The View is not a show regularly tuned in to my radar, but it was on today at work and I caught a moment about the latest media craze: a trans man who is pregnant. With the exception of View co-host Whoopie Goldberg, the panel made the hairs on my arms stand up.
One View member, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, said [paraphrase warning...] that "if the parents are confused, then the child will be confused." Another one chimed in, "Yeah, first you want to be a man, and then you want to be a woman. You have to choose one side of the fence or the other."
No. Actually. You don't. That is why this story is both amazing -- because we are able to realize that not everyone fits neatly into society’s construction of the gender binary -- and it is also detrimental because we see that folks are still able to actively perpetuate isms through powerful tools such as the media.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, the audience ripped and roared in appreciation of the above-mentioned comments, while only giving a mere golf-clap when Whoopie expressed her excitement for coverage that is "tackling unchartered waters."
And of course I sat in the subacute nursing rehab cafeteria awe-faced and disgusted.
Here the View makes other gross remarks, only this time in regards to trans kids:
About Me
- Social Justice Feminist
- I am a feminist. I am a sister. I am a daughter. I am a granddaughter. I have my undergraduate journalism degree from the University of Southern California.I hold a master of social work degree from Columbia University. I dissect communication, and interpret meanings through intensity. Honest and open words move me.