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Special acknowledgement has to go to Gwen Smith, the original creator of the Transgender Documentary Drinking Game.
So with that in mind, Helen Boyd of the en/gender blog (and the books My Husband Betty and She’s Not the Man I Married: My Life with a Transgender Husband) posted a blog entry entitled Trans Documentary Drinking Game for those planning on watching ABC’s special on Chloe Prince (airing at 10 p.m. on ABC tonight Tuesday night).
Helen’s blog post is for those who aren’t aware of the stereotypes of how transgender women are shown in most documentaries and network television shows about trans people. That these documentaries almost always focus on transition itself as well, and not on the lives of trans people after transition…well, that’s key to how trans people’s stories are told.
So, out of the closet comes the drinking game! Here are the rules:
1. Putting on makeup. Two drinks for reverse camera shot into mirror.
2. Doing anything better done in jeans and sneakers in heels and a skirt. Examples: cleaning the house, shoveling the sidewalk, yard work, walking the dog.
3. Before picture shown. Two drinks for picture in stereotypical male mode (sports team, facial hair, military, wedding tux)
4. Camera shot putting on or taking off a bra.
5. Photo of any wig, breast form, padding, etc.
6. Surprise disclosure, when a trans woman is introduced and then partway through the piece, her secret is revealed.
7. Camera focus on masculine body parts: hands, feet, Adam’s apple, height, etc.
8. Any reference to genital surgery that refers to “becoming a woman” or “finally a woman”
9. Minor chords played softly on a piano
10. talk show host saying “you go girl”
11. any discussion of plumbing or electricity
12. black and white childhood shots, MTF with cap gun and cowboy hat, FTM as ballerina.
13. Trans woman saying, “I am not a crossdresser. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
14. Trans woman clutching large teddy bear in hospital bed.
15. Birthday balloons after surgery.
16. Trans woman with new boyfriend (after shot of tearful ex-wife).
17. Trans woman sitting in chair in above-the-knee skirt, posed so you can see what great gams she has.
18. Patient wheeled off to surgery …
19. … lingering shot of the hospital bed with the teddy bear (or wife) left behind.
20. Shot of protaganist sitting at the computer keyboard, looking at a trans support website or surgeon’s website….
21. Any helping professional teaching deportment
22. Camera in the operating room – just drink the whole bottle
23. Any and all deployments of soft focus = 1 shot
24. Close up of dotted lines in magic marker on pale fleshy body parts = 1 shot
25. Earnest surgeon describes his motivation as “to help [girlname] become the woman she’s always really felt herself to be” = 3 shots
26. Before picture with extreme facial hair – 1 shot
27. Before picture in uniform – Military, Football, etc… – 2 shots
28. Video from hair removal session : Laser – 1 shot, electrolysis – 2 shots
29. Before picture – Last time she wore a dress (F2M) – 1 shots
30. Breast binding – 2 shots
31. Taking Hormones – Self-injecting3 shots, orals1 shot
32. Did anyone mention an arduous and lonely childhood?
33. Meeting the school bully as “the new me” at the High School reunion?
34. Looking at the old picture of self and saying something to the effect of “he was a nice guy….” or “Ken was a lot of fun, but his time is over. It’s Ginger’s turn now!”
35. Trans woman claiming to have [intersex] chromosomal pattern, an affinity for washing dishes, a sudden dislike of sports, etc.
Professor Boyd adds:
Believe it or not, these are not the most snarky suggestions, but also remember: there are quite a few people who hang out on our boards who have done this kind of media work, including me & Betty, of course, but also Jenny Boylan. We need to laugh at ourselves as much as we laugh at the inanity of it all.Twelve-Steppers should find their own version, of course. Maybe those ice cream poppers? But the point is to feel as physically ill by the end as the drinking crowd.
I personally don’t drink, and I don’t eat lots of sugar any more due to the gastric bypass, so I’ll just have to feel ill watching the special itself if too many of the stereotypes are dragged out from the documentary closet.
34 Comments
Oh! Looks like I need to swing by the liquor store, too.I love this list, and it’s kinda hilarious. OTOH, you could end up with alcohol poisoning pretty quickly…. sigh
If anyone is going to watch:Could we get a running tally? I think we need some sort of quantitative measure for documentary suck-a-tude. I’ll leave it to others to name the unit of measurement.
Absolutely spot-on analysis(And how man of these would crop up in a spot about a gay person’s coming out, too? Plus of course shots of a lesbian couple kissing and/or a male couple, shot from behind, holding hands as they walk up the street)
I don’t drink much at all. I’d be unable to walk by #5. If only the tired media cliches were the worst thing we all had to live with…!
Thanks.I just set my DVR because I won’t be home. However, I think it needs to be said that the documentary won’t be played in every state tonight. Here in San Diego it doesn’t air until tomorrow night.
In a previous life I was a Television Producer/Director
And honey, you missed your true calling. That is about the best cliche ridden descriptor of the Morrie Povitch, Oprah, Donahue, Today Show script I could ever imagine.
Brilliant.
You missed public bathroom scenesWomen making eye contact trying to decide what to do about the ‘masculine’ woman who just stepped into a stall.
Feet in a stall pointing the wrong way.
Women leaving the restroom quickly.
Women directing person tot he ‘right’ lavatory.
I take it that you all get seriously ‘tight’during episodes of “Sex change Hospital”
I saw one….
disappointing…
That 35 item list……is far from fully inclusive. Please feel free to add more items to the list — Helen is so right that there are so many more snarky things one could add to this list.
If You’re Playing…buy a lot of liquor.
15 minutes here I come, I suppose. just shakes head
These are fantastic!But I think I’m going to have to go for O’Douls to prevent a massive hangover. ;-)
It is nice to have a light side — sometimes laughing at the stereotypes people associate with you is one of the best ways NOT to become the object of that laughter in the future.
How aboutbeing referred to “accidentally” by male name? Did I miss that one on the list?
Omigosh, this sounds like more fun than soap opera cliche’ drinking games, Autumn. Like when the main character realizes he’s been flirting or worse with his newly-arrived-back-in-town’s wife/girlfriend etc in a bar.
How aboutIf it’s about a M2F, they use the phrase “woman trapped in a man’s body”.
I think that one is worth a whole bottle.
Dena
he heHA:
ha
Autumn… since you don’t drink …use M&M’sThey aren't too much sugar, each one. I always told people to use those to learn to swallow pills.
The Scary ThingIs that if I was making a documentary about my own life… I’d realistically have to include over half of those items.
In my case, it’s not the documentary that’s overly-cliched, it’s the subject.
I really hate that. The one thing that kept me going for so many years was the thought that at least I was original. When I went to a gender specialist with my “unique” life story and was told it followed the “standard transsexual narrative” I was flabbergasted. Worse, I then read up on the subject, and she was right. Instead of being creative, and proud of it, I was a walking stereotype.
sigh
I get the point, but I do think that viewers should understandthat transition is real soul-searching, real grubbing for money to cover expenses (hormones must be at least $100.00/month, or some amount representing a big challenge for many desiring transition), real work, real fear, etc. As a cisgender person, I have to say that I am impressed by the practical, physical, psychological, spiritual challenges undertaken in transitioning, and think it should be regarded as an accomplishment, particularly for those who transition late. I think that the problem is not in talking about transition, but the manner used to talk about it.
I’d like to see a developmental approach: what happens 5 years, 10 years, 20 years out? What was expected? Not expected? What are the practical problems, the makeshift solutions (if any), the necessary long-term solutions (insert legislative agenda here, starting with inclusive ENDA). And I would like to see a transgender man profiled sometime.
Yeah, I’ve got 5 on the list I can count……but at least no one has ‘em on film.
*sigh*
That SeriesWas not worth the time spent watching it.
I have no plans on watching this one ether.
I went through this so many years ago that I can’t relate to being in transition anymore.
I feel for all of you who are in transition or planning to transition it sucks to start over.
The problem is no wants to make those documentariesSeriously.
Nor anything else that doesn’t conform to the sort of narrative cliches described. I agree it would be great if they did, but I’ve heard from helen, Jenny and a number of others who have done media work that if producers/documentarians don’t think your story follows this sort of “standard narrative” — or you won’t cooperate in digging up the old photos, putting on make-up while being filmed, etc. — they simply won’t call you back.
And don’t get helen started on the subject of the invisibility of partners and spouses when it comes to these sorts of programs. Again, producers and documentaries simply aren’t interested in hearing from them.
The ironic thing is even pointing out how cliched these sorts of things are doesn’t seem to get through — even as the producers are talking about how they want to do something new and insightful.
DivideThe way this stuff is handled is radically different for FtMs and MtFs — and while that is society-driven, so is humor. Maybe separating these would make things a little more hilarious (not to mention shake some of the stuff out that people haven’t noticed enough for drinking games on the FtM one.)
Oh, and earliear in the transition process……Eep! Yeah, my numbers of matched items on the list that wouldn’t have just been the stereotypes, Zoe, would have been staggering.
Yeah, we I go into surgery in a couple of years, I’ll have to bring my stuffed bear Genderqueer (pink, white, blue, and purple) to the hospital, and I’ll just have to have the Happy Birthday balloons. The cheese factor of living the stereotype will be a hoot!
My add to the list would be going to that government office to change my documentation – so post surgery, it’ll be the trip Social Security Administration.
Half an hour in…How drunk are you?
why on earth?Seriously. Why do folks continue to put themselves out there like that? I’m not saying be in the closet or live stealth but these things are beyond predictable. I could maybe see it if you are also selling a book or something. Otherwise, there seems to be little good that can come from it for the person involved.
How about a happy story, 38 years of existing to finally come out to face the truth. I am a woman. I get to spend $165,000 on attorneys and successfully keep custody of my children. find a job that I love after relocating to Denver Colorado only to be jobless due to the Bush Economy. Spend 8 months on unemployment and towards the end of my unemployment I meet a man who loves me for who I am. I meet his family and they adore me as well. I get a job doing what I love, the same as the job I was laid off from. Family and friends see me the happiest I have ever been.
Yeah, to boring for TV, but I know many of us who have become happier than they have ever been and now see life as living instead of existing.
Funny you should mention that…We just went and changed my wife’s Social Security Card on Thursday. (BTW, the lady that helped her couldn’t have been nicer. She even congratulated my wife on her surgery.)
I think you have a great story.You may think that its too boring for TV, but those of us who know a bit of what you have been through are really glad to hear [read] that things are going so well for you now. You deserve it.
cookie cutter careThe rule was not to let anyone transition who didn’t fit the narrowly-defined cookie-cutter standard transsexual stereotype.
So it’s no accident if you have a lot of company there.
2 reasons1. They are naive
2. Doesn’t matter how well you thought you told your story, they will edit it so it fits their script.
You couldn’t pay me enough to do one of those shows. After working very hard to fix things I’m not about to flush my self-respect down the toilet. No way, no how.
13 or 14 *dings* depending on how you counted them.Despite the 13 dings I kind of liked the segment. I know I’m being shallow but:
1. She looked good.
2. She sounded (voice) good.
We need to add another stereotype to the list. Ju Ju Chang for pushing the hormones change orientation myth.
Maybe……it’s just hope?
I mean, we all wanna be accepted for who we are, and maybe they’re just hoping (naively or otherwise, who knows what the people shooting the docs are saying) that This Time Will Be Different.
Personally, I want to try to MAKE trans documentaries if I can figure out a way to do it. (Which I currently cannot, but anybody who wants to brainstorm, I’d love to talk.)
Yesyou are shallow.
We should be know only for our beauty and bust size…
o_O
Dena
And Voice?Doesn’t she get any points for her voice?
HRT CostsActually, with the generic programs the major pharmacies and grocery stores are doing these days, hormones will usually run $20-30/mo.