Back when I was a teen, I was definitely fairly trans. Though I hadn't a clue that such a thing existed.
I recall things like standing in front of a full length mirror with my boy parts tucked back between my legs. And trying to tape things back inside for a smooth front. Never could get the tape to hold though...
Then I found a book mom had been reading. I read it. And it was my introduction to transexuality. It was also why I didn't even *think* about it for a number of years afterwards.
The book? Myra Breckenridge by Gore Vidal.
A greater disservice to the trans community is hard to find.
Comments
Vidal, Heinlein, Harris, Irving...
They weren't writing transgender, they were writing sex, titillation and profit - and they all did us disservices. Vidal was a transphobic asshole, but the book was at least better than the movie.
Heinlein is still my favorite,
them's fighten words.
It was odd, I read "I Shall Fear No Evil" knowing I wanted to be a girl. It was a fun read because of it.
"All You Zombies" was made into a full length movie. Don't remember the name, but it was a short story, not meant to be taken that seriously.
To channel an old joke?
Milton was asked by his rabbi to say something at Shimon's funeral. NOBODY liked Shimon and the rabbi was desperate to find someone who would agree to speak. Milton thought for a moment and then agreed to speak. At the funeral, the rabbi introduced Milton as someone who wanted to say something nice about Shimon. Milton got up and smiled and said, "His brother was worse."
The only redeemable thing about the novel from the perspective of many is that while the novel was horrible, the movie was worse; it is actually considered as being one of the worst movies ever made.
Love, Andrea Lena
Tipper Gore Vidal Sasoon
(<--which I believe was an answer on WHEEL OF FORTUNE once, years ago...)
I too read Myra Breckinridge way back when. And IMO it had about as much to do with trans people as The Mikado has to do with Japan. Neither Vidal nor William Gilbert bothered to research their topic, just made it all up off the top of their head. I think Gilbert saw a "Japanese village" exhibit at some early version of a world's fair, then figured he knew all he needed to in order to spin his story about those funny and exotic Orientals. And Vidal might have met or even slept with a few drag queens.
And from what little I remember (something about Myra beating a guy's balls with a tennis racket...) he really wasn't trying to write about transgender people, but was using his bogus ts character to air his thoughts about men and women, gay lib, women's rights and the "sexual revolution"; appropriating what he saw not as real people---but as some sort of symbol of sexuality in the late 60's---for his own ends. Like how Par Lagerkvist (who I think won a Nobel for his Barabbas) used a dwarf to symbolize human corruption in his The Dwarf. An excellent book (which didn't become almost immediately dated like the insufferable 60's-trendy Myra Breckinridge); real spooky, dark + cynical, (recommended if you like The Borgias)..... but I'm pretty sure actual dwarves would have some serious issues with it and with the author for reducing them to a symbol, a cheap gimmick...
Well shit, I guess it really CAN happen here..,
.
Not to defend Myra or Gore
(as if I'm on a first-name basis with either)
I've always thought the book was Vidal flailing away at what was dubbed "The Sexual Revolution", which was actually vanilla/whitebread compared to the sexual realities Vidal was familiar with. In other words, a teenage girl starting "The Pill" was considered revolutionary, while Vidal was aware of S&M, the casting couch, and sexual practices that did not make the cover of Time magazine..
In other words, Vidal may have snarled, "Ya wanna Sexual Revolution? I'll give ya a Sexual Revolution!"
Remember, this was before Stonewall, a time when much of America was largely ignorant as to the existence of homosexuals. ("After all," they'd sniff, "Everybody knows that there are only a few of them and they're some European aberration, anyway. Oh, look, honey--Paul Lynde and Liberace are on TV tonight!")
As to "transsexuals" ... there was the New York Times report of Johns Hopkins surgeries in November 1966. Myra was published in February 1968, which means that Vidal wrote it in 1967 at the latest, only months after the announcement. Was he cashing in on the news? And, let's face it, ignorance abounded. Vidal was no doubt aware of "transsexuals" (I'm using the term as he and the world knew it), but it's possible that he was one of the gay men who are dismissive or even violently opposed to the concept of being transgender.
Vidal has repeatedly shown himself to be a quite eloquent, skilled writer, of depth and clarity and living, breathing characters. None of that is present in Myra. It seems dashed off by a hack awash in disgust and booze.
Or did Vidal create a very early Post-Modern joke, a meta-reference curling back on itself? Or even the childish, "I'm so famous, I bet I could publish garbage and they'd still buy it!"
It's sad, though, that Myra was the first introduction so many people had to any form of cross-gender. It certainly was destructive on so many levels, and should never-never-never be considered a transgender novel.
Finally, I always was curious about the obsession with Parker Tyler, a film theorist. While not my favorite, I've read some Tyler and he was very much part of the critical zeitgeist of the Sixties ... perhaps that's the key to whatever in the world induced Vidal to write Myra? An inside joke, perhaps?
But, oh, what damage it caused!
Karin