That is beautiful. I think it’s sig-worthy.
It was an Earth Day celebration that went terribly wrong.
“I said HUG a tree!”
And yet another transsexual gets made into a laughingstock. Over and over again.
This gets to be so tiring.
They made themselves into laughingstocks.
If two heterosexuals decided to protest their families inability to accept their ‘great love’ by having sex in a tree in NYC and demanding particular brads of soda from the police I would be making fun of them.
Kelly,
he made himself look stupid, nobody did it for him.
But she also made the rest of us look like loons—anytime a member of a vilified minority group . . . Well, just look at how all Muslims are seen as terrorists because of the actions of a minority.
but Kelly said “gets made into a laughingstock”
The media didn’t make her into one.
So I guess your mad at her.
nitpick is all.
Jokes aside (and they really are quite easy, aren’t they?) there are a lot more straight people who make complete gibbons out of themselves than there are transsexuals who do so. There’s even more straights who make sexual fools of themselves. There’s just not quite the novelty to it when some straight guy exposes himself on the subway, or when some flashing couple has sex in the bushes: it’s old hat, boring, and sad, instead of being unusual and interesting.
Daniel
Made me think of Joan Cusack in Addams Family Values: “MAL-i-bu BAR-BEE!”
First of all, it was two heterosexuals (as far as I can tell; one man and one woman makes a heterosexual couple although either could have been bi, I suppose) in a tree. Second, if one of them hadn’t been trans, I doubt it would have made the news except maybe in the “police beat” as “A couple was arrested for public indecency for having sex in a tree.” There certainly would not have been pictures.
“But 'cha AAAAAARE, Blanche. Ya AAAAARE in that wheelchair!”
Get over it. People who do weird shit up in trees get laughed at. Male vs. female, gay vs. straight, Coke vs. Pepsi - some people have no better function than to serve as bad examples.
Regards,
Shodan
I think the problem (for me, at least) is that I’m tired of transsexuals being a “novelty”. I do not exist for the amusement of the masses.
These people pulled this stunt because they were being treated as subhuman by their families. Now they’re being treated as subhuman by the entire world. Not exactly an improvement, but do we really need to magnify the folly of their mistake?
I am stunned that you, of all people, would attempt to make this argument. So sexuality is determined solely by plumbing, is that right?
I believe you’re entirely correct in this assertion, as far as that goes (more on this later). However, if you want, you could take it as an indirect compliment to the transgendered community.
Stuff only makes news when it’s out of the ordinary. Two heterosexual people having sex in a tree, while certainly not customary, isn’t enough to get New York tabloids in a froth. They’re too jaded. But when one self-identifies as a pre-operative transgendered person, that elevates it to “out of the ordinary.” Because you just don’t see pre-operative transgendered people having sex in trees every day. I think that speaks highly of the transgendered population as a whole.
To my earlier parenthetical point: If a heterosexual couple had sex in a tree and then made an even bigger spectacle of themselves by demanding diet vanilla Pepsi and stating that their love was some sort of protest, I think you’d see the tabloids covering it, regardless.
As I understand the reports I’ve read, it was a 17 year old male and a 30-something year old male-to-female transsexual. That makes them a heterosexual couple in my books. I can’t imagine that gay.com would get it wrong and the NY Times correct; historically gay.com has been more aware of transgender issues than the Times.
Only if you consider “you’re weird enough that your very existence makes you newsworthy” to be a compliment.
It’s not “transgender in tree” that makes it newsworthy; it’s “transgender doing anything at all (but especially something stupid)” that makes it newsworthy. We only make the news when stupid shit like this comes up.
And I don’t think that it would have made the news even if a non-trans woman had had the same behaviour. New York is full of borderline deranged people who do far odder things every day.
Perhaps you noticed that these two statements:
are mutually contradictory.
I know this is the Pit, but if the very existence of transsexuals is newsworthy, perhaps you can supply today’s headline reading:
“Transsexual goes out for coffee! Film at eleven!”
Regards,
Shodan
Nah. They pulled this tunt because they are immature and stupid.
Well, the female in question is pre-operative, so she still has her “boy parts.” From a societal viewpoint, she’s still classified as a male (although obviously she’s not).
You’re contradicting yourself here. If it “only makes the news when stupid shit like this comes up,” then by your own definition “you’re weird enough that your very existence makes you newsworthy” isn’t correct.
I think what made this newsworthy was the behavior of the two individuals. Sex in a tree, regardless of the gender of the participants, is a little off the beaten path, so to speak. When the participants then turn their sexual escapades into a public forum for protest, that’s gonna turn some heads.
Well, yes, YOU don’t. But then, you’re not publicly fucking in a tree.
Transsexuals are a novelty because there’s not very many of y’all compared to non-transsexuals (is there a better word for that?) Nonetheless, the news generally has better manners than to report on transsexuals for the sole purpose of novelty. However, this case was really weird, you gotta admit. It was the combination of two rarities that made it so unusual.
I’d think the best approach is to acknowledge the strangeness (and humor) of the story, and remind people, “Just remember, most of us aren’t lunatics.”
Hell, if most transsexuals WERE lunatics, this story wouldn’t be making the news.
Daniel
This thread is a fine example of social commentary interspersed with hilarity that I’ve come to expect from the SDMB. Bravi!
Wait, forgot I was in the Pit… this thread is really fucking funny! Or it’s about people fucking funny. Or something.