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Transgender Tipping Point
Those of us who express our gender identity in public cannot fail to notice the unprecedented rate of change in our environment. No matter whether you look to the law, media, or to your friends you find that awareness of transgender issues is snowballing. For those, like myself, who have been testing the waters of societal acceptance for over 20 years, the current rate of change is almost unbelievable.
I have only one way to describe my observation to others, and that is to speculate that we may be at, or past the tipping point.
If you haven’t come across the term tipping point, it comes from a book written by Malcolm Gladwell who defined it as “the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point”. The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.
A recent indicator that ideas are promulgating like a virus, is to look at TED talks online. Up to March this year TED had not hosted any talks with a Transgender theme. In the last couple of months there have been 3.
http://www.ted.com/talks/geena_rocero_why_i_must_come_out.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/norman_spack_how_i_help_transgender_teens_become_who_they_want_to_be.html
http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/The-False-Narrative-of-Deceptio
And then this month TIME magazine has a transgender on the front cover
and the lead article is “Transgender Tipping Point”.Quote:Nearly a year after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, another social movement is poised to challenge deeply held cultural beliefs…Hold on tight – it might get bumpy on the downhill run.
How exciting! -
7 Replies
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A most interesting observation and one I support. But then we hear Kochie on Sunrise with his throw away anti-TG bias and we have quite some way to go.
My dressing journey has been less than 10 years. Although I haven’t stood back and analysed reactions, I do enjoy good acceptance and friendships. This may just be a function of me accepting myself and confidently dealing with people.
I recently was in Medibank (something I hesitated doing femme) and had a wonderful experience. Similarly with Qantas, and a host of other places. So is it staff training or the people themselves. I think it is both that are making a difference.
In general though, I believe there is greater acceptance and respect of difference.
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I also feel that there is growing acceptance of transgender diverse people in Australia.; that has certainly been my experience in recent times. I agree with Michelle that some TV presenters need to be reprimanded for their attitudes and Kochie is not alone in that respect. If he had said something anti-gay he would have been hauled over the coals for it by his management after the Channel 7 switchboard had been jammed with protests.
I live mostly in Thailand where gender diversity is accepted as part of daily life and is not confined, as some tourists think, to the “ladyboy” sex industry. When I am a little less busy, I will do a post about this.
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Michelle from the ACT must watch Koch on Sunrise, Channel 7, noting his anti transgender throw away remarks. Don’t watch Sunrise, switch to Channel 9, I think that they are superior.
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when we give this person called “kochie” oxygen we are doing all a diservice. Yes lots more need to be educated too but he is not your mate – ever. He creeps me out at the best of times. Juliette
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Perhaps I need to qualify my post. In describing the tipping point I wasn’t implying that suddenly every media person sees the light and behaves in a different way. But that rather after the tipping point society’s values and norms shift rapidly so that it becomes less acceptable to behave in the way that Kochie apparently does.
This is a case where one individual does not break the rule. There are still a few who take a divergent view about Gays – but because acceptance of homosexuality is now well past tipping point most such behavior is now forced into private.
This is a time to look at the big media picture and not to focus on one personality.
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I understand the distinction you are making and certainly wasn’t disagreeing with your premise.
There will always be some people who can’t and won’t accept difference. Its just a pity that my wife watches Sunrise and picks up on the clues … hence why I am particularly sensitive.
Sometimes perception is influenced by those who present femme for reasons such as disguise while robbing a service station (true example). They give our detractors ammunition.
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The weight of the community at large is not against the gender diverse community it is simply coming to terms with understanding it and its nuances. The media is the vehicle through which we can address the general community and it has become far more open to discussing the matters concerned with diversity.
There will always be detractors and irrational comment as this process continues but I see trans people popping up all over the place lately and no big deal being made of it. Example the other evening on house rules there was the captain of a vessel in Tasmania, obviously trans and there was no reaction to that. To me that’s a demonstration of the difference, ten years ago there would have been some disrespectful reaction demonstrated and no one would have thought twice about it.
So I agree with the premise that the tipping point is near , hear or maybe even just passed and it is a matter of presenting the best we can when the opportunities come . By that I simply mean being real and being decent human beings that way we can continue to move more of us from the shadows and into the world.
