Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Entertainment Tonite

I received an email today that mentioned two programs on tonite. One is a new episode on Dr. Phil that involves gender issues. From what I gather, it will be on an MTF, an FTM, a CD, and a youth with AIS.

Now, I'm not a big fan of Dr. Phil, but we'll see what he says. A friend or two mentioned the same concern I have, and supposedly they checked out his website for the promotion. They believe they're just using the stories for sensationalism. I guess we'll have to watch to see.

One of the stories supposedly deals with a 37 year old mom that transitions to living as a man...and since the dad is bisexual, their family is still going quite well. Interesting.

Someone also mentioned that tonite's episode of the Tyra Banks show deals with gender issues as well. It looks like it is a repeat on my TV schedule, but the website shows it to be a new show about something different. I'm not sure.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just checked my parents Tivo, which shows that Tyra Banks show about this issue will air on the Oxygen Network on January 23rd at 10pm Mountain Time. No info on the Dr. Phil episode. I don't think those repeat. At least that I can find.
Becca from Denver.
P.S. Kara, Tonite is spelled "Tonight":P

Kara said...

Entertainment Tonight was already taken so I had to improvise.

Anonymous said...

I don’t pay attention to Dr. Phil’s show and have never seen a complete episode until last night when I happened across it and realized it was on transgender themes.

It touched on a lot aspects of gender dysphoria without much depth on any. There was a very brief, not too informative, segment on a MtF and GG couple who were in the audience.

Parents of an AIS child were on stage and there was video of the child being raised as a girl. The girl, age 4, is saying that she is a boy. My heart went out to her because at the same age I was telling my mother that I was a girl, although AIS wasn’t my problem. I think her mother was inclined to have the child’s testes removed in hopes of removing the desire to be a boy – and we all know how well those remedies work – NOT. Dr. Phil was good in promoting a course of watching for cues over time and not doing anything rash. He said that he would provide guidance from his team of consultants.

Another segment concerned an MtF high school student transitioning at school and wearing female clothes. The student was not present but the family’s attorney was as well as two mothers opposed to the student being allowed to dress as a female. I transitioned in high school, but started at a new school and that was stressful enough! I really don’t know what I would have done if I had to stay at the same school I had attended as a boy. The mothers seemed to base their opposition on the school’s dress code, saying their sons had to remove their nose rings and couldn’t wear caps or other things but this student didn’t have to follow the dress codes for boys. They did say that the school applied the girls’ dress code to her. There was a discussion of programs telling the kids not to be bullies.

The mothers struck me as the types who would respond, “What right do you have to be looking in my son’s locker,” if told their son’s lockers was full of heroin and guns. And the bully training is good, but tends to teach those doing the insults and slurs that they have to be careful about being caught, at least in my experience. I probably read more into this segment because of my own history, but it just touched the surface.

The show opened with a person claiming to be FtM and wanting to have her name changed, start HRT and undergo a mastectomy. It may just be me, but I thought her answers were hedged based on what she thought would sound better for her or worse for her mother and aunts, who were also there. Her family claimed that she had gone to a fertility clinic within the past two years to see about insemination. She replied it had been longer but that it had happened.

She also said that her therapist has supported her in HRT and surgery from the first visit. My reaction was that any therapist who would do that on the first visit should have the license lifted and be sent back to flipping hamburgers! Statements made indicated that she had not started HRT or had any surgeries at this point.

When the segment, the longest of the show, ended I didn’t know if the person was really FtM, a lesbian, or just trying to cause her family as much pain as possible.

Dr. Phil did ask her how she thought her relationships would be if she did this right away and presented as a male to others. She didn’t think there would be any problems at all. Dr. Phil did point out that others had been down this path and she might learn from them and also tried, gently I thought, to get her to be a little more realistic about her decisions.

I didn’t really see a happy conclusion for this one. As I look at what I wrote about it, and the pronouns that seem most appropriate, I would say that I really thought lesbian was more likely than FtM.

I also looked at Dr. Phil’s website earlier today and found 3 or 4 pages of comments on the subject, ranging from the very supportive to the “God doesn’t make junk,” variety. I would like to ask that fool what he would do if his son had a hole in his heart when he was born. Aaargh!

He probably would be concentrating on looking down my blouse so much he couldn’t answer!

Victoria