The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
In the New Yorker...
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on July 30, 2021, 12:43:43 pm ---We all knew it existed. We just didn't talk about it. Remember The Crying Game and Boys Don't Cry?
--- End quote ---
Yeah, we knew transgender people existed. The travel writer Jan Morris wrote a book in 1974 about her own transition. When The Crying Game came out I was working at the paper in New Orleans and I said, I want to write about someone like that. So through connections, I met Terry, a transgender woman who worked as a fashion model, and wrote a long profile. So personally I talked about it pretty frequently. I always say, if all of America had read that story they wouldn't have been so shocked about Caitlin Jenner.
What I think people didn't know about -- at least I didn't -- was how many people identified as neither male nor female. (With the exception of intersex babies, often surgically assigned one or the other.) Remember the SNL skit "Here's Pat"? That was funny because people didn't know there were actually lots of real-life Pats.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on July 30, 2021, 12:57:27 pm --- I said, I want to write about someone like that. So through connections, I met Terry, a transgender woman who worked as a fashion model,
--- End quote ---
I should add that Terry was Black and looked somewhat like the character in The Crying Game.
But also -- Jan Morris died last year and I don't recall seeing anything about it! But maybe I did and just don't remember, which is always possible.
Jeff Wrangler:
I got the August 2 issue, and of course I had to jump right ahead and read Jill Lepore. Boy, does she hate Facebook.
Am I ever going to get off my duff and write her a fan letter. >:(
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on July 30, 2021, 12:57:27 pm ---I always say, if all of America had read that story they wouldn't have been so shocked about Caitlin Jenner.
--- End quote ---
I don't know. I think at least some people who are old enough to remember Caitlin as decorated male Olympian Bruce would have been shocked.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on July 30, 2021, 10:26:09 pm ---I don't know. I think at least some people who are old enough to remember Caitlin as decorated male Olympian Bruce would have been shocked.
--- End quote ---
Well, I know. It's not exactly the same, and Caitlin's previous identity is certainly some of the surprise. But I think a lot of people were, and still are, pretty ignorant and/or confused about transgender people.
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