View Full Version : Operation sex-change, role reversal!
On Sunday night 900pm EST, on A and E, gets reality back into TV!! This is far more frightning then eating worms or going into a shark infested tank. Two woman and two men who have been picked from thousands of appilcants will leave vainty behind and live life as the other sex for a month. It will investgate the intense pyscholigial and pysical dynamics of being the other sex. The newspapers around here are giving it real good reviews. It migh be intersesting to have a buch of us see this and compare it to our lives and maybe debate it on this site as to the truths and non truths this show might display. If anybody thinks this is a good idea let me know, I'm watching it anyway and I will tell you what I think about it. Julanne
I seen the show but I did not think the role reversal was ligitamate.
I did not gather their names but I felt that their could have been more of an into a role reversal mode. I thought that the f to m was cool and into who they were but the f to m's were not comfortable with their enviroment.
The m to f's had siloutte breasts which I knew then, that someone needed to be secure within themselves.
The gaff was histerical,lol the look on the m to f's face was a kodak moment .
I think If I had know it was on I would have taped it.
There were other fine assumsations too ,
I felt A&E told these two couples what they could do and what they couldn't do. I feel that the show could have been alot better if these individuls were in a real enviroment.
What I found real interesting is the diffrence that was decribed about how tradtional boys and girls sit and walk diffrently. They told how boys more often sit with their legs open, and walk with there arms in motion. In conversations, they say, girls will use language more, and boys will use volume. Growing up I remember how my mom and dad and even grandparents would always tell me "Julanne, close you legs" or My mother would complain that I had a boyish gait. Even today I watched myself walk and sure enough I swing my arms a little, like the teacher they were trying to teach the girls about acting masulaine. I also talk loudly or get louder as a talk, My mother always pointed it about me,as a another boyish trait. Did I learn this? Or is in genetic? I did want to be femmie, but could help but be me. I wonder if taking femmie classes would have help me the way they were trying to teach the boy. I noticed a struggle though the girls had trying to be boys. It was not easy. Also as time went on, and after the boy was almost attacked at a football stadim the tention realy grew between the group which were all living togeather. In fact, much more could of been add. One of the girls who played Dave left the show and we can only speculate why, but it did clearly show that it is NOT easy for one sex to play the role of another. We also saw very little of the privaite videos that would have realy showed the struggle between gender swiching, So I think your right that much was left out. The show did have some real funny moments like when the girls had to pick out there package or the boy got a body waxing and looked like a plucked chicken. If my mom was alive this video I think, would have taught her something about the comical aspects of our situation. And about raising a boy as a girl, or vise vera. Is it true I wonder though that people are easier and forgiving on girl tomboys them a girlish boy?and how much can we say honestly learned?
From what I've seen, it is easier for girls to get away with acting "boyish" than it is for boys to act "girlish". Girls can play in sports & hold jobs (traditionally a man's domain) & it's cool. But every so often I see some little news segment about guys who stay home to raise the kids while the woman goes out & earns the money. Almost every one said he does get some hassles about doing it.
Just look at some of the clothes out there. Girls wear T shirts & jeans like any boy & nobody thinks anything about it but if a guy wore a skirt (outside of Scotland, where it'd be called a kilt), you can imagine the reactions I'm sure.
I guess that's where I'm lucky. I can wear almost anything I want. :D
Andi
I don't know if I liked this or not... After spending 30 years trying to be male (like my family and church tried to tell me to be), and then another 15 trying to be female (like my emotional side is and my doctors told me I really was)... and 4 years ago finally accepting myself as "In the middle somewhere" - which is really how I was born and who I am... I don't like it much that society demands that I fit in one sex or the other... Does anyone else feel we should have just as much right to demand that we are "In the Middle" as people born male or female have to demand they be recognized as male or female??? Or am I way off base here? PJ
Hi PJ, I don't think you're off-base at all, in fact I still belief that there's really no need to put you, I, or anyone else in any sort of catagory. After trying to identify with a male role in society for 15 years and having now had an additional 15 in a more natural female role, I have come to the following conclusion: Gender (or any other way of trying to classify the soul), is a broad spectrum, kind of like a rainbow. I've been called TG or TS, and that sounds to me like someone running from one locked room to another. I've only recently been exposed to the term Intersexed and for me this just sounds more honest. Not in some kind of transit but encompassing all facets of who we are, and aren't there just lots of those? Others may choose to keep themselves restrained in one room or another, but to walk between them and down the hall is a better way to not only know your house, but to know it as home. I hope that didn't sound too wierd! -Jaime
Maybe I am the odd one out here, but I didn't care for the show at all. Gender is sometimes such a struggle for many of us, and especially those who need to transition. Transitioning is such a struggle, and many give up everything they know---their jobs, their families, their friends, and unfortunately sometimes even their lives simply because they need to live in the body and gender they feel they belong in, which may not be the gender they were born in, or for intersex people, the gender they were raised in.
This show, particularly the reality tv aspect of it, seemed to make a joke of those struggles. I found that insulting. It was nothing more than a bunch of wanna-be actors and actresses learning how to audition for a future Mrs Doubtfire or Victor/Victoria. At the end of the day, they shed their make-believe genders and got on with life. Unfortunately, many who struggle find that end of the day elusive in real life.
Betsy
Betsy... Right on girl! You hit right on the nose... I also feel those kinds of shows make fun or a joke about our struggles... that's why I don't like Tootsie, Victor/Victoria, and Mrs. Doubtfire very much at all. I am glad I am not alone in this... PJ
Girlyboy
03-05-03, 05:20 AM
Originally posted by PJ
I don't know if I liked this or not... After spending 30 years trying to be male (like my family and church tried to tell me to be), and then another 15 trying to be female (like my emotional side is and my doctors told me I really was)... and 4 years ago finally accepting myself as "In the middle somewhere" - which is really how I was born and who I am... I don't like it much that society demands that I fit in one sex or the other... Does anyone else feel we should have just as much right to demand that we are "In the Middle" as people born male or female have to demand they be recognized as male or female??? Or am I way off base here? PJ
Pj, I agree with you entierley. I was raised in my younger years as a girl, then told to be a boy. I do not consider myself to be either. As I am XXY, I am neither. I get extreemly pissed off that people tell me I should be one or the other. I hate filling in forms because they always have male or female in them. I really hate tax forms because they threaten all sorts of penalties for giving false information yet they force me to give false information. Similarly I hate census forms because they don't take stats on people of non specific gender and thus deny our existance.
I am somewhere in the middle. I have had enough of people telling me I should not be somewhere in the middle. Thankfully I have also arrived at this point.
Oh, and do you have a larger 'Darwin' thinggy? I think it's cool.
Well, I did want to have a thread that has some responsiveness, and I got what I asked for. First, there may be some truth in that the gender show was simply people acting, and not true to life, to the issues people face with their gender. Besty, you have had a lot more experience in dealing with the intersexed then I have. I'm still very new to the problems intersexed people face (apart from my own problems) so I respect your truthfullness and frankness. I have only become aware that I was intersexed about four years ago. I have been firmly seated in the female roll, even though I was painfully aware that I didn't act like other girls. I must agree with Jamie that femm, and Masculine are on opposite sides of, as she puts it, a rainbow. Different people intersexed or not, will have a mix of fem and masuline like the diffrent shades of the rainbow. Now if all of us, who are intersexed, never knew of our true condition(Like me) and were just allowed to become who we are in full without being humilated, wouldn't we fit ourselves one way or another in a catogory? That's what people have done from the dawn of man, we put things in catogorys: like Apple or orange, Bike or car, and even boy or girl. Now sure, being a half boy who had surgerys and was raised girl, I know that I'm very much in the middle between masuline and femm, like blue yellow on the rainbow. I agree 100% with P.J that personilitys can be in the middle and sexual taste can be bisexual even if we are born as hermaph" but we fit somewere, don't we?? We don't have to play the so called role of male or female all the time, but if we could take away the pressure of our culture, I have got to belevie that honesty I feel one way or the other, at least some of the time. What ever role we feel most comfortable playing most of the time, is who we are. But we still are in a catogory even if it is intersexed.
Yes, many people in there fight to find ther true gender must change their life in full to fit that gender, but people of normal gender in diffrent situations have had to do the same thing. I have a aunt who was raped over and over by my grandfather,( Her father)) and he kept her on a tight leash. The only way she could get away was to get on a plane leave her life behind. She move to CA with no money and no friends and had to start life over from scratch, in 1943. Inspite of the horrible tramma she had to overcome in her family she went on to be a owner of four bars in CA and then after being gay for ten years got married had children and started a house moving bussiness in Texas. She is now 78 has been very happy and has a lot of wisdom for her age. The point is, many other people intersexed or not have had to start their life over from scratch, because of terrible situations. How does that help us? I guess I'm saying we don't have to make the gender issue, the main issue in our life, and we can overcome it to move on to do great things. I can say personaly that the death of my mother and the death of my baby sister has affected me more profoundly then being intersexed has. We all have things to deal with in life, and, so what if your xx's and xy"s are not like the norm.! Laugh!! I'm in school now and it is my goal in life to become a therpist of the intersexed and to help parents of the intersexed understand them. Taking in the fact that my Mother could never understand me. My mother would say,"GOD is a comic, and we have to laugh at Gods jokes, even when there not funny!" Kind of like laughing at your bosses jokes. LOL!! I understand the shame, and the anger, that the inetersexed go through. I look at the comical aspect of my situation and can laugh at myself. Plus I have a lot of self-respect for having been put in this situation in the first place and overcoming most of it.
After thinking about I agree with Andy that girls can get away with more gender bending behavoir. I grew up with a mother that only wanted a femm daughter so it was harder on me than others who parents might have been more understanding.
I belive that all intersexed people are gifted and have the God gifted abilty to deal with the cards given to us. Let us Turn shame into courage!!
Thank you all for responing to my post! I have gotten a lot of insight from all of you. Lets remember this is not our fault. We did not ask to be born different, while we may not be accountable for what we are, we are accountable for who we become.
:D
Middle of gender , has my vote.
AZ 1
Muhoe
looking outside of the box
:cool: I vote for in the middle as well. All though I'm in the female role I have the personaity traits of both male and female. Woundn't be nice if when you were asked your gender they would say:
male
female
middle
:D
Hi again ... it is I - I would like to clarify to everyone that the last thing I want to foster or promote is political correctness... I meant that I personally feel I am in the middle and I would really like that to be ok... but I would stand up and defend anyone's right to feel however they feel. If you feel more female, then that's great! If you feel more male, that's great too! I really feel I may have unintentionally and inadvertantly put pressure on Jules to feel in the middle... and I apologize for that to everyone. You know, some days I feel more female and others I feel more male... no wonder I have led such a confusing life. The very last thing I want is to add to anyone else's confusion.
I vote that everyone should be whomever they feel it is right for them to be... Thanks, PJ
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