Friday, April 04, 2008
A Truly Postmodern Body
I ran across this snippet of an Oprah ad on people.com (don't judge!). Apparently, this transgendered man (born a woman, now a man), who is married to a woman, is pregnant with their child. His wife is apparently unable to get pregnant, so he has decided to carry their child himself. Wow.
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3 comments:
Here's a disdainful response to this interesting story, from a predictably disdainful source.
Ahh, "traditionalism."
Harrogate,
I think that the writer's claim that this story is making the rounds because it's a "freak show" is actually quite accurate. However, Queen Oprah has an opportunity to convince her very mainstream viewers that this man is not a freak. In fact, he most likely won't be the last pregnant man that we see. In the Oprah ad, she asks him if our culture is ready to handle his existence. The answer isn't revealed, but hopefully he tells her and her audience that it doesn't matter if "our culture" is ready or not--it's happening. So, fuck you, Townhall.com.
I saw this Oprah episode last night. It was interesting. O asked some good question, but also made a fair share of jokes and also comments such as "Well, that's because people ARE only men or women."
I think the couple did a nice job of showing that love and support are what's important in a relationship. They seemed to convince the audience that they are quite normal and not the freak-show that most people consider them. I enjoyed hearing the man's story and listening to his thoughts on gender.
Interesting to note is that one of the big transgender awareness groups--I don't recall which one--does not support their pregnancy, or at least their decision to go public about it. I guess they think that this pregnancy might be too freakish and detrimental to their cause.
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