I would think that with advanced medical care in the future the problem of people being born into the wrong body due to a hormonal imbalance would be a thing of the past.
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I would think that with advanced medical care in the future the problem of people being born into the wrong body due to a hormonal imbalance would be a thing of the past.
What?
A trans woman is already a woman, we look like women after just a few months on the proper hormones. I’m a trans woman, I’ve posted my picture in TNZ and I look like a woman. But it’s less about you and more for trans people, because that’s just an excuse to hire another cis person. Imagine that Star Trek had never hired a single black person as an actor, then when someone suggested it, some fans suggest that by then skin tones had changed so much that they would be light skinned. Just to hire another white person and claim they were a black person. It would be unacceptable. It’s the same thing with trans people, it’s just unfortunately still very acceptable in Hollywood. Major films and shows hire men to play trans women because that’s what they think trans women are and then that’s what the public thinks they are. Trans actresses try out for these roles and get turned down because they “don’t look trans enough” meaning they don’t look like a man in a dress.
I assume that’s why you seem so confused by the idea. It’s not your fault, that’s just how an entire group of people are depicted by everything. Trans men and non-binary people are ignored completely. This affected me too in very damaging ways leading to a lot of self-hatred. Even hiring a cis woman, while better, would be an awful choice. It’s saying that trans women now are the broken ugly ones and we’ll only be able to be accepted in the far future. We’re a disease that will be cured one day. But seeing a trans person played by a trans person being treated like any other character and their story not revolving around transitioning or surgeries would be important for trans people. We don’t have heroes, we don’t have role models, we don’t have anything the rest of you have taken for granted for so long that you can’t imagine a world without it. There are maybe five or six positive portrayals of trans people by trans people throughout all of film and television history, meaning they aren’t a punchline, a hooker or set up for a tragedy. The first one I saw was in my 30s and seeing her saved my life.
No.
Giggity!
Yeah, "trans-gender" issues in the 21st century are primarily due to limitations in medical technology and the fact that transition from one sex to another is a very difficult and time consuming process (and is also massively complicated by the habit of English speakers to use the words "gender" and "sex" interchangeably). The level of technology we see in the Trekiverse is such that gender reassignment is probably an outpatient procedure. On the other hand, it's also probably less common; some (many? Most?) cases of body dysphoria are actually caused by hormone imbalances that may themselves be treatable, and some others are caused by psychological conditions which would also be treatable. Genetic and individual factors leading to successful gender reassignment would be more easily quantified by that point and it would be about as controversial as a kid getting braces to correct an overbite.
At least English has two distinct words for those two concepts...
People could learn, but that takes effort and may force them to get over their own biases and change their minds. We can’t have that. We have to put transgender in scare quotes and treat part of the human experience who have existed throughout all of history and in every society are a weird mistake who must be cured and banished from the species.
Yep. I'm sure I misuse them in English occasionally by accident, even though I'm aware of the difference. My native language does not have different words for them, so that may muddle my thinking when I'm not being careful.
That’s not what I was saying at all, but I’m not sure I can articulate myself any better so I’ll bow out before I put my foot in it, again.
As for the trans representation issue, it is good enough for me that pretty much all actual trans people I have heard express their opinion on the matter think that there should be positive representation and those roles should be played by trans actors. I'm sure these people understand this issue far better than me, so if they say that this is how it should be done, then that's how it should be done, end of the discussion.
One you don’t seem to have the slightest understanding of anything about transgender people on any level. Maybe you should actually listen to trans people first, we know a bit more than you about the subject.
Two medical technology isn’t as advanced as you seem to think. People are still getting paralyzed, people are still blind or have disabilities. They don’t think them as an illness, they just make it easier to function in society. Geordi while born blind, has a greater range of vision than any of us can imagine. He’s not missing anything and even refused being given “normal” vision. Geordi isn’t damaged and he doesn’t need to be fixed, in fact his Visor makes him a better engineer which gives his life meaning.
Likewise transgender people, I’m not sure why you added the hyphen and scare quotes, are not broken. We don’t have body dysphoria, you’ve confused two different conditions. There’s body dysmorphia, which is seeing flaws that don’t exist. The prime example of this is usually young women who are already underweight trying to lose more because they believe they are overweight. It requires a lot of therapy. The other is gender dysphoria, something that most but not all trans people have. It’s not a mental illness, it just stress and discomfort that comes from being seen and treated as the wrong gender. No therapy can cure this, the only treatment that works is social and sometimes medical transition. Meaning that they are now seen as their correct gender by society. This commonly affects trans people because due to western civilization having certain concepts about sex and gender, they aren’t always treated as their gender.
To make this simple: Gender is between your ears, Sex is between your legs.
Other cultures have recognized this, most notably Native American tribes which recognized at least three genders (male, female, two-spirit). Two-spirit people were treated as the gender they identified as and even treated as spiritual leaders due to their unique insights on human nature.
So maybe the problem isn’t trans people, but our culture.
Now if a trans person wants hormones and surgeries, that’s up to them. It shouldn’t be forced on them in order to enforce our society standards for what’s a man and what’s a woman. It creates the idea that being cisgender is the norm and default for the species. It isn’t and other cultures recognized this. It’s no more the default than being right handed is the default. We used to force left handed people to use their right hand, punishing them for any slip up. But that’s gone away and one day, the idea that cis is the standard will too. Star Trek should reflect that because they’re more enlightened than us and should show people how our society is wrong. Just like how TOS showed audiences how widely accepted ideas on race were wrong.
So yes, I’d like to see a trans person played by a trans person being treated as their true gender without any question. Maybe they thaw out someone from the 21st century or some historical figure so they can comment on it and be corrected. But the crew should think nothing of it.
If you really were old enough in the mid '60's to have been aware of the show and the overall political and social climate of the day, then you should know better.
I'm not sure not having it be a gradual process would necessarily be a good thing.
Maybe Awesome Possum could address that?
It's not necessary to even show or mention it. Trans peoples' lives do not revolve around transitioning, it's a process that only takes a few months to a few years. It's basically puberty but done right. It's not their entire life or the most important thing in their life. It's just fascinating to cis people for some reason and that's all they seem to even know about. Ignoring it or allude to it happening in the past is preferred. Imagine if Geordi's entire character arc over 7 seasons was him getting his VISOR. It's far more important to show a trans person as another human being than being a curiosity going through some process. At the very most, just show them taking a hypospray when they wake up once throughout the entire series if an episode is focused on their day-to-day life. It should be no different than having a diabetic character. They may take a hypospray for insulin to get the point across that it's something they deal with daily, but it's more important that they're in engineering or some other department.
If you want an example of how to use a trans character, look at Nomi on Sense8. She's trans and part of her story involves her bigoted mother, but her role as a hacker and her relationship with her girlfriend is given nearly all the focus. Her being trans just informs her character and her backstory, it's not about her being trans.
It's fairly easily done now, people just heal instantly on Star Trek due to technology. People recover as quickly as pretty much anyone after any other surgery.
I don't think I've ever seen this summed up so perfectly and will be using explanation from now on.
Possum already refuted the content of your post nicely, but I'd just like to make it official that putting transgender in scare quotes to imply that it's not a real thing or not an important thing or whatever you were intending is not okay. Please don't do that again.
I agree. I used to watch the Bold and the Beautiful and there is a character called Maya who is a trans woman. The actress is not a trans woman. There are so few stories where the role could be explored. Given it's a soap the character was seen to reveal her development and journey. Now that's not to say that Maya did not have other stories she was involved in before and after being in a trans woman story. That is important because being trans or not is never the whole story of anyone's life but I just felt watching a non trans actress play the role really lacked authenticity or heart. They did have Maya model and included trans women models but really their roles were limited.
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Everything @Awesome Possum said here really should be listened to by anyone who is remotely curious about what being trans means. She should also be given a serious amount of respect for the fact she chooses to share her knowledge and insights with us, we're lucky to have her here.
A trans character should first and foremost be a character who simply happens to be trans and much as we have cis men played by cis men a trans woman should ideally be played by a trans woman. Defining a character by one factor can be just as damaging as not representing them at all, it makes them a novelty, a circus freak notable only for a label. It encourages the perception that trans people have no worth as human beings beyond the simple fact of their gender. It also paves the way for one dimensional characterisation.
A trans character should first and foremost be a character who simply happens to be trans and much as we have cis men played by cis men a trans woman should ideally be played by a trans woman. Defining a character by one factor can be just as damaging as not representing them at all, it makes them a novelty, a circus freak notable only for a label. It encourages the perception that trans people have no worth as human beings beyond the simple fact of their gender. It also paves the way for one dimensional characterisation.
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I have a question. Way back in the 80's, Diane Duane came up with a character in her Trek novels who changed genders with the seasons and so would be male in one book, female in another and so forth. A trans character in Trek should be no big deal by the 23rd century, to the extent you'd never know the character was born another gender unless the story showed flashbacks. Would depicting a gender-morphing alien perhaps be a better/more sci-fi method of featuring a trans character? IIRC Babylon 5 originally intended something similar with Delenn, but it was dropped between the pilot (where the makeup has a more masculine look) and series proper.
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