Hey guys, watch this!
Jul. 20th, 2012 09:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sacredchaoWell this could be a touch confronting.
I've been contacted by another trans derby skater. She has in turn recently been contacted by the ABC who are making a series of documentaries, one of which examines trans people. They've talked with trans children and their parents, older trans people and so on and have decided that they want to talk to trans people who participate in sport and have decided that derby is the place to go for this.
So I'm essentially going ahead with this and it could well include me being interviewed on a show that will be broadcast nationally. Way to out myself, huh? The whole idea is a trifle daunting but there's nobody who I'd be mortified to have find out about this so aside from the potential for being accosted in the street by total strangers it's not that worrying. I like the potential for positives to be derived from this. I don't physically look like the popular stereotypical conception of a transwoman and I'll dress to push that. I'm not flamboyant, I'm not a drag queen and I'm not some dowdy bloke in his mum's old frock. I'm simply a woman and the less remarkable I can be in that respect (while still definitely striving for presentable) the better. Beyond that I get to provide a *positive* commentary on what is means to be trans, what it means to be gender diverse as an athlete and how that can be a positive experience for everyone involved. I can hopefully also somewhat puncture the idea that as a transwoman playing sport in a women's league I somehow derive unfair advantage from magical boy powers. So yes, there's discrimination out there, even in derby, but I've yet to personally strike it and the experience I've had is so overwhelmingly good that I think it should be given some time even if only to demonstrate that genuine acceptance and inclusion is very very possible. The sporting world as a whole could probably learn a lot from derby in that regard.
I am mindful of the fact that media regularly gets things badly wrong when it comes to portraying trans people. I plan to be very clear about the fact that I'm absolutely *not* ok with them broadcasting pre-transition images of me, regardless of how publicly available they are, nor am I ok with them making use of my old name. I'll also be clear about how I expect them to be consistent about pronoun usage, including when talking about me pre-transition. I haven't had many ideas beyond that but those are the things that usually make me twitch when reading articles about trans people. There will inevitably be things I'll be less than totally thrilled about but I'm prepared to suck that up and deal. I made a commitment to myself a long time ago that I was going to be out about this and I've increasingly come to want to be at least a bit publicly active with regards to the perception and treatment of trans people. This is the point where the opportunity to do exactly that has landed in my lap and I can either grasp that or walk away from it. This is one of those times when the fact that something is a bit scary probably means that it's worth doing.
I've been contacted by another trans derby skater. She has in turn recently been contacted by the ABC who are making a series of documentaries, one of which examines trans people. They've talked with trans children and their parents, older trans people and so on and have decided that they want to talk to trans people who participate in sport and have decided that derby is the place to go for this.
So I'm essentially going ahead with this and it could well include me being interviewed on a show that will be broadcast nationally. Way to out myself, huh? The whole idea is a trifle daunting but there's nobody who I'd be mortified to have find out about this so aside from the potential for being accosted in the street by total strangers it's not that worrying. I like the potential for positives to be derived from this. I don't physically look like the popular stereotypical conception of a transwoman and I'll dress to push that. I'm not flamboyant, I'm not a drag queen and I'm not some dowdy bloke in his mum's old frock. I'm simply a woman and the less remarkable I can be in that respect (while still definitely striving for presentable) the better. Beyond that I get to provide a *positive* commentary on what is means to be trans, what it means to be gender diverse as an athlete and how that can be a positive experience for everyone involved. I can hopefully also somewhat puncture the idea that as a transwoman playing sport in a women's league I somehow derive unfair advantage from magical boy powers. So yes, there's discrimination out there, even in derby, but I've yet to personally strike it and the experience I've had is so overwhelmingly good that I think it should be given some time even if only to demonstrate that genuine acceptance and inclusion is very very possible. The sporting world as a whole could probably learn a lot from derby in that regard.
I am mindful of the fact that media regularly gets things badly wrong when it comes to portraying trans people. I plan to be very clear about the fact that I'm absolutely *not* ok with them broadcasting pre-transition images of me, regardless of how publicly available they are, nor am I ok with them making use of my old name. I'll also be clear about how I expect them to be consistent about pronoun usage, including when talking about me pre-transition. I haven't had many ideas beyond that but those are the things that usually make me twitch when reading articles about trans people. There will inevitably be things I'll be less than totally thrilled about but I'm prepared to suck that up and deal. I made a commitment to myself a long time ago that I was going to be out about this and I've increasingly come to want to be at least a bit publicly active with regards to the perception and treatment of trans people. This is the point where the opportunity to do exactly that has landed in my lap and I can either grasp that or walk away from it. This is one of those times when the fact that something is a bit scary probably means that it's worth doing.
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(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-21 04:09 am (UTC)A few weeks ago I showed my year 11s a clip of Barbara Walters interviewing Thomas Beatty, a ftm who carried a baby so he and his wife could have a child. You'll be pleased to note that the kids reacted really well- when I asked for their feelings about it, they all said "that woman is horrible", referring to Barbara Walters! They were curious about WHY people are trans, in a polite and sensitive way, but they couldn't stand BW! So young people seem to be fairly receptive and understanding....
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-21 05:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-21 12:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-21 04:26 pm (UTC)Good luck with the pronoun usage. Are they better about that over there than they are over here? With some of the things I've seen over here one could make an easy drinking game of drinking each time the narrator used the wrong pronoun, if one wanted to get smashed rather quickly. I end up wanting to ask the narrator/whoever writes the narration if they've even listened to the interviews they're talking about. Do the people making the documentary have any sort of reputation for how they handle issues?
Knock 'em dead!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-21 06:45 pm (UTC)http://paywriter.tumblr.com/post/27232179294/forth
Hugs!