I’ve been watching TransGeneration recently, and it’s basically just a reality TV show that caters to perverse cis curiosity about trans folks.
it has so many fucked up moments, but one of the ones I found amusing was when they took footage of Gabbie the trans woman cutting up hot dogs:
Then just to make sure we didn’t miss the metaphor they zoom in and really focus on her cutting the hot dogs:
just, lmao
I saw a documentary on Hayley from Coronation Street (first trans character on a long running UK soap opera). She was (for the most part) reasonably sensitively portrayed and her actress (a cis woman) was at least very careful to listen to trans voices at the time and I believe has been a decent ally since (if I’m wrong please correct me). She ended up becoming a core cast member that stuck around for 16 years.
The thing that struck me was how the public conversation was really different to how it would be now. The right hadn’t yet re-organised and rallied against “woke”. The anti trans mob wasn’t really a thing (of course transphobia was very real, just seemingly less organised). There was a lot of language that feels icky now but it just didn’t seem like the same level of toxicity we have to deal with in current year.
The real crime here is that she’s cutting hot dogs with a paring knife.
y’all have hate in your heart
Similar thing happens with the trans woman in Orange is the New Black. Is this a trope or what?
they show her cutting hotdogs!? ha, I didn’t remember that
A cucumber or sth IIRC. But it is like the camera focuses on the deed. Seemed very deliberate.
I hex you to make a gif of this scene so that I might reply to any transphobes with it
your hex was a success!
That’s the wrong knife for cutting hotdogs.
yeah, a scalpel would have been a better choice
I mean even if she’s not going for the metaphor, the correct choice is a chef’s knife. It’s the correct choice for 90% of jobs in the kitchen and will do fine for the other 10%.
Normally I would agree, but I can’t actually think of why a utility knife is a bad choice for cutting hot dogs - they’re soft and easy to cut, and it’s not as impractical as a paring knife. Mostly I just think it would be easier & safer to guide a chef’s knife with your fingers.
Also the blade meets the chopping block all the way back so there’s no void between the handle and the blade. But mostly it’s much quicker to use a chef’s knife because of the ability to guide the blade.
I had never heard of this. Shot in 2004-2005. Yeah, I bet they don’t portray trans people in the best light lmao.
How are you watching? I’d love to get some insight on how the girlies of the past lived.
I’ve been watching these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkg5GgOpcVI&list=PL88BD29E2D7FABBCE
but the videos are basically broken, often in the middle of an episode it abruptly cuts back to the middle of a previous episode - it’s very frustrating and I need to find another format :-/
And yeah, I think the filmmakers thought of themselves as enlightened and helping trans people, but from a contemporary trans perspective it feels pretty transphobic and did not age well (particularly the way it uses a reality TV format).
Kinda reminds me how “retarded” used to be the medical term for the mentally disabled.
Every point of progress eventually looks dated. Though I’m sure with this being a reality show, there’s not much progress.
EDIT: Looks like it’s on Roku?
let me know if you watch it what you think 😄 I’m not sure it’s as bad as “retarded” but some of the language is outdated, like the way Gabbie’s grandpa (who is supportive of her) calls her “a transgender” and the show as being about “transgenders” - there is all this sensitivity about language now, about not using “transgender” as a noun and so on that there was no awareness of back then.
Even if language policing is tedious and obnoxious, I am glad on the other hand that there is increased sensitivity about language to some extent, because I do think language has capacity to stigmatize and it seems straightforwardly good to reduce unnecessary stigma against certain groups.
Reading about “retard” is interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retard_(pejorative)
I didn’t know it was still being used in legislation in the US until 2010!
Also, I keep hearing proclamations that the word is “coming back”, but it only seems like the people who use the term are shameless right-wing assholes who probably didn’t stop using the word in the first place?
