I should start this column with a word of warning-I'm going to be getting up on my soapbox again before I'm finished. But first, a pop-quiz:
How many of you saw the September '91 issue of Playboy? Did you see the feature on Caroline Cossey (a.k.a. Tula)? If you didn't, you only missed one of the most significant events to hit the transgendered community in a lifetime.
Tula (her professional name) first came to prominence when she was picked for a small part in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only, before being revealed to be a transsexual. She's fought a dual battle for the last decade. One battle has been with the notorious London tabloids that consistently treat her with the respect normally accorded a circus freak. The other has been with the British government, which has refused to change her official papers from "male" to "female," more than 15 years after her surgery, leaving her in an impossible legal muddle.
Tula is gorgeous, incredibly brave, and deserves our unqualified admiration. But it isn't her story that leads me to write this piece. It's the fact that her story and photos appeared in Playboy. This isn't the Enquirer, or the Globe, or even People. This is Playboy, the greatest bastion of orthodox all-American hetero male sexuality, presenting a wholly sympathetic and positive piece on a transsexual, with three pages of nude and semi-nude photos, yet. You have to go all the way back to the emergence of Christine Jorgensen to find anything comparable.
A tran in Playboy! Do you realize that an entire generation of American women whether openly or tacitly, has compared itself to the gatefolds of Playboy? Never mind the rhetoric of radical feminism; there isn't a woman in this country who has not, at some time or another, sneaked a peak and sized herself up against Miss July. Now, here comes a woman who can hold her own against anyone else appearing in the magazine, and she just happens to have been born a male.
What do you think that's going to do to old Joe Sixpack when he becomes conscious of the fact that the stirring between his thighs is being brought on by a tran?
For the last year or so, I have been shouting to anyone who would listen that the decade of the 90's belongs to we who cross the gender line. Just as the 80's was the decade in which needs and concerns of the homosexual community became issues of public concern (which I believe would have happened without the chilling effect of the AIDS epidemic), so is this decade the time for the emergence of the essential issues regarding gender. Tula's appearance in Playboy is graphic evidence that mainstream America is beginning to pay attention to us
Need more proof? The December '91 issue of Vogue features an intelligent, right-on view of the new status of drag as performance art, from the delectably eccentric cavorting of Lypinska (a.k.a. John Epperson), who deftly skewers the styles of a generation of mini-stars who sprang up during the first television decade, to the free-form celebration of Wigstock, New York's annual Labor Day festival of crossdressing and gender-bending, whose move in 1991 to Union Square Park heralded a semi-official recognition of respectability (horrors!). Also in the December '91, Mirabella, B. Ruby Rich has written an important article on the sociology of gender transference. Citing the usual historical examples, but more significantly focusing on transgendered life in the modern world, she makes the compelling argument that those who crossdress or assume the identity of the opposite gender are delivering a potent message to the rest of the world, forcing a re-evaluation of the stereotypical, one-or-the-other view of gender that has prevailed in the past.
These articles are life-affirming statements for every one of us, for two important reasons. First, of course, are the venues in which they appear. Neither Vogue nor Mirabella could remotely be considered "fringe" publications. Each is in the very forefront of mainstream women's issues, not merely in matters of fashion and style, but in the very social attitude that is central to the life of women in modern America. The appearance of supportive, informed articles on the transgendered lifestyle in these magazines is as significant as Tula's appearance in Playboy is for men.
Second, and most important in the long run, is that the appearance of these articles at this time legitimizes us in a way that we have never been in this country. The freedom that we hold most dear, that of exploring and embracing the world of the feminine gender, is upheld in these articles as not only something honest and real, but further an evaluation of self with far-reaching implications for the social (and by inference, political) attitudes of all Americans.
An aside: I realize that there are many among us who would question the need to be "legitimized" at all. The argument goes, "We're living our lives. We're not bothering anybody. Why should we be forced to live in a fishbowl and viewed like biological curiosities? We don't need for the outside world to `understand' us." Well, my darlings, we do.
The cruel fact is that our way of life is under constant threat, principally from supposedly well-meaning moralists (many in high elected office) who would place severe restrictions on the freedom of expression that we depend on to make the cross-gendered life possible. Whether you only dress occasionally or live in the opposite gender as I do, you are under attack from the theologians and politicians who say we have no right to be here-just as they tried to do with gays about a decade ago.
Even if you don't agree with every word and paragraph in these articles, or feel that Tula sold herself cheap by baring herself for Playboy, understand that by their very existence, these are powerful, positive reinforcement for our right to exist. If anyone reads about crossdressers or transsexuals in mainstream publications, there's a very good chance that he or she will come away with the thought, "Gee, maybe these people aren't the perverts I thought they were. They seem happy and content with themselves. They're not so bad after all." And there's another soldier in the fight to protect our freedom.
I know that some of you will suggest that I'm making an awful lot out of a few magazine articles. It might seem quite a jump to call them heralds of our acceptance into society, or weapons on the fight for our rights. But as someone who lived in the shadows of transgendered life for over fifteen years before coming into the light as a full-time woman, I am ecstatic to see our lifestyles and values being discussed in an open forum.
I have long resented the notion that we must expect to live our lives undercover, that only by maintaining an unearthly air of secrecy can we survive in a world that inherently hates and fears us. We who cross the gender line have as much right to live in the sunshine and conduct our lives openly as anyone else. I believe with all my heart that in this decade, we will be permitted that right, freely and without condition. These articles are the clarion call for America to take us seriously. But it will be up to each of us to advance that cause.
What are you going to do to help?
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