Just a quick and humorous update today. I was hanging out with two of my best friends and the topic of hair removal products cam up as we were talking. I used to use this great Australian product like wax but you didn't have to heat it up. I almost didn't stop myself in time from saying, " I used to have Nads."
Its funny how being trans can change the potential meaning of the things you say. In retrospect I probably should have said it. It would have been really frickin hilarious.
Ellie Wilson
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Friday, July 23, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
A lighter (more petty) note
I was very socially awkward as a child. Some of that was probably due to being TS and not knowing yet, but mostly I chalk it up to being a giant geek and/or nerd. Now mostly I would try to laugh it off and turn the other cheek, " 'cause that's how I got raised up!" One time in the fourth grade this came back to bite me.
A particularly mean girl, her name was Meghan, decided it was her turn to have a go at me. I laughed it off only to have her turn and say to me, " No I'm not laughing with you, I'm laughing at you!" Like for real, an actual person actually said that! Well I teared up and was mortified and she got to smile smugly knowing she hurt me.
What I should said was, "My god, how can you be so stereotypically mean? Saturday morning specials called and they want you to play the jerk in everything they have ever done, ever." I was a pretty smart kid, re: giant nerd, so I am pretty sure I knew how to use the word 'stereotypically' correctly.
She was so petty that she couldn't let me laugh it off. Of course now here I am blogging about it years later so I can't really point the petty stick. Its a good point though, I remember very little from fourth grade. My teacher's face and name, my locker combination, who sat next to me, all forgotten but I remember this one girl and this one time she was so mean to me. I wonder sometimes if she remembers too. Has she become a better person now and from time to time when the memory strikes her does she say to herself, "Gosh I can believe I really said that?"
Myself, I use it as a reminder that they way we treat people stays with them. We can't always do or say the right thing but if we try, if we go out of our way to put the effort in, that can stay too. So in the words of Bill and Ted, be excellent to each other.
Ellinore Wilson.
Feel free to donate!
A particularly mean girl, her name was Meghan, decided it was her turn to have a go at me. I laughed it off only to have her turn and say to me, " No I'm not laughing with you, I'm laughing at you!" Like for real, an actual person actually said that! Well I teared up and was mortified and she got to smile smugly knowing she hurt me.
What I should said was, "My god, how can you be so stereotypically mean? Saturday morning specials called and they want you to play the jerk in everything they have ever done, ever." I was a pretty smart kid, re: giant nerd, so I am pretty sure I knew how to use the word 'stereotypically' correctly.
She was so petty that she couldn't let me laugh it off. Of course now here I am blogging about it years later so I can't really point the petty stick. Its a good point though, I remember very little from fourth grade. My teacher's face and name, my locker combination, who sat next to me, all forgotten but I remember this one girl and this one time she was so mean to me. I wonder sometimes if she remembers too. Has she become a better person now and from time to time when the memory strikes her does she say to herself, "Gosh I can believe I really said that?"
Myself, I use it as a reminder that they way we treat people stays with them. We can't always do or say the right thing but if we try, if we go out of our way to put the effort in, that can stay too. So in the words of Bill and Ted, be excellent to each other.
Ellinore Wilson.
Feel free to donate!
Monday, July 19, 2010
Absent Voice
Quite some time back there was a lot of coverage on a particular issue that I feel I missed my chance to speak out on. The right of a doctor to deny treatment of a patient if it went against his or her religion has since been tossed out of law so my opinions will have no direct effect at this point but it has been nagging at me for quite a while now.
The major focus of the media coverage on this topic was abortion rights, and rightly so as that was the target of the horrible law in the first place. Another major focus was the "morning after" pill, which in my mind is not the same thing as abortion. The whole affair was a tragic infringement on woman's rights and it is right that was the focus of the media's attention. At the same time there was limited coverage for how the law had affected the gay community, but in all the coverage I watched I didn't see one mention of how it affected the trans community, at all.
I don't know how many emails I started an deleted during all this but in the end I kept silent. What I should have said is that the trans community was held hostage by this law. Trans people, and I am specifically thinking of transitioning TS men and women, depend on the medical community for a great number of things. From therapy to hormones, to cosmetic facial reconstruction to breast augmentation/mastectomy and especially GRS. While the vast majority of abortions take place at specialized clinics where the law would not have been a problem there are virtually no endocrinologists whose practice focus solely on TS people and most of the surgeries depend on hospital facilities where your doctor can't always pick and chose support staff like nurses, assisting doctors, anesthesiologists etc.
The law is gone now, and good riddance, so the only thing left to say is, 'Where was the media?" I understand that the main focus was and should have been woman's rights, but really, no coverage at all? Perhaps there just aren't enough TG and TS people to make it worth while to spend time on in a news cycle. New is a business these days and perhaps a minority within a minority just doesn't have a large enough advertising demographic to warrant coverage. Trans issues don't get nearly enough coverage in this country and in most cases none at all and the media needs to get better about it.
Mostly though I blame myself, and others like me. I kept silent on this issue and I really shouldn't have. We need to be more connected and vocal in constructive ways. I have recently resolved to use my 'trans voice' more often and more loudly. Hopefully the next time an issue like this arises we wont be quite so overlooked.
Ellinore Patricia Wilson
Feel free to donate!
The major focus of the media coverage on this topic was abortion rights, and rightly so as that was the target of the horrible law in the first place. Another major focus was the "morning after" pill, which in my mind is not the same thing as abortion. The whole affair was a tragic infringement on woman's rights and it is right that was the focus of the media's attention. At the same time there was limited coverage for how the law had affected the gay community, but in all the coverage I watched I didn't see one mention of how it affected the trans community, at all.
I don't know how many emails I started an deleted during all this but in the end I kept silent. What I should have said is that the trans community was held hostage by this law. Trans people, and I am specifically thinking of transitioning TS men and women, depend on the medical community for a great number of things. From therapy to hormones, to cosmetic facial reconstruction to breast augmentation/mastectomy and especially GRS. While the vast majority of abortions take place at specialized clinics where the law would not have been a problem there are virtually no endocrinologists whose practice focus solely on TS people and most of the surgeries depend on hospital facilities where your doctor can't always pick and chose support staff like nurses, assisting doctors, anesthesiologists etc.
The law is gone now, and good riddance, so the only thing left to say is, 'Where was the media?" I understand that the main focus was and should have been woman's rights, but really, no coverage at all? Perhaps there just aren't enough TG and TS people to make it worth while to spend time on in a news cycle. New is a business these days and perhaps a minority within a minority just doesn't have a large enough advertising demographic to warrant coverage. Trans issues don't get nearly enough coverage in this country and in most cases none at all and the media needs to get better about it.
Mostly though I blame myself, and others like me. I kept silent on this issue and I really shouldn't have. We need to be more connected and vocal in constructive ways. I have recently resolved to use my 'trans voice' more often and more loudly. Hopefully the next time an issue like this arises we wont be quite so overlooked.
Ellinore Patricia Wilson
Feel free to donate!
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