I was sitting at a friends house, watching TV, having some pizza, just relaxing, you know? As I flipped through the channels I came across the Maury show. Now, I know that nobody can really take shows like Maury seriously, but! I found this episode to be strangely fascinating, if not horrifying, but it was hard to change the channel.
In this episode, they were showcasing a set of eight "women", or rather, a few women and a few men dressed as women. Maury had these people, these women and undercover men, flaunt themselves in bikinis, dresses and nightclub wear, all while the audience sat (and stood) screaming, laughing, and yelling to the camera about who they thought were the real women, and who they thought were the undercover men. Maury even focused on a few audience members, holding the microphone to their mouths as they sat trying to decide whether "Carmen" was a boy or a girl. Their rationale was amazing: they all seemed so confident in their assertions that, when the time to unveil the truth came, these people were SO surprised and some of them looked SO disappointed (especially the men in the crowd) that their ideas about men and women (and what makes a woman a woman and a man a man) were deceived and pulled out from underneath them like a dirty old rug.
I will admit: I, too, was surprised at how flawlessly some men can appear as women on the outside. Shows like these, once you start watching, are difficult to stop watching sometimes, no matter how obscene or stupid they may seem. And I think the fact that a whole show was dedicated to this idea of fucking with our ideas of gender and gender roles is a really strong commentary on the mentality of our society. We're still learning to cope with having our preconceptions destroyed, and the result of our coming to understanding is more of a freakshow than a true, educated approach.
But alas: this is the beauty of the talk show. We allow the most simplistic minds expose and exploit themselves so we don't have to.
But, come on... we all know what's really going on here.
This sort of mirrors tha trans model on America's Next Top Model.
ReplyDeleteAre we working for some sort of sexual equality, or keeping the basic categories in place by treating them as freaks. I know the answer comes from the specifics of how they're presented, but that's always pretty subtle.