ESPN is now airing a documentary showing the life Renee Richards, who had to sue to play professional women's tennis. But the documentary does a great job of interviewing the friends and family in Richard's life. One of the quotes from Renee's friend is "Be gay! Wear women's clothing! We don't care!" This shows that Renee's friends just looked at the sex change as being about attractiveness. Renee was attracted to men, so she might as well call herself gay. But we have discussed in class that being transgender is more than sexual attractiveness. It is a deeper personal experience. It is how someone is wired to feel, like being born in the wrong body. The feeling I got from the interviews from the friends and family was the damage and pain that Renee was going to go through with the surgeries. When Richard first started the process in becoming Renee, he met a woman and fell in love. Even though halfway through the process of changing sex, Richard was confused and stopped the process to have a family. But after only a few years of marriage, Richard felt the need to continue the transformation he stopped a few years ago. The pain was too much and the thoughts of suicide were too strong for Renee to ignore anymore.
The interviews that were done with the professionals that competed against Renee, they didn't really focus on being transexual male-to-female. They focused more on her age (40s when playing professional) against women in their late teens. The athletes felt that their youth would be an advantage over a person in her 40s.
The film focuses on the struggles that Renee went through in her life with her change from male-to-female. Renee speaks very openly about the struggles with becoming a female and the additional stress of being a transexual spokes person. She wants to show that a transexual person is still a caring person, despite the changes that are done physically. This film does more than just focus on the struggle to go from male-to-female. It shows how Renee's changes impact other people. The film goes into great detail about how other people deal with Renee's changes and how they themselves deal with the sex change. Most of the people viewed Renee as a person and a competitor, not as a freak.
That is the way that I think everyone should look at transgendered people. As people.
I'm having issues with getting the video to load, so here is a link to the trailer on Youtube.
I can’t imagine the difficulties Renee faced when simply trying to be the person she felt to be inside. While doing the heterosexual questionnaire in class, it really started to hit me just how alienated and misunderstood homosexual and transgender people must feel. It’s so easy for a straight person (who doesn’t attempt to truly understand them) to ask questions such as, “why do you have to flaunt your sexuality?” or, “why can’t you just ‘act’ straight?”
ReplyDeleteI mean, how often do straight people “think” about being straight? In all honesty, most would admit that they don’t need to think about it at all. It comes naturally and their clothing choices, mannerisms, voice, etc. are all characteristics that don’t require a second thought. It’s so unfair for society to reprimand those that are different for living life in a way that feels most comfortable for them.
Even more upsetting is the fact that many transgender people are often made to feel so unaccepted by society that they resort to extreme measures. 41 percent of transgender people in the United States have attempted to commit suicide (Moskowitz, 2010); high percentage of whom are in their teens and early twenties.
The same healthcare providers and professionals, who are trained to help people, are causing them harm based on their gender identity. 19 percent of transgender people report being refused medical care because of their gender-nonconforming status, and a shocking 2 percent have been violently assaulted in a doctor’s office (Moskowitz, 2010).
These statistics represent only a small part of the discrimination transgender individuals must face everyday. Renee’s story is just one of thousands in the United States and millions worldwide. I agree wholeheartedly that it is essential for society to get over the fact that transgender (in addition to anyone with physical, sexual, mental differences) people want to live outside of the “norm” and accept them for who they are.
Sure, this may be wishful thinking—at least for the foreseeable future. However, every movement started somewhere and the only way to see a change is to start it. For once, society needs to look past the differences between groups in order to recognize their similarities.