| Bailey |
Commentary |
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[143]
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| Lambs,
and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, among others, have featured
transsexuals and their like. Transsexuals
are hot. I have discerned a few main themes in transsexual mania, which
include: |
transsexuals and their like: See
Silence of the Lambs on the previous page.
Transsexuals are hot: No comment.
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"What is it like to feel that you were born the wrong sex?"
"What would it be like to become involved, knowingly or not, in a
romantic relationship with a transsexual?"
"Isn’t it amazing how convincing a woman she makes?
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Alternatively (but not in the same show)
"Isn’t it strange to see that male-looking person proclaiming
his inner femininity, dressed like a woman, and evidently somewhere in
the process of obtaining a sex change, when he used to be married and
work in a bank?"
"What is involved in getting a sex change?"
"Do transsexuals ever regret their surgery?"
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These are, indeed, all fascinating questions.
And if they are less practically important than the question of how to reduce
the national debt, some issues related to transsexualism do touch on fundamental
issues about human nature. Unfortunately, the typical format in which these
are discussed is designed to provoke rather than to illuminate. Moreover,
it is not surprising that the typical Oprah viewer has only superficial
knowledge about transsexuals when many "experts" who make their
livings working with them do not understand transsexuals very well.
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Most people—even those who have never met a transsexual—
know the standard story of men who want to be women: "Since I can remember,
I have always felt as if I were a member of the other sex. I have felt like
a freak with this body and detest my penis. I must get sex reassignment
surgery (a "sex change operation") in order to match my external
body with my internal mind." But the truth is much more interesting
than the standard story.
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