For once I think I've beaten Angharad to highlight a Guardian article of interest here :)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/08/five-tra...
Robi
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Comments
Hmmm....
I think that most of the list is good, but I find the inclusion of Jayne County as a role model to be unsettling at the very least. For a person struggling with family acceptance issues pointing to Jayne County hardly helps. Better our role models be the like of Jan Morris, Renee Richards, and Wendy Carlos -- or for that matter the non-celebrity transperson down the street, who works within society to make us a know entity, and walks the path with dignity.
Amy-Lynn
Five Trans Role Models
What about Kim Petra?
May Your Light Forever Shine
Odd List
*rolls eyes* Did they spend five seconds or a whole ten seconds coming up with that list? I guess it depends on what you mean by role models but frankly James Barry is the only one that seems to me to be what I would want to see in a role model. For a start the selection of Vladimir Luxuria over Georgina Bayer (the first transsexual mp in the world) is baffling to me. So many names missed off (Jan Morris springs to mind) that would surely warrant inclusion. I guess any list by definition is subjective but it baffles me.
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
Subjective to be sure...
...Here's a great place to start if you're looking for role models that have made a difference.
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TSsuccesses/TSgallery...
Whom I have as role models:
...add to the list: Jan Morris, Wendy Carlos, as well as many of my friends here.
Love, Andrea Lena
I would have thought that
Lynn Conway would have been on the list; I mean she was the co-inventor of the VLSI design methodology (together with Carver Mead).
VLSI had changed the way we design processors and allowed them to become the power house they are today.
Without Mead and Conway we wouldn't have FPU (or any big processing unit) on our processors and we wouldn't have gotten to such strong processors.
I know it's somewhat technical but I would have thought such a person deserved a spot on the list, if only to show that there are great trans engineer out there
I still have qualms
about the term transsexual for people who have transitioned and are living in role, especially post op. So women who made a difference perhaps, or men for those who went the other way.
As for role models, what about some of the four billion women who live in today's world or those who lived before? Such as Marie Curie, Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, Elizabeth Garret Anderson and loads more, or everyday heroines like mothers, sisters, wives and daughters who raise families in difficult circumstances.
Angharad
The problem is
If you exclude the word transsexual for people who have transitioned and are living in the role post op, then you have no way of talking about their history without complicated circumlocutions. Denying history is not the way to build on it. Yes, such people have the right to be called women and men. But so do the pre-op transsexuals. My opinion as a wordsmith. :)
While it would be nice on a personal level to be able to disappear into the mass of people and not call attention to oneself, the fact remains if you ever survived a 10,000 meter jump without a parachute, you are always a survivor. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Shrug
I really don't think the Guardian article is fully on target myself.
What I write now, refers to the other role models put forth by earlier commentators eg Andrea James, Calpernia Addams et al.
I use to hold such women in awe as they have put their lives out there to show that there is no shame in being who we are. I started transitioning around the time Lynn Conway did in the mid-eighties. I am not a 'visible' TS, my life is complicated enough as it is and being Asian, in this mostly white country, I doubt I am a 'great' role model anyway.
Those folks who have quietly gotten the job done behind the scenes get my vote. Those folks made even the possibility of gender changes on drivers licenses possible around the late 1980s, who pushed to be recognized without grandstanding. I did my bit by being a 'model' TS who passed well, got a job while trans, recently got government blessing despite being trans. It is important to be reliable while being trans to dispel the notion that we are insane idiots for doing what we do.
We all do our bit. Being a Chinese minority, from the 1960s, I understand very well being the 'model minority' deal. It is not fair having to be held to a standard, but there you are. Being a white TS, it is probably the first taste of being a minority and being considered alien by all of these folks so it may seem like they should be lauded for overcoming something and leading in something that should crush them, but yeah, it's been done. Sorry.
Don't get me wrong, they are still admirable, doing what they do but I am a bit sick of them as being held up to be TS goddesses.
Kim
Yikes!
Pointing out that someone has done something is hardly holding them up to be goddesses.
And just because someone put forth their list of admirable people does not mean it is an exhaustive list. In fact, the article writer mentioned that at the very beginning.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Why all the negativity here?
I mean, I feel as if I have just been kicked in the teeth for daring to run a website for thirteen years.
Someone offers a non-exhaustive list of people they think are admirable and almost everyone wants to criticize the nominees, the person making the list or the idea of lists at all.
Can no one stand the thought that a few people in situations that often lead to loneliness, despair and suicide have done something that someone somewhere finds with mentioning? Nominating someone else for the list is fine but in almost every case of that here it has been phrased as a failure of the person making the list.
Seriously, why the HELL all the negativity? It scares me.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
It's just the Internets
Our better angels are doing things offline. I think they are still using Palm Pilots or something.
Please don't let it get to you. Most people post first and think later. It's the nature of spending too much time at a machine that doesn't have emotions - people forget about the impact of their typing.
Chin up - you are much, much appreciated! :)
not as think as i smart i am
Top Lady!!
Erin! You're a star!! Don't take the morons seriously.... Believe in what you do - you do it so well. We're all 101% in your debt! keep the faith and may the Force be with you! Lots of love, Ginger xxxx
a tranny diaspora
Subjective? Sure and so what. All depends on the perspective I guess as to whether each is admirable or whatever. Without knowing the individuals it's always tough to judge so I won't. It aint my list which is cool, but I don't really have one as such so.. .shrug. Go forth girls n guys and do what ya gotta do in your own time and way. Can't get too bothered about the term 'transexual' (2 esses?) either. Yes it might be nice if it wasn't there or needed in a way but I suspect not in this universe or lifetime or something.
Coffee anyone? Biccie?
Kris
It looks like
that the role models were selected more for their political activism in America than anything else, or perhaps owe more to the 'age' of the author.
Thinking about it, my 5 seconds of thought list has nainly people who date from my own awareness of being TG than anything else.
Curious ain't it
This list of 5 includes not one FTM transsexual/ gender-variant person.
I hereby nominate Billy Tipton!
Trap
For those who aren't familiar with Billie...
this from Wikipedia -
Billy Lee Tipton (December 29, 1914 – January 21, 1989) was an American jazz musician and bandleader. Born Dorothy Lucille Tipton, he is also notable for the discovery, after his death, that he was female assigned at birth.
Love, Andrea Lena