HBO's 'Normal', Showtime's 'Soldier's Girl' bring lives of transgendered people to small screen

Miami Herald ^ | 3-15-03 | Glenn Garvin

[cgk]

I just saw a HUGE billboard near my house for this Showtime "Soldier's Girl" "movie" coming up. The picture is of a "woman's" back with a tattoo (rose?), and the tagline reads "SHE was the only man HE ever loved."

[Saturnalia]

There's something going on there.
If you are desperate enough to go through all that and/or kill yourself when you cannot, SOMETHING is up.

[Paul Atreides]

Thank God for books, especially the classics.

[cgk]

Background on "Soldier's Girl"...

An Inconvenient Woman (NYT)

(snip...) "In order to turn the murdered soldier Barry Winchell into a martyr for gay rights, activists first had to turn his girlfriend, Calpernia Addams, back into a man..."

[cgk]

Tell me about it!

[Publius]

There's one in my office, and I'm not sure how to refer to him/her/it.

[cgk]

There was one that always hung around a shop near my dad's work. He insisted on being called "Jennifer Divine". He was creepier than creepy and I avoided him at all cost, with him asking me what I thought about his spiked heels, see-through minis and halter tops and if I could give him rides here or there. It was hideous and I had a hard time trying to disguise my loathing, considering I always try to be a nice person. He was forever talking about going to Thailand and getting "fixed".

[headsonpikes]

Normal no longer means 'normal', evdently.

Perhaps these folks have confused 'normal' with 'average', as in 'the average human being has one testicle'.

But that's not normal!

[far sider]

I sure am glad I'm a male lesbian.

[eastsider]

Thank God for books, especially the classics.

Ah, the classics. This one seems somewhat appropriate:

Minos was king of Crete, and the first ruler to control the Mediterranean Sea, which he ridded of pirates.. He had with him a famed craftsman, Daedalus the Athenian, who was in exile from Athens because he had murdered his nephew (and somewhat too talented apprentice), Talos. Daedalus enjoyed much favor at the court, but he managed to fall from grace by accommodating the queen, Pasiphaë, in a request. Minos had boasted that the gods would grant him any wish; he made all the preparations for a sacrifice to Poseidon, then prayed that a bull would emerge from the sea. Miraculously, a beautiful white bull swam ashore. Minos admired it so much that he decided to keep it, and sacrificed a different one from his herd instead.

This unwise decision annoyed Poseidon, who avenged the insult by causing queen Pasiphaë to fall madly in love with the white bull. Her request to Daedalus was that he should help her consummate this passion. He did so by building an ingenious hollow wooden cow, covered with hide and with a door on top through which she could lower herself inside. Together, they wheeled it into the pasture where the bull was kept; Daedalus helped her get in, and then discreetly withdrew. Pasiphaë was completely satisfied, but to everyone's horror, she then bore the Minotaur, a creature with a man's body but a bull's head.

Minos, annoyed in turn, sent to the oracle at Delphi to discover how he could hide this evidence of the shame to the royal family. The oracle answered that he ought to have Daedalus build a suitable cage; Minos thereupon had Daedalus build the Labyrinth, an enormous maze, and placed the Minotaur at the center of it. Minos also arranged to sacrifice young men and women to the flesh-eating Minotaur by shutting them into the Labyrinth, where they would wander, hopelessly lost, until the Minotaur caught and devoured them.

[detsaoT]

I HATE VIACOM

That is all.

:/ ttt

[Free ThinkerNY]

New billboard for "Soldier's Girl"

[MineralMan]

"There's one in my office, and I'm not sure how to refer to him/her/it."

How about by name?

[Publius]

That's the problem. Which name?!

[appalachian_dweller]

Between this crap, the shows that air on MTV, and public schools, today's kids don't have a chance. I really feel sorry for them.

If I ever have kids, they will be home schooled and there will be no cable TV in the house.

There will come a time when the freaks are regarded as normal and the normal as freaks. I've read many passages to that effect in the Bible (King James version).

It seems like an evil conspiracy.

[MineralMan]

"That's the problem. Which name?!
"

How about by the name the person prefers? I fail to see the problem, frankly. You're not courting this person. You're not planning to date this person. Why not just treat the person like everyone else in your office?

While you may have reservations about transsexuals, discourtesy to a co-worker is not an appropriate means of expressing them.

No doubt you know what name is preferred. Why not just use it and get on with things?

[P.O.E.]

They sure knew how to party back then, eh?

Just goes to show there's nothing new under the sun.

[dighton]

''I get so tired of seeing us as hookers all the time,'' says Diane Arnold, a Broward County transsexual activist and Democratic Party executive.

[weegee]

There is no such thing as a sex change. One can change the appearance of the primary and secondary sex traits but the "new" person will not suddenly produce sperm or have a functional womb (can they even lactate?).

Our sex differences exist for reproductive purposes. Those who seek to refine what is a family, what is love, etc. think otherwise.

[theFIRMbss]

>Thank God for books, especially the classics.

On the other hand,
Blake Edwards has done great stuff
exploring the theme...