I've been conducting a very formal scientific type survey at work. (For those who don't know, I work at a bookstore.)
Anyway, next to my cash register is a magazine display featuring Bruce Jenner on the cover of people magazine.
SO I waited. If someone mentioned the magazine (or Jenner) I asked them "What do you think about that?"
Here are some of responses I received.
"I don't know why anyone would want to be a woman." (30 something woman)
"I wish him the best. That can't be easy." (40ish woman)
"Too much money." (40 something man)
"I hope he's proud of himself. She. He. Whatever it is." (30 something man)
There's more, but this is a representative sample. Many were sympathetic. As expected, people buying conservative books had all negative reactions. I don't think any of the people I questioned clocked me as trans. Or maybe they did- I don't know.
As I said, totally scientific.
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Anyway, next to my cash register is a magazine display featuring Bruce Jenner on the cover of people magazine.
SO I waited. If someone mentioned the magazine (or Jenner) I asked them "What do you think about that?"
Here are some of responses I received.
"I don't know why anyone would want to be a woman." (30 something woman)
"I wish him the best. That can't be easy." (40ish woman)
"Too much money." (40 something man)
"I hope he's proud of himself. She. He. Whatever it is." (30 something man)
There's more, but this is a representative sample. Many were sympathetic. As expected, people buying conservative books had all negative reactions. I don't think any of the people I questioned clocked me as trans. Or maybe they did- I don't know.
As I said, totally scientific.
Your observation that people buying conservative books are are anti trans and generally intolerant is a recurring them in this blog. There must be something to it...:)
ReplyDeleteoh idk why it needs to be a political topic I think the numbers are enough to go around in the anti trans community. its easy to label people but when we do we become them. I have spent most of my life surrounded by conservatives and more recently nothing but liberals, I can assure you hate has no boundaries even within our own community, thinking otherwise is naïve IMHO. in California gay marriage was voted down 2x even though we are a super majority liberal state. the deciding factor was liberals voting against it and the numbers prove it. anyway my main take away is this, to get tolerance and respect we must be willing to give it. we are quick to want others to understand what we are going through without any regard for understanding them. After all there are billions of them and a handful of us, whether we like it or not we are a true minority, changing minds takes time, perseverance and lots of patience.
ReplyDeleteSophie -
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting how your informal survey correlated approval to liberals and disapproval to conservatives. (I'd expect this result as well.)
The problem with conservatives is they aren't comfortable with change. We might need to talk about "long ago" people like Christine Jorgensen, and say how people of all types accepted her as a woman. And then ask - what has changed? Even a conservative gets forced to think when a celebrity like her gets mentioned....
Marian, They only accepted Christine until they found out that her operation did not include the necessary hardware to produce babies. After that became known, her (and our) approval ratings nose-dived.
DeleteSophie -
ReplyDeleteI'd love to know why that 30 year old would say that she doesn't know why anyone would want to be a woman.... I've only heard one woman claim that most women would want to be men. And my survey says that this is false - most women are very happy to be women, but don't like how they are treated....
M