Anyone here watching Transgeneration on the

[ikojo]

Sundance channel?

It's about four transgendered college students (two female to male and two male to female).

[MuseRider]

1. Darn!

I was going to watch that and totally forgot about it. Is it still going? Maybe they will repeat it. Rats. I wanted to watch it to get a better understanding of the transexual population. Grrrrrr, I can't believe I missed this!

I just this moment saw an ad for it so I guess I did not miss it all. Thanks for reminding me though. Is it good?

[ikojo]

2. I think they repeat the current week's episode on Saturday

evening. You can watch the first episode on the Sundance channel website

http://www.sundancechannel.com/transgeneration/

[MuseRider]

3. Thank you. n/t

[readmoreoften]

4. Hmm.

Not so sure you'll get a better understanding of the trans population from a reality tv show.

[MuseRider]

5. Is that what this is?

I thought it was a Sundance documentary. :shrug:

[ikojo]

6. I don't see it as a reality show. They followed four

college students in the 2004/05 school year. Two are female to male trannies and two are male to female trannies. We see them experience college as transgendered people.

I watch it and see how class affects people outside the mainstream. One of the kids, Gabbie, comes from a family where money is no object. Her parents are paying (by this time probably have paid) for her surgery which at the time of the show cost $15,500. She gets the female hormones from a reputable doctor and picks them up at a Walgreens.

Raci on the other hand attends USC in LA on a scholarship. She is from a poor immigrant Filipino family. She buys her female hormones on the street for $20 each. She is not guaranteed of any quality and her aunt injects the hormones into Raci.

Gabbie is very confident and is accepted and out about her gender identity. Raci is not as confident about confiding in others nor is she out at school. I am sure class dynamics play a part in this. Gabbie knows she has no worries, her parents support her emotionally and financially.

Even if it does fall within the defintion of a reality show, maybe just maybe it will help some transgendered person come to terms and help them start what must be a very difficult conversation.

[MuseRider]

7. Whatever it takes

to help people understand this issue.

Anyone here who would want to educate someone would be very welcome to post here. Book recommendations? Anything?

[readmoreoften]

8. I don't think the program is bad at all.

I do think that the advertising campaign did the show a grave disservice, though (it had a notebook with trivial to-do items checked off, the last being 'sex change'). It made my partner, who is transgendered, so uncomfortable that sometimes it would make him upset all night.

I do think, though, that sometimes these shows become iconic. Every trannyboy is not 'Lucas', etc. For example, my partner does not feel that he is suffering from a 'disorder' at all, but is a native american person who believes that he is two-spirited. He also IDs as a transgendered butch. He wants top surgery, but not bottom surgery, and may or may not go on testosterone.

I think that Leslie Feinberg's Transliberation, Transgender Warriors, and Stone Butch Blues are excellent books about transpeoples. Kate Borstein's books as well.

If you're REALLY interested, you may want to pick up "Sexing the Body" by biologist Ann Fausto-Sterling, who shows how the distinction between biologically male and female is fairly arbitrary. Or Lacqueur's book "Making Sex", which shows the history of the idea of sexuation in Western Culture.

[MuseRider]

9. Thanks.

As I thought, it is far more complex than everyone makes it out to be.

[readmoreoften]

10. typo...

Kate Bornstein, not 'Borstein', heh heh

[tishaLA]

11. I really like this show

I think it's interesting how various trans-folk construe their relationships to gender and gender performativity. TJ is quite interesting to me, in part because he's Armenian and a graduate student--I have this strange belief that Armenians are very conservative about gender roles and I like his often meta-level approach to gender identity. Lucas also interests me, but because he's from a small town in OK....I find his story intriguing, if somewhat immature (he was excited in the first episode to go on hormones so girls could give him head....OK!)

I find Rico (that may be the wrong name), the Filipina, the most disturbing. I think she is using her sexuality in ways that cannot do anything but harm her eventually. I don't think it's her responsibility to be out to everyone about her gender, but I do think much of her behavior vis-a-vis gender identity is somewhat unethical. It's great that she thinks she's pretty and that she keeps repeating it like a mantra (maybe she will convince herself one day), but the way she uses her appearance sometimes makes me wince.

[dickthegrouch]

12. Reminder: it's on tonight n/t