Every one who is anyone (gleeks) probably saw the introduction of Unique on the latest episode of Glee (season 3) and thought ‘well isn’t that swell’.  It was.  The issues I have are about the lack of characterization and the show which in its beginnings was daringly inclusive and pushed and affirmed equality, with queer, differently abled plot lines among others.  Now in its third season, it is the standard rule and not the exception to see socially disadvantaged people promoted to the spotlight.  Queer, larger than life, foreign, untalented, differently abled, jewish, first world problems, drugs, religion, ugliness, teen pregnancy and self esteem  are just some of the plots we have seen so far – and now it’s time to ‘do’ trans.

Glee’s social resonance can still give me shivers, like David Karofsky’s attempted suicide, but the trans storyline felt token to me – under prepared and over finished.   This week we saw Unique (spoilers) unleash herself in an amazing rendition in a Vocal Adrenalin performance, only to realize that the plot doesn’t really touch base with reality. First query - was Unique a transwoman? was she genderqueer? or still coming to terms with gender identity as a whole?  Screen time limited the exposition of the character so come the end of the show, we are unsure what the future holds for Unique.  She is a male presenting female identified (we assume) student at a rival school, who reaches out to Kurt and Mercedes for affirmation, so the female diva within can be all that she desires.  Second problem with this – if a student is reaching out to students of other schools for help, something is wrong with the school / support structures available to that person.  It is implied that Unique had nowhere else to turn.  Third problem – Reaching out for Kurt and Mercedes implies – she’s queer like Kurt and black like Mercedes – isn’t this superficial from the writers?  Is also supports the concept that trans* people are or should be queer identifying, which many aren’t.  Fourth problem – is Unique a drag name?

As time passes, we see more and more divergence from popular trans culture and cultural trans pop, in other words, the difference between what trans people think about themselves and what other people think and write about them.  One is going to affect the other, people will begin to believe the myth as they always have, or television shows like Glee will take a turn towards reality.  The harsh reality is often missing,  except in hard to find documentaries by trans people.   We are used to seeing gender crossed individuals twist plot lines, but rarely does pop culture go behind the gender identity curtain.   Episodes like this one from Glee dance around it – but there are so many questions trans people will consider unanswered about the character that a mainstream audience will consider nicely wrapped up.

So who is Unique?  A secret passion for going Diva, she is without doubt a star performer – but the complexity of the real life issue seems make the whole characterisation trivial.   I’m glad that gender identity was not confused with sexual preference, I assume at this point Unique is just asexual and fabulous?  The sole motivation for the character is to be fabulous, not to overcome visible or emparted oppression, or spit in the faces of the bigots who pick on her, etc,  just fabulousness.   Again it’s a little shallow.  The character is more akin to a drag queen – fabulousness for fabulousnesses sake.   But we won’t ever know much, the actor playing Unique is only contracted for two shows.

It seems that too little is still too much for some people.  On the other side of the coin, the episode has received criticism for promoting alternative lifestyles.  Glee will not only make your children gay, but also transgender, according to Bill O’Reilly on the culture warrior segment of his show.

The world is fucked because people are told to think it is wrong to not identify with the gender you are born with.  This makes it hard for any writer or show to depict the principled existence of any transgender person, ie their right to exist because they do.  It’s an uphill battle, without much downhill and maybe a nice plateau at the end of your climb from which to start a better life.  One miracle song might change the people in the audience, but it is only the first step of many on the road to becoming who you want to be.  The episode was about dreams and while we assume that Unique has more dreams than to sing in front of Jesse ‘the prick’ St. James, we might never know what they are.

Here is the performance which 31% of voters chose as the best song of the episode, beating ‘You Should be Dancing’ from Blaine, Brittany and Mike

Oh no I'm not gender queer, my hollow head tentacles are binary identified!

Welcome to the worlds of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games or MMORPG’s.  I say worlds because there are so many to choose from and so many different  people in them.  You will choose your destiny, but first you must choose a character.  Male or Female? Doh – well seems like 2/3 of a pretty expected question.  Choose a race?  Wait a second, alien races all have binary genders as well?  FML well I never!  I guess there won’t be any third sexploring of the galaxy any time soon. Finally choose your barbaric and violent profession – slashers, bashers, shooters, zappers, different type of bashers etc.  This is just a little preview of what is in store when you decide to experience this alternate reality in a digital dreamscape.  But this is not what I want to write about today.  I want to write about escapism.

To be, or to be someone else, that is the question.  Many people want a distraction from the real world, because the people out there have been fucking it up for quite a while now – at least in the violent, unsustainable, exploitative and oppressive sense of the words ‘fucking up’.  Log on and be someone else.  While it is no secret that the formula for a successful MMORPG is a reflex kill scenario – ie.  if it moves, make it dead – there is the chance to free your self from physical consequence and experience the perfect avatar of your imagined self.  It is lucrative, it is fun and…. it’s… also addictive.

The opportunity to explore virtual identities seems ideal for gender explorers and questioners.  My experiences with two such games, World of Warcarft and Star Wars: The Old Republic have been  fun, but in the end I can’t help feeling the destructive nature of it.  First of all there is the urge to spend too much time playing it, which can be fun, but it has to come at a cost to the life you’re living in the real world.  Secondly, I am bombarded with violence, aggression, competition and stereotypes at every turn.  Some people thrive on this, but it makes me nauseas.  I’m not sure what kind of message I am sending my brain and I think my brain is rebelling.

Does escaping to a better version of yourself really help anyone, (inc. gender diverse)?  I can’t help but think it is just another destructive urge that creeps into lives.  What do you think, would you play gender and sexual diverse characters if they were available?  Can you escape into MMORPG worlds without getting addicted?  Can playing characters in your identified gender help you cope in the real world?  What are some of your experiences with computer games and gender diversity?

Last night (19/3/12) ‘Two Angry Trans People’ made its debut on RTR fm, the local community radio show ‘All Things Queer’.  I admit I stayed up for this when usually I skip the gay boy dominated show.  After waiting 45 minutes for the segment to come on I really enjoyed the well informed dialogue between Oskar and Sam and look forward to more from them even if it was only a very short segment.  I was rather sleepy at the time, but as an after thought, I wondered – Who is listening to this, and what do they think about Two Angry Trans People on All Things Queer?

The prevailing reason is the oft repeated sentiment from the trans community claiming under representation from the Queer Community and a lack of organising around the actual situations and needs of trans people.  Largely relating to the distinction between sexuality and gender issues, many trans people see obstacles to identifying as queer, yet the feeling isn’t mutual – touting a rainbow of inclusion, the queer spectrum likes to add letters to its acronym almost at will despite resistance from gender querying  identities such as intersex and trans, fluid identities such as pansexual and bisexual, as well us those who are questioning sexuality, or have trouble identifying with the Queer tag for social or professional reasons.

LGBTIQQ – add to that asexual, fluid, poly, ally, etc and you’ve got a diverse group of people who are connected via protest against binary heteronormative  enforcement in law and society.  Queer is so much more than that, it is an identity, traditionally dominated by gays and lesbians who are for the most part, the most numerous int the community and likely to identify as queer, and everyone else is welcome, but may choose to identify alternatively or not at all, keeping their sexuality or gender identity a secret personal quality, rather than proclaiming  it.  Despite criticism from non gay and lesbian members of the queer community of under representation and ignorance on some issues, the question has to be asked – Where does the future advocacy for non-gay and lesbian ‘queer spectrum’ people lie (diverse(r) sexuality and gender)?

The momentum in Australia leads me to feel that Equal Marriage is the end game for the current popular Queer Campaign.  After that sexuality and gender dissipates from the public eye and we are left with a whole range of invisible issues which can be ignored for a while longer, because ‘the Queers have got what they want’.  Despite the Queer community touting itself as inclusive, the majority of trans advocacy has been done by trans activists not affiliated to Queer Community groups (WA Gender Project).  There is many a middle ground, but for the most part the only ones staying the course on trans rights are trans identifying people who are activists, who you might have noticed are far fewer in number than the Queer political bloc.

There are many trans people who identify as Queer happily and others who don’t.  For some the issue is disenfranchisement, feeling let down by the lack of action while others see the clash between gender and sexuality to be substantial enough to never be enfranchised to begin with.  Programs and public media efforts within the Queer Community, like Two Angry Trans People give trans people a voice within the queer community and that is a fantastic thing, especially when you have intelligent well spoken representatives like Sam and Oskar – my resistance is that as a trans person, I wish they had 45 minutes of air time, rather than having to wade through the rest of the scheduled program with mirth and anxiety.

PS.  Sorry for my absence from posting, I’ve been starting a new job, a new semester of university, other organisational stuff and some house moving.  More posts coming when possible.

What describes a good night out for the gender diverse community?  If I was  to choose for myself it would be cabaret – a night out sharing a laugh and a dance all while being entertained intermittently by the talent on offer.  Cabaret appeals to the curious with diverse delights which often challenge us and entertain us and sometimes shock us.  It has hardly surprising that cabaret has a history of gender crossing acts and nuances that entice and challenge mainstream attitudes.  Cabaret is many things, and I love it!

But is it a good night out for all?  A diverse range of performers brings with it those who will love it and those who won’t.   In many ways the presentation of gender diversity in cabaret style shows is not for gender diverse audiences themselves, whether it be drag or other – a show that shocks and challenges a cisgendered audience teeters on the edge of political correctness and can often fail to excite a a potentially dismayed  gender diverse audience.

It is not difficult to understand that many trans people just want to be treated normally and would prefer a regular night out, rather than be the spectacle often gawked at by cis attitudes and presentations of gender diversity.  A safe space, among friends and supporters who know the causal relationship between stereotyping gender diversity and transphobia.   A good environment, accessible but also providing some degree of privacy and intimacy – but what then?  Drink, dance the night away?

I think this sense of regularity is served by tea and coffee, for catching up and purging the mainstream garb that can stack the pressure and intimidate us in our daily lives, because life goes on.  We need a break from people trying to understand the varying degrees of gender diversity, and spend some time with people who have those experience, who can validate and support you, whether it is talking frankly about sex, or showing compassion for the hardships that many transitioning people have in common.  It’s just nice to know you don’t have to take it all on yourself.

Back to having more fun… There has to be a balance though between good entertainment and a safe and intimate night out – because I want both.  I don’t want to end up drinking myself to the brink of consciousness, because there is so much more to a good night out than that, a good night out means making a connection with friends old and new and feeling like you are taking something with you at the end of the night.  That’s why I like the idea of cabaret, you get to know performers, enjoy their shows and talk about them with friends, but the best thing is, you don’t have to think about your own troubles while the stage is alive.

Finding the right performance, the right format is the key, to entertain a diverse group of people, who are brought together not because of their similarities, but because of their rebellion and distance from cisgender and cissexual norms.  It is going to take talent, let’s face it, but I am sure if you look for it, you will find it.   Meanwhile the search is always on for a safe, intimate, accessible environment to call our own.  Let me know if you are thinking of somewhere.

It’s a new year, and I am still determined to see a regular night out for trans and genderqueer people establish itself in Perth.  The first night happened at Bar 138 in late August with mixed success.  We had between 30 and 40 people with a strong representation of trans and genderqueer people.  This time we want to do better than that, with more performers and more involvement from the community.

I’m looking at making this event late February or early March to get the year off to a good start.  This is just a call out to gauge people’s interest and to get feedback from the first event so the second event will be better.  I’m still trying to find the best venue to host #hackgender.  The support from Bar138 was great, but perhaps it is a bit too central for people’s liking.

To help with the setting up of this event, could you please answer the following poll to make this event something you think you and everyone can enjoy.  Please support.

I’m not there – most of the time.  I’ve been across the other side of the country in Sydney, being a kind of tourist, but also escaping the all to familiar Christmas disappointment that comes with the gathering of family and friends.  I haven’t lost my family so such, but friends have come and gone and the distance always seems to grow.  This year I put geographical distance between myself and Christmas.

This is the trans issue, the sexuality issue, the social issue, the stigma of the misfit that returns awkwardly to the fold for the ailing traditions that hold the super weak familial bonds together.  Like a pariah, or a prodigal child stumbling upon life as it is happening, as per usual – as if the elephant in the room had a place setting of its own at Christmas dinner.  No, not this year.

It is also the vegan issue, the queer issue, the me issue.  I don’t want to celebrate your Christmas of lies and distortions, I’d rather do things the way I have learnt to do them, my own way.  And this year it meant flying across the country to Sydney.  And what did I do?  I sat down to a traditional Christmas festival steeped in more folklore and tradition than I had ever experienced before.  It was my partner’s family – but at least it wasn’t my own miserable season of misgiving.

Why do I hate Christmas?  Because Christmas hates me, ever since Santa wasn’t real, which is always.  It’s a bloody, religious, hetero-normative, family oriented, commercialised, capitalist farce that invades my personal space and morality once a year.  I won’t eat the animals you slaughter for it, I won’t worship the deity that was born for it, I won’t hide my sexuality for it, I won’t pretend like I havn’t been rejected by my family in the past, or that I didn’t reject them, I won’t pretend like I am buying into the propaganda I can’t afford –  And I won’t pretend that it doesn’t make the people around me crazy.

But with all that being said, I had a traditional vegetarian feast on Christmas Eve, and gave more presents than ever before and everything was different this year, because I was with another family, with their own traditions and it was lovely to be invited into them.  In other words, it was a most refreshing change not be bitter at Christmas.

When you are ooh so over the binary sex pretense.

Ever felt like you’re just not getting what you want sexually out of television romance? Whether it is because it is poorly written or poorly directed or you’re just a little bit peeved by the Ken and Barbie Dolls making out like they just can’t wait to have their fifth baby (or abortion) ? Romance exists in many places for many different types of people who form diverse relationships, but what about my sweet transgendered heart? Who is looking after that? It certainly isn’t Hollywood and its dull line up of exploding cliches and cisgendered love stories. We do not even have transgendered actors to take on transgendered roles such as the lead in TransAmerica, but I am told Felicity Huffman did a good job.

There is of course the sweet and sickening addiction and longing for the cissexual privilege of falling love, stripping down in under 10 seconds (20 if you’re a romantic) and starting to simulate the act of making babies, or ‘fucking’ as they call it. It is probably never quite that simple for a trans person, that fantasy and many others are fascinations which deprive many of us of realistic sexual role models – especially in romantic leads… So I wonder, why can’t I have what ze’s having?

If you thought the female orgasm was surrounded in mystery and mystique, then you will no doubt be bamboozled by what it might be that turns a trans or genderqueer person on. With so little research done on the subject, I guess our ons and offs appear to default to the gender binary – man sex and woman sex, simulating cissexuality – biologically speaking, there are places that feel good and places that don not.. right? Well I think if your expecting a cis-like sexual experience, you are going to go unfulfilled.

There are many trans and gender queer people who would surprise you with an addictive and rich machismo and obsessive mystique, beyond your expectations of role playing and taken to a whole new level of reality and creativity, after all are we not breaking down those boundaries and obstacles established by a world dominated by cissexual and cisgendered expectations?

Can people of this day and age really imagine the world beyond their crutches, to the tantric world that puts a myriad of questions to ‘normal’ experiences, exploring and ending the depravity of rule based sexual encounters and opening up postmodern experiences and new representations of identity? It is possible, but still some people prefer their coffee, to this particular cup of tea.

Maybe there are orgasms out there waiting to be discovered that are not distributed by binary sex alone? Explore the non-physical, the spiritual essence which does not default to the simple architecture of physical sex. Feed us dark chocolate… or erm.. stuffed
mushrooms – You don’t have to feel closed in by the elephant in the room (its name is Stampy, and will love to talk about
themselves and experiences, as long you are sincere).

Breaking through… The delicate and precise reinvention of sex, a careful arrangement of safety, sensuality and sexuality – but of course if you really want to find out for yourselves, you might have to ask us just what it is, that ze is having.

Almost everyone who seriously dabbles with shifting along the gender spectrum would be seeing or have seen a professional.   That professional is there to analyze and interpret your behaviour, reactions and progress while offering advice and counselling. For psychiatrists and their transgender patients, the go to resource for diagnosis and treatment is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV) currently in its fourth revision since it was first published in 1952.  The pathologization of gender variant, transgender and transsexual identities has its roots in this book under the category Gender Identity Disorder, in other words it is classified as a sickness.

I am not going to get into the details of what is in the DSM IV, but rather explore why it is important not to depend heavily on psychiatric advices and interpretations derived from this pathological classification of gender variance.  It should make your hairs tingle that in order to proceed with your life, in most cases you must consent to this interpretation and agree to ongoing associated medical costs to be treated as a patient, traditionally a sick person.  The treatment often desired is transition to some degree, which is really the final diagnosis and only exists as a last resort to medical professionals.  Trans people are never encouraged by their doctors to transition, they are discouraged.

The reason a psychiatrist discourages treatment is because they are liable like all professionals and so will take the fewest risks.  You will seldom receive empathy from this process, because it is scrutinized and rejected as deviant behaviour by mainstream opinion and all subsequent appointments are based on professional opinion rather than the personal feelings or inclinations of the gender diverse person, however innate they might be.  While the first decision to transition is yours, the final decision is theirs.

There is a general opinion in the trans community that not all doctors are created equal when it comes to gender identity disorder and the treatment of transgender patients.  Some are better than others and the choices can be from a far too narrow band of specialists you might have been referred to without really having any idea of their competance or history.  They are the ones who hold the key to your future and it is why they are described as ‘gatekeepers’ along with every other professional along this pathological process, including the government who in most countries and regions do not support or enable gender variant lives.

So what can you do about it?  Set yourself free from the negativity of the psychiatric process and don’t wait for professionals to stumble upon an outdated and sometimes offensively brutal diagnosis and treatment from the DSM.  Live like there isn’t anyone stopping you from being who you want to be, the devil is in the details, so don’t focus too much on the contract you have made with him/her/hir – eventually the laws will change and the way transgender people are treated will change, as long as we protest.

Demand the respect you deserve and find equality and friendship among people who aren’t blinded by prejudice and preconceptions.  The life you want is out there and I doubt psychiatry is a part of that vision, but rather a social necessity grafted into it like some kind of mad social experiment.  If it is up to other people to tell you who you are, then we are not living in a free world.  You have to be that person who explains to his/her/hir peers who you are, what you are about and how you will proceed with your life.

Get out there and build your own support network, connect with advocates for trans rights (which now exist in most major cities), go out and do what you want to do, be who you want to be, don’t wait on something or someone who is only vested professionally and not personally, you are far better off having the support of friends (and family).  There are options available which require minimal contact with psychiatrists and although for the time being, they can be difficult or hazardous paths, they are still there.  You will more than likely still need to proceed with your psychiatrist to get what you want, but if you can live without the shadow of diagnostic medicine over your head, you will change your world for the better.  Respect your psychiatrist, but don’t depend on them.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Television is one of the few places which gives the impression of freedom of speech, but in reality it recruits profitable ideas for resale and branding.  When it comes to trans and genderqueer representation on television, any publicity is good publicity because it raises awareness.  That being said, trailblazing roles for minorities and the oppressed classes are often found to be rather stereotyped because it has to satisfy the demands of the audience and not empower those groups.  For example, mainstream audiences would feel very uncomfortable if they had to put up with the radical politics that comes being an oppressed minority.

It has been seen over and over in Hollywood and popular television, characters that represent oppressed groups are fun loving and good natured.  Examples of sterotypes in the past include, the loveable tramp (who’s really an alcoholic), the kind people of colour (who are employed by rich white people and don’t want to loose their livelihoods), the extremist muslims (who are really the nicest people).  It takes time before content is produced that people of those groups might actually respect.  It isn’t nice thinking about television history, because it is so fucking distasteful.  While this is going on, heroic efforts are made by traditionally mainstream types (whos look and character vary from nation to nation) who reinforce the status quo.  No tragedy here, just good business.

What we are seeing on television with gender diverse people is a revolution, but it is just getting started.  The controversy of trans people in television relates not to the issues that trans people have, but rather the issues the rest of the world has with them for being different.  People are making an effort, that’s why we are seeing real trans people on TV, but at the same time I think that these people are very much censored and contributing to marketable television.  When I see trans people on television, all I see are other people’s problems prescribed to us via stereotypes without challenging those pre-existing perceptions to actually change people’s minds.

Instead we see people re-inforcing them because they are our strongest root in mainstream society.  We need to use stereotypes as points of reference in order to gain a foothold and an opinion in popular thought.  The concessions that cisgender people make towards transgender people is through their own prejudice, reducing negative feelings and emerging as someone who has overcome their personal fears or failed miserably.  This still doesn’t have anything to do with actual trans people.

If trans people were tell the real story, there would be talk of gatekeepers, discrimination, and oppression from an empire of privileged cisgender people who behave like stormtroopers of an evil empire.  If the truth was told, then we’d talk about the other medications we have to take (probably because we are trans) anti-depressants and other medications that treat the mental conditions that arise from years of mistreatment and misunderstanding.  We’d talk about sexuality, we’d be gay, we’d be bi, we’d be straight, we’d be asexual, polysexual and pansexual.  We’d be activists, gender terrorists, politicians, bloggers, screaming and kicking out against oppression. We’d not obsess on our status as men and women but rather as something else, autonomous from and brilliantly aroused by gender.  We are not cisgender wannabees.

And yet any publicity is good publicity, and stereotypes abound us for the time being, not because we are stereotypes, but that’s all that television companies and producers are buying at the moment.   There are lots of interesting videos and people out there on youtube who make such elegant cases for trans representation and carry through to those who subscribe to them, an unaltered voice of solidarity and strength to the trans community and yet our public identity is based on the following sentiments -

- cliches such as putting on makeup, reverse camera shots into mirrors, before and after photos, surgery, shots in the operating theatre, transwomen in skimpy clothes, transmen in baggy pants, our chests and our genitals.

- personal things such when and why you don’t identify as cisgender, the person’s birth name, where they lived, history of violence and sexual assault, sexual history, marriage history.

- Gender affirmation – praising existing gender identities namely men and women as awesome and not challenging the validity of those ideas which feminism has been doing for years.

- One track conversation – Everything on television about trans people is about trans people doing little else than being trans.  That’s just uninteresting and very offensive to the interesting people who might be in your studio who have friends of all shapes and sizes most probably, for whom being trans is not a burden but a rather small and unobstrusive part of their life.

In the history of television and its presentation of transgender people and characters, I do not feel that any of them have been sufficiently developed for me to identify with them and leads to ‘misnouning’ a person as ‘a transgender’ and not ‘a person’ and so there is a tendency for trans people to ‘other’ the people they see on television because it is soft hitting, soft core controversy that only really tweaks a cisgender mainstream audience.

*disclaimer:  this is not about the people in the show, but the format of the show itself and the presentation of information.

*rants may be offensive

If you don’t know what I am talking about you can watch it on Youtube here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cts4nFWHvDs&feature=player_embedded

So seven trannies get together for a retreat.  I personally wouldn’t use that word, but ‘My Transsexual Summer’ doesn’t mind so much.  None of these people seem to be the medicated activist type I have come to know in my own experiences with trans folk.  It presumes that its seven contestants are on a magical gender slide, trying to find a position they feel most comfortable with themselves, and that self obsession is the imperative of a transsexual life.   I think most people who go through puberty could relate to this time of change, sure it’s a difficult time, but eventually you adjust and move on, but it doesn’t look like our seven friends want to get over it, they just want to go on (wank) about it, but maybe that’s a British thing and not a trans thing.

Then of course there are those people who have trans identified since very young and took on cis gender affirming roles to suppress that identity.  This is very sad, but also funny because just as you can imagine queer bullying comes from closeted queers, you could imagine excessive gender stereotypes are more likely to be trans identifying.  So perhaps if you see a truck driving, rugby playing wife beating alcoholic, hold on to your boots, they might be about to transplain all their problems away.  It’s sick and sad, but it can be unfair on other people if you get married have children, then do a 180 and say oops.  It is established here is it is a shit world for trans people, but the show focuses on the sentiment ‘I’m so happy now’.

The other thing is the desperate environment they’ve created.  Every conversation is about being transgender/transsexual (trans).  As most trans people know, these conversations are awkward at best and provides maybe a few sentences at best.  Also it often descends in a trans pissing contest (I identified as trans when I was 8, no 5!  Well I actually identified as trans in the womb, but I couldn’t tell my mum.  I’m actually intersex).  These details really are personal and unimportant unless you are attempting to dissolve deep psychological issues with a professional.  I think everyone has their story, but I prefer the story one of my ex’s gave me relating to their trans experience.

“I want to be a shemale, having tits and a cock it’s hot, and I’d totally like to  fuck everything”

It seems so honest and vital and yet this attitude is invalid because why?  Because we are a pathological people, gender diversity is still not welcomed, we are urged toward heteronormative behaviour.  The sentiment “I love being a woman” and “I love being a man” seems to validate cisgender identities without creating anything new and distinctly trans, which I think would derive naturally from our unique experiences.

Also none of these people are interesting, the people on the show are entirely bland.  I blame the domineering gayness of it all, the music, the accommodation, they are so evidently out of their element.  Dancing and acting up to stereotypes that make me think their hormones are providing them narcotic effects.  Shiny happy people.  The reality is much worse – I’d prefer something a little more Big Brother style where privately they confess horrible experiences and their loathing for one another.  For example imagine someone was honest on that show.

“I only came on this show for the money.  I hate having to work in one gender and live in another because it is the only way I can survive.  You know why I don’t date?  I’m terrified that people will misinterpret my body and my friendships will fall apart.  I actually hate being trans, it is real inconvenience and all those people who are not trans, I’m so envious I worship their image.  I’m so susceptible to trashpop magazines, I want to look like Kylie.  Make up is expensive, hormones are expensive, my entire fucking life is expensive, if I was rich I wouldn’t give a fuck about trans rights, I’d just get a million surgeries and pretend I’m not trans.  You know, I’m not really ashamed of who I am, I’m a survivor, I’m so much stronger than most people, sure I don’t have their problems, but I’ve got my own and that gives me the right to tell you to fuck off and deal with the fact that you’re different to me.”

So for trannies, pack a dildo, sip a glass of wine, ham it up for the cameras and don’t forget to pretend like you’re happy because EVERYTHING IS FINE, I can’t emphasise that enough.  No it’s not fine and it doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that when I look into the mirror I see myself putting the philospher’s stone into my pocket (hate myself), it instead has to do with the fact that we constantly deny people their identity by telling them how to be themselves, a woman looks like this, a man looks like this, behaves like this, etc and it is infuriating because there are generations of trans people growing up hating their childhoods, their experiences because if they don’t, it’s confusing for doctors, YOU’VE GOT TO HATE YOUR BODY, YOURSELF AND EVERYTHING ABOUT WHO YOU WERE and yet so many people maintain that they don’t change in the transition.

As Tilda Swinton and Virginia Woolfe put it in Orlando – Same person, different sex.  You will take your problems with you,  transitioning doesn’t solve your problems.  The show makes out like the only thing that is different about these people is that they are trans, when in fact that would make them abnormal.  Imagine if cisgender people walked around all day talking about being cis, and how they felt comfortable in their body today, it would be awkward.  The trans community really needs heroes, champions who’s claim to fame is not that they are a test subject in these social and scientific laboratories, but actually kick ass… and there are plenty of them, but they don’t make it to popular media as often as those who have ‘always known they were a (gender noun) because they used to (stereotyped gender behaviour)’.