I feel hoodwinked pt 2
Here is how I responded to that blog entry.
The internet is a many splendid thing. It has enabled human beings the ultimate form of instant gratification...and also has enabled us to affect each other in strange ways.
I do not know you, but after reading the latest entry in your blog I wanted to know you. After reading an entry you did about black masculinity I really wanted to have a conversation with you. Than I got to an old entry about the Pregnant Man and I felt like I'd set myself up for failure.
I have really mixed feelings about the media coverage of this transman who decided he wanted to get pregnant for lots of reasons.But, I also feel like black folks need to converse more about the diversity in our communities. So maybe that's why I'm spending a few minutes of my Saturday night trying to come up with the words to describe how disgusted I was with that entry. Particularly the bits about comparing Sexual Reassignment Surgery to cosmetic surgery and saying that the pregnant man is just a woman with a beard.
It seems to me that you don't know that there are lot's of black transsexuals (simply based on the language of the entry). There are so many in fact that you unknowingly friended one on FACEBOOK. (o' the power of the internet)
Before you wrote that and/or decided to formulate an opinion about it did you talk to or research anything about transfolk?
Do you know any trans people? Particularly transpeople of color, (who can't seem to get any positive media coverage at all)?
I can't really formulate all my thoughts in a cohesive manner, and I also want you to know that this is not intended to start a flamewar but merely a conversation.
And I think opinions like yours hurt most because you seem to be very intelligent, and open minded. It also makes me feel sick to think that black folk would never be able to accept their trans brothers and sisters...
I'm also not sure if your opinion is solely meant for some white,privileged asshole who strutted his shit on people magazine and acted like he's the only transperson with children. A.K.A The Pregnant Man
??
Sorry if this is at all incomprehensible I'm tired.
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and here is how she responded....
Ok , Drewcifer Bahari MD. I stared at your name a few times and couldn't figure out if you were really a doctor or not and now I receive this email and you take me deep deep into the dream world of the late 70's, early 80's in New York that I never tapped into or even thought of when discussing The Pregnant Man. Have I ever met a transexual of color? Wow, now that you confront me about it. By God, there was a time of my life where they were all around me. In the women's bathrooms of the nightclubs I frequented, on the streets outside those clubs. Now that you have me questioning myself, I'm remembering the singer Sylvester walking up Sugar Hill, sleepy entourage in tow, at dawn on Sunday mornings. I think Sylvester lived somewhere near me at that time? Really strange. And vogue competitions everywhere. I mean everywhere, along the Christopher Street piers in the park, everywhere. All you had to hear was a certain shuffle beat on a boombox and they would break out with all this fire and intensity, rage and elegance. To be honest, I don't recall who was a transexual and who wasn't. I just recall that I was in a realm of infinite sexual possibility that expressed itself too beautifully to question. I never felt that link with the Pregnant Man. The Pregnant Man to me was this made for TV Mc-dentity that I couldn't contextualize within my own real life experience. I'm so happy you're making me deal with this. I never get feedback on what I write that helps me to feel deeper, think smarter.
------
Still so many mixed feeelings....
The internet is a many splendid thing. It has enabled human beings the ultimate form of instant gratification...and also has enabled us to affect each other in strange ways.
I do not know you, but after reading the latest entry in your blog I wanted to know you. After reading an entry you did about black masculinity I really wanted to have a conversation with you. Than I got to an old entry about the Pregnant Man and I felt like I'd set myself up for failure.
I have really mixed feelings about the media coverage of this transman who decided he wanted to get pregnant for lots of reasons.But, I also feel like black folks need to converse more about the diversity in our communities. So maybe that's why I'm spending a few minutes of my Saturday night trying to come up with the words to describe how disgusted I was with that entry. Particularly the bits about comparing Sexual Reassignment Surgery to cosmetic surgery and saying that the pregnant man is just a woman with a beard.
It seems to me that you don't know that there are lot's of black transsexuals (simply based on the language of the entry). There are so many in fact that you unknowingly friended one on FACEBOOK. (o' the power of the internet)
Before you wrote that and/or decided to formulate an opinion about it did you talk to or research anything about transfolk?
Do you know any trans people? Particularly transpeople of color, (who can't seem to get any positive media coverage at all)?
I can't really formulate all my thoughts in a cohesive manner, and I also want you to know that this is not intended to start a flamewar but merely a conversation.
And I think opinions like yours hurt most because you seem to be very intelligent, and open minded. It also makes me feel sick to think that black folk would never be able to accept their trans brothers and sisters...
I'm also not sure if your opinion is solely meant for some white,privileged asshole who strutted his shit on people magazine and acted like he's the only transperson with children. A.K.A The Pregnant Man
??
Sorry if this is at all incomprehensible I'm tired.
---------------------------
and here is how she responded....
Ok , Drewcifer Bahari MD. I stared at your name a few times and couldn't figure out if you were really a doctor or not and now I receive this email and you take me deep deep into the dream world of the late 70's, early 80's in New York that I never tapped into or even thought of when discussing The Pregnant Man. Have I ever met a transexual of color? Wow, now that you confront me about it. By God, there was a time of my life where they were all around me. In the women's bathrooms of the nightclubs I frequented, on the streets outside those clubs. Now that you have me questioning myself, I'm remembering the singer Sylvester walking up Sugar Hill, sleepy entourage in tow, at dawn on Sunday mornings. I think Sylvester lived somewhere near me at that time? Really strange. And vogue competitions everywhere. I mean everywhere, along the Christopher Street piers in the park, everywhere. All you had to hear was a certain shuffle beat on a boombox and they would break out with all this fire and intensity, rage and elegance. To be honest, I don't recall who was a transexual and who wasn't. I just recall that I was in a realm of infinite sexual possibility that expressed itself too beautifully to question. I never felt that link with the Pregnant Man. The Pregnant Man to me was this made for TV Mc-dentity that I couldn't contextualize within my own real life experience. I'm so happy you're making me deal with this. I never get feedback on what I write that helps me to feel deeper, think smarter.
------
Still so many mixed feeelings....