difference between a transsexual woman and a drag queen (man in a dress), the question remains as to whether that will help reduce discrimination against transsexual woman — or just raise the bar so that all other transsexual women will have look like a model in order to be seen as a woman.
so, how exactly does a woman act? is participating in a modeling contest “woman behavior”? and do they really think that the mainstream really cares about the finer points that distinguish between a “drag queen” or “man in a dress” (i’m calling them out on nexy’s law for that one) and a “transsexual”?
and really, don’t regular type women have to look like a model in order to be seen as a woman? after all, as much as half of the male population would rather fuck a tranny than a fat woman. and everyone knows that transwomen are just men in dresses.
kinda makes me wonder if half the male population is gay.
the new york post reports that a yeshiva university professor left two years ago on leave, and returned today as a woman. since judaism, in my opinion, is at the root of modern judeo-christian “disapproval” of all things trans and gay, one can imagine the reaction of some members of the staff and faculty.
“He’s not a woman. He’s a male with enlarged breasts,” said Rabbi Moshe Tendler, a senior dean at Yeshiva’s rabbinical school and a professor of biology and medical ethics. “He’s a person who represents a kind of amorality which runs counter to everything Yeshiva University stands for. There is just no leeway in Jewish law for a transsexual.
“There is no niche where he can hide out as a female without being in massive violation of Torah law, Torah ethics and Torah morality.”
holy mortal sin, batman! of course, the new york post doesn’t waste a second reporting the most important aspects of this story:
Literature Professor Joy Ladin, formerly known as Jay Ladin, 47, showed up for her first day of school sporting pink lipstick, a tight purple shirt and a flirty black skirt. She cheerfully strutted through the doors of the Midtown campus’ main building, where she oversees the writing center.
um, a skirt that hits below the knees is “flirty”? perhaps the new york post’s “journalist” rebecca rosenberg needs to get out a bit more. the article goes on to say:
Many at the Jewish university are horrified by the presence of the transgender professor. Some fear the news could cut alumni donations.
there you have it – the real meat of the story. the jews are horrified that money will be lost.
holy stereotypes, batman!
this is classic, as it perfectly illustrates how trans people are simply not understood. to wit:
When transgendered folks get through the final stage of transitioning and reach “the end”, all that gender fluidity goes right out the window and solidifies into the crusty crud on the bottom of my boots. They have merely succeeded in upholding the gender binary — the very same binary which has held women down for the last 10,000 years.
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there is also no corresponding need to switch out body parts in order to express what is basically described as internal character, unless the purpose is merely to commodify one’s personality as a dainty girl might wear pink or a goth craves black. The genitalia have been reduced to the status of wardrobe accessory.
i guess the majority of trans people who never reach “the end”, and never “switch out body parts” don’t actually exist. and the majority of trans people that i know, who are in fact “gender fluid”, don’t exist either.
see, this version of “feminism” uses a few examples of individuals, and applies the characteristics of those few individuals to an entire class of people. i seem to remember there being a word that describes that type of stereotyping.
a new development on the search term scene. someone is looking for instructions in “how do you avoid being fooled by transgender”. perhaps he should asked the person who searched for “can feet tell the gender of a person?” further down the list.
to me, this comment posted by thebewilderness on march 18th at @ 9:57 PM (sorry, i don’t seem to have the ability – or have the expertise – to link to the specific comment) demonstrates the heart of the issue.
Transperson are so deeply committed to gender constructs that they are willing to alter their bodies to conform with gender constructs. Personhood, ungendered, is a goal of radical feminism.
first, many transpeople are not willing to alter their bodies. some are, some are not.
second, many transpeople i know are not committed to gender constructs. some are, some are not.
third, this assumption must have been made without actually asking any transpeople if they are, or are not, committed to gender constructs. because if one did actually ask even a small number of transpeople how they felt about this, one could simply not conclude that transpeople, as a group, are committed to gender constructs.
forth, i am a transperson. many people i know, who do not know i’m a transperson, have called me a radical feminist, because they perceive that i reject gender constructs. and i do this in my daily life, in my behaviors, in my words, and in my appearance. because i am forced to function in our society and pay my bills, i will admit that in some small areas, i do conform to some gender constructs. but then again, i know of several radical feminists who also would say the same thing. we all do what we must to survive in this world.
and finally, for further reading, i offer amananta’s post here, who is clearly a talented and articulate blogger, whose work i’ve admired for years.
via sf station, i came across catwalk ’08:
a new elite modeling competition that caters to the Transgender Community (male to female). The time has come for a modeling competition that embodies, class, beauty, style, fashion at its best! Its’ purpose is to encourage and empower the TG community to excel in the fast evolving world of fashion and unique marketing.
my initial reaction was mixed, but if i lived in the area, i’d be interested in attending the event. as it is, i’ll have to wait for the coverage, and the impact it has.
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