NBC show "Born in the Wrong Body"

[UncleSepp]

What the hell am I watching on NBC? They've interviewed a couple of young transgendered women, all of whom had difficult childhoods, problem fathers, and families who reject them. Then, they segue into what appear to be drag houses, and how "the house father of house X says he is supportive of his daughters, but many say there are house fathers who take sexual liberties with their charges..."

It's twenty minutes at least into this show, but it appears as if this is what the show is going to be.

Yes, of course these ladies have genuine stories. Yes, for them, this *is* what it's all about. However, I have to give NBC a big WTF so far. I could put together a show of just as many transfolk, men and women, who are all geeks with accepting families who went into IT and ended up at Microsoft. It would be just as true for that set.

Where's the diversity? Where are the transwomen who aren't twentysomething? Where are the college professors and the geeks? Where are the moms? Hell, where are the transmen? At least on this show, the majority of the transwomen aren't white.... wait. I'm not so sure that's a good thing. Is that another part of the angle?

Ugh. This show is a train wreck.

Edit: Oh man. Now, it's "The job market for transgendered women is often so difficult that they turn to prostitution..."
Edit again: Hey, what do you know! One of the transgendered women had a boyfriend who was a transman.
Edit once more: Ugh. They closed with a house father saying "The percentage rate of a successful transgender woman is very slim."
Last edit, I swear: They did have an earlier episode on transmen. It looks like the episode on transmen might have been a little better, at least a little less frivolous than the one on transwomen.

MSNBC debuts two new episodes of “Born in the Wrong Body.” The first part, “Girls Will Be Boys,” premiering Sunday, Dec. 23 at 9 p.m. ET, takes an intimate look at three adult biological females who have been living their lives as men and the path they take towards making their bodies match the gender they believe they are. MSNBC cameras are with Mac, Patric, and Eric as they prepare for their final gender reassignment surgeries, in the operating room during their surgeries, and on their home turf several weeks afterward. “Girls Will Be Boys” takes a look at the mental anguish often suffered by “transmen” (transgender female-to-males) from childhood on, the agonizing difficulties they face, and the triumph of finally getting their bodies to match their minds. The second hour, “On the Edge,” airing Thursday, Dec. 27 at 11 p.m. ET/PT, delves into the transgender “Ballroom” scene in New York. It’s a world unto its own – a wild and spectacular scene where transgender people are in their element – and celebrated for who they are. But the over-the-top clothes and party atmosphere belie the serious problems that pursue transgender people in the everyday world. This episode follows four “transwomen” (transgender men-to-women) who walk on the edge of living life fully while being pushed to the edge of society.

http://insidecable.blogsome.com/2007/11/27/msnbcs-december-doc-block-premieres/



GRR!

[UndertheOcean]

1. whatever sells is projected into our tubes

truth does not matter.

[UncleSepp]

2. Truth is only the effect of a thing

The facts don't matter. Truth is what people think to be true. Reality is what people think is real. Propaganda and titillating "reporting" create reality.

[seriousstan]

3. Do you disagree with the assertions or only the presentation?

[UncleSepp]

5. I'm not sure I understand your question.

The presentation is the assertion.

[NMMNG]

4. You know they have to portray TG people as a bunch of

maladjusted losers so they can fulfill the expectations of the bigots in the audience. Can't get the RRRW cheesed by promoting Teh Homersexual Agenda. That leads to boycotts and stuff. :eyes:

[soothsayer]

6. I just can't wrap my head around the transgender phenom. With gender roles

being so much more relaxed these days, I can't fathom why surgery is necessary, or what it 'means' to be a man vs. a woman. I feel bad for people who feel they're in the wrong body, and I do want to understand, but I just don't get it.

[AB_Positive]

8. Well... it's complicated

I mean, I'm a mtf (is it "an mtf" or "a mtf"? I can't even tell) who loves sports, video games, computers, and enjoys speed metal. I'm attracted to women and seem like your usual IT geek. Yet I'm quite dissatisfied and uncomfortable with my current male form. I want to be a woman... who loves sports, video games, etc...

It's a difficult position. I have friends who are fully supportive but personally still can't get it either. I don't think non-trans folk can fully understand it if only because it doesn't quite apply. Most folk are male or female and don't give it a second thought. I don't blame you for being confused. I'm -living- it and it's confusing. :D



That being said, the OP description of the show is disheartening. Yes, there are folk still stuck in that position in the trans world but there are just as many if not more successful folk as well. *sigh* Media.


-AB+

[qb]

12. I don't get people who "don't get it"

Why can't they just accept what a person has to say about him/herself?

[UncleSepp]

13. Maybe you aren't strongly gendered yourself

Does it matter to you whether you are male or female? Do you think of yourself as being male or female, or does gender rank somewhere along with hair color to your personal identity? Would it matter to you if people called you "she" instead of "he", or "he" instead of "she" ?

For most people, gender matters, but the gender that is part of their personal identity matches their biological sex, so they don't have to think about it. For some people, it matters, but the gender that is part of their personal identity doesn't match their biological sex. For some people, gender doesn't matter. For a person for whom gender doesn't matter, it would be very difficult to understand why someone would want to go through the trouble of changing from one gender to another.

As far as surgery goes, a lot of transgendered people don't have surgery. I don't see the point *for myself* of undergoing risky and expensive surgery on body parts that aren't broken. Nobody other than my partner or my doctor needs to know what kind of body parts I have under my clothes. For me personally, hormones were enough. My body shape has changed to a shape I like. My voice has changed to the voice I expected to have. I am pleased by the little things, like how the backs of my hands look coming out of shirt cuffs. Prior to transition, I was irritated by everything about my body. Now, I'm happy with it. It's not perfect, but I don't feel like I'm walking around in a Halloween costume all the time. Social interactions are easier for me to navigate now.

The closest thing I can think of in the non-transgendered world is to people who have surgery or take other medical measures to lose hundreds of pounds. It may be easier to imagine a person who has become morbidly obese feeling like their true self is hiding inside somewhere, like nobody can see them for who they are while they are inside the fat suit. Such a person will take the risk and take radical measures to lose the weight in order to be happy with their body, and also in order to be healthy in their body.

Transgendered people have similar feelings, and transgendered people also have health issues related to being TG. Unlike a person whose body issue is extreme overweight, our health risk isn't death from heart attack: it's suicide. Prior to transition, transgendered people - especially young people - have a much higher suicide risk than the general population. After transition, our suicide risk drops to that of the general population. Prior to transition, TG folks also have higher than average rates of anxiety and depression. Post transition, those rates also drop to that of the general population. Moreover, counseling and therapy have been proven to be ineffective. So far, transition is the only treatment that works to improve the quality of life for TG people.

[AB_Positive]

15. Wow...

A much better post than I could come up with, for certain. An excellent post that describes things well. Being at the start of transition myself, let me second the "anxiety and depression" rates described above. Yeah...

-AB+

[UncleSepp]

18. Thank you :-)

Congratulations, and a belated "happy birthday"!

I think there needs to be a new tradition of a second birthday party for someone who starts transition, with a cake with a new name on it, and little cards that go out like birth announcements with the person's new name. Wouldn't that be fun?

It seems to me that making peace with one's body, distinguishing between what can be changed and controlled and what can't be changed and controlled, and determining one's own identity on one's own terms is something that every person has to do. The conclusions and actions to be taken are different for every person, and for some people, it can mean recognizing a gender conflict and taking steps to resolve the conflict. I see being trans as a particular manifestation of a universal experience.

Looking at it that way, parallels emerge to other particular experiences. An FtM coming out of feminist dyke culture can face some of the same identity issues as a deaf person choosing a cochlear implant. There can be resistance, lost friends, and accusations of social treason and there can also be acceptance, love, and an opportunity to bridge social groups that often do not communicate with one another. People whose bodies have been changed against their will by illness or injury have to deal with a similar anger over being betrayed by their bodies. Every child who becomes an adult eventually has to become something other than the fulfillment of the expectations of their family; every person changes with time, testing friendships and relationships. We seem exotic, even to ourselves, but we're not fundamentally different.

I feel that I have a responsibility to myself not to help the rest of the world with building a wall around me as some kind of strange variety of person known as transsexual. So far, it has been my perception that while I see myself as being mostly ordinary, other people see me as being mostly ordinary. I had a chip on my shoulder for a long time before I started transition, and the conflict I expected never failed to appear. It got heavy and I decided one day to put it down, and the conflict I stopped looking for stopped appearing so often. It won't always work, and it's as much in my own mind as it is in the external world. Illusion or not, it sure feels better this way :-)

[2beToby]

16. I wouldn't say gendered roles are relaxed---but maybe it's regional?

Besides that, there's a lot of confusion with the word transgendered. There are a ton of people who are transgendered who have no interest in surgery or hormones or anything besides living the gender norms they feel suit them. But transgendered is an umbrella term which holds a whole bunch of other smaller groups.

Usually (usually being a key word here) it's transsexuals who want/need surgery, and as previous people have mentioned, not all of us need (or want) surgery either. Transsexuals are considered transgendered, but it's more specific. Transsexuals usually have some form of gender dysphoria (mild to severe). As someone on the more harsh side of it, is like constantly living in someone else's skin. Disorienting, disappointing and generally frustrating.

For me, it's not necessarily about the social aspect, although there is a lot of that to it. It's about my internal mis-match. If you can imagine waking up and finding you've shrunk 5 inches in height and general size and try to navigate through life. That's a small bit like it. Being a woman "means" you were born with stuff in your head that tells you that you feel comfortable in a woman's body, and the same for what it "means" to be a man. Do gender roles get in there sometimes? Sure. Did I ever like wearing dresses/skirts? No, but I've known beautiful, successful women who wouldn't wear a skirt if their very lives depended on it. I didn't say, well, I dislike wearing skirts so I'm going to be a man now.

I'm not even as bad as some. IMO, the worst cases are the people who really NEED surgery to feel whole, when the available options are dangerous and not nearly fully functional so far as traditional body parts go. This is not the case for everyone, but especially hits transmen pretty hard. Nevermind cost.

Sorry it's getting long; but you wondered, so I figured I'd give you my perspective.

[AB_Positive]

17. I like to use a geometrical analogy for this sort of thing.

Transsexuals are transgendered.
Not all transgendered are transsexual.

I guess that makes me a square. :D

-AB+

[Chovexani]

7. Damn, I better tell my co-worker

She'd better get some clear heels and go out on Van Buren 'cause she's not one of the best people in my department...:eyes:

Not to diss sex work but that is some of the silliest shit I've heard.

[LeftHander]

9. Never expect TV to present anything other than entertainment for consumption.

Everything on TV is tainted by "entertainment" as a reward for consuming advertisers products.

Never forget that. So basically if you looking for "factual" information remember you have to sift through the crap or look elsewhere.

Television is simply no longer a viable medium for anything other than tittilation style entertainment...which in itself is worthless.

[haightpillsbury]

10. One of many reasons to rediscover life outside television

1) Turn off the TV.
2) Shake a trans person's hand.
3) Advance!

[UncleSepp]

14. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[UncleSepp]

11. I don't, really... wasn't looking for info, was looking for noise

I was tired of the radio and wanted to hear some bla bla during dinner.

[sakabatou]

19. I believe it's part of the writers strike

The TV channels are running out of shows.