The film follows Brandon Teena, who is a female to male straight man (pre-surgery). She is respectfully played by Hilary Swank. Since I was watching it with my sister and her friends, they couldn't accept the fact that everyone in the movie believed that she was a 'real' man.
I feel like the Transsexual movement is very, very ignored. There is nothing psychologically wrong, they aren't horrible people and so on! There 'was definitely nothing psychologically wrong with the character of Brandon Teena, which my sisters friends could not accept either. I am not a Transsexual person, so I do not personally understand their struggle. But I do consider myself an ally to that movement and have been trying to learn more about this 'misunderstood' movement.
Now, with that said, I am going to connect this blog with a not-so-favorite of mine pop star-Lady Gaga. I stopped listening to her songs this summer after being offended by her Alejandro video. Lately, people have been talking about her "born this way" video and how it is helping the LGBT community.
What people ignore is how she's hurt the transsexual movement (among other things). She may be trying to accept the LGB movement, but she has trampled on the T many of times.
When she first came around in the public eye, there was a rumor going around that she was a hermaphrodite, which is a person that has both female and male reproductive organs. Instead of politely disagreeing with that statement, she toyed with the public eye to get more publicity. Lady Gaga twittered making jokes and statements about her "dick", in one of her music videos she used a prison scene to deny being a hermaphrodite. Both of these actions have denied the transgender movement to move forward positively in the public eye.
There is a 1 in 100 chance that a baby is born with ambiguous reproductive organs. This isn't an uncommon thing and we should not ostracize anyone who was "born this way". Lady Gaga has a ton of power and she may be using it to strengthen the LGB movement, which is wonderful, of course. But we need to criticize her for the statements she has made about the Transsexual movement. She can not take those statements back by just performing a song that is for self-acceptance. The harm has been done.
I would love to do more posts on the Transsexual movement in the future. I sincerely apologize for anything I said that may not be politically correct in this post, and I will change it for you if you point it out. I'm not trying to generalize the people in the transsexual movement by referring to them as transsexual- I am using that an umbrella term to include the Male to Female, Female to Male, hermaphrodites, transexuals, transgender and so on and so forth. Let me know if there is a better and more political correct term to talk about this movement.
I had such a nice comment and then I accidentally hit sign out instead of post comment! I'll try this again!
ReplyDeleteOkay. Neither my girlfriend nor myself have been fans of Lady Gaga since her meat dress stunt, and I'm very glad that someone else is actually calling her out on the things she does for attention!
I am completely ignorant to the transgendered lifestyle, and I don't know anything about it, so hopefully nothing I say comes off as hypocritical, but I actually try not to oppress those who are living this kind of life. You pointed out that in Gaga's latest song she even makes a quick reference to everything being alright, it doesn't matter if you're gay, bi, or transgendered. Really though, again, trying not to sound dumb, because I probably do (all of the things I know come from a quick Google search on the word!), but isn't the title of the song then becoming satirical of itself?
Doesn't going through a transgender operation of some sort insinuate that you aren't proud of the way you were born? These people want a new lifestyle, and it's almost as if Gaga is mocking them for this, and saying, the way you were born was just fine, and it's wrong of you to think that any part of you should change?
Again, I'm not claiming to know a thing about the transgendered movement, so some education on this topic should be put in place for myself(I'll watch the movie you suggested). Please do correct me if I'm wrong, because blog posts like this really get me intrigued by the lifestyle these people live. I don't know a thing about it, and I'd like to point out that I am willing and ready to learn about anything you, or anyone else can tell me about it!
Thanks for your blog posts Hannah. I feel like it's easy to start a discussion on most of your posts, and that's what I really enjoy about your blog!