Paula's Place

Paula's Place

Sunday 22 May 2016

Tall Girls

Last night I watched a couple of episodes of I am Cait and several things struck me

  • It was said that any one with all of Caitlin's privilege could not understand how ordinary Trans people feel and what we have to go through.   This is of course very true, but not just of the trans world, any one with that much privilege simple cannot understand how ordinary people function, our relationships with money, work, benefits, education and family are all a mystery to them, I suspect that that explains a lot of what our current Government in the UK is trying to do. Those rich, privileged public school educated men in suits, simply don't understand how it feels to have to choose between being warm and fed or paying the Council Tax.
  • A couple of times I found myself noticing that a lot of the trans girls on screen (Particularly Cait) were quite tall and have broad muscular shoulders and slim bottoms, to only be reminded by myself that so have I, is that how other people see me?
  • There was a lot of talk about the "Trans Community" and who has a right to be a spokesperson for us.   One of the things that this show does highlight is how different we all are.   Very often the only thing we may have in common is a divergent gender identity, for anyone to identify with all of us is too much to ask, for anyone to share all our opinions would be impossible. However if one of us does come under the spot light of publicity and has a platform I think it is reasonable that they should be able to highlight some of the issues that we all face, but please don't expect anyone to speak for the whole trans community on every point. (And that does include me!)
  • At one point the Pink Fog began to descend on our heroine, and she began to side line a friend, I think we all need to remember those who have been important to us through our lives, and not let the pink fog take over, 
  • I have read a lot of things about this show, much of it disparaging, but I found it to be a mostly harmless bit of fluff, that did manage to highlight some of the problems that many of us have to face, while still having the superficial gloss of wealth and glamour of the lifestyle of our eponymous heroine
I gather that I am right at the start of series one, and that "stuff" develops, I look forward to seeing more, after all I am still very much of the opinion that the more visible we are, the more we are perceived as members of the general community at large and not some freaks who put everybody at risk, then the more our new normal will become generally accepted.

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