Editorial: Media Too Focused On Celebrity and Surgery

[Carolyn Marie]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/26/trans-celebs-are-great-trans-leaders-are-better.html

I very much agree with the sentiments expressed by "The Daily Beast." More celebrity transfolk are nice, but they don't represent the vast numbers of us "ordinary" folk, and the real issues get ignored.

Carolyn Marie

[VickySGV]

I see a glimmer of hope in one element on the celebrity angle, and that is simply that while things are not good on the non-celebrity side, that it can lift our issues out of the hopeless "tale of woe" category that is good only for tabloids and pornography realms. We do get kicked around, but we do need success stories to show non-trans folk that with acceptance and support, we are not the losers and weepers in general. We need a balance, we are not going to see a lot of publicity about boringly ordinary folks making mere 5 figure salaries, and even those of us up at 6 figures will not make the news too often. There is a little bit of "celebrity" potential in all of us if only for a moment in time. If my neighbor can see a celebrity as OK, I am next in line.

Do not pick on the high media too badly, but we have a ways to go.

[Charlize]

I have to look at it much as Vicky mentioned but i know that i'm a celebrity myself in some ways now. My small town knows me and has known me virtually from the time i learned to walk. They all saw me transition. I doubt i've missed anyone because i simply don't hide. I try to live my life normally and am accepted for being myself. The big press can have it's superstars but each one of us is an ambassador for the trans community. Hopefully it will be another way to get the rights we need to live as equals regardless of our gender issues. We simply need to be ourselves (much easier said than done).

Hugs,

Charlize

[Guest LizMarie]

The real issues would get ignored anyway, I think. There's an innate human curiosity that leads people to ask very personal questions, even rude questions. Talk to some people of color and ask what sort of strange questions they get. "Does your hair do that naturally?" "Can I touch it?" "You are so pretty for a black girl!" Until trans people become more generally understood, the innate curiosity is going to keep pushing for sensationalistic questions.

People often don't even realize how absurd they can sound sometimes.