Public Acceptance and perception

[IMkrystal]

Harvey Fierstein has open, this passed Wednesday, a new Broadway play, “Casa Valentina”, based on the true story of a Catskills New York resort that catered to crossdresser in the 1960’s. The name of the hotel was Chevalier D’ Eon named after a French crossdressing spy of the 1800 and was renamed to Casa Susanna when this resort moved. The reviews of this play seem to reflect the misunderstanding of what crossdressing is about. The sixties was a time of great social change “Civil rights.” Many of you reading this were not born yet. I was a young Black kid growing up during this time and remember the trials life casted upon me. Many now benefit from the changes that have occurred over the last fifty years. But crossdressing still has negative connotations from those who do it and those who observe it. I feel we are still trapped in the sixties, like minorities wondering if they will be accepted where they go, or stereotypically cast by others as no good. Interracial dating was unheard of then, and today women still have a negative perception of crossdressers. My questions to all are: Is public acceptance and perception important? If it is, will plays like Harvey Fierstein help? And what else needs to happen?

[bimini1]

What is interesting is that Fierstein himself says he had no idea that hetero CD's existed before. I have a book about the Casa Susanna with some of the uncovered photos that inspired the play. The only people that really know about this phenomena is us and those around us directly affected by the behavior.

[ophelia]

I don't think public perception will be evenly understood or accepted very soon. Although I don't interact with males while dressed I suspect that women, especially younger women are moreso than men when it comes to our dressing. Many equate crossdressing with drag and therefore associate it with homosexuality, which in itself is often misunderstood still, often being linked to pedophilia and other disturbing behaviours. Canadians pretend to be socially aware, kind, and forgiving, but we have our share of hosers and rednecks.

[Samantha B L]

I've made the discovery about myself in the past 7 or 8 years that I am,shall we say,a drag queen. I like men and women and I am also forever fascinated with the costumerie and comportment of women. Yet I accept and apreciate and understand that there is a large number of male to female crossdressers who are certainly heterosexual and even many of those are married with wives and kids. All of the extremes of LGBT/TG/TS/CD constitute a huge franchised interest and even a voting bloc. I think just recently there's been a kind of opening up going on and plays like "Casa Valentina" are part of this very sort of thing. There are always going to be people who don't like us. But things have been opening up more and more and we just may have been the deciding factor,all of us including both gay and heterosexual CDS,in getting a couple of recent presidents elected. They were counting on our vote!

[Beverley Sims]

Krystal,
The black problem may have improved a lot but there are still pockets of resistance there.

As people get old and die, so will the resistance die out.
I have had many discussions with others, mostly black people about this and that is the perception.

I think a similar thing with dressing, as the oldies die off so will the bigotry.

China, is another instance, capitalism is spreading very quickly there for those able to embrace it.

[Michelle789]

I also think that Capitalism, even with it's destructive greed that caused the financial meltdown, is a double-edged sword that also leads towards more acceptance of diversity of people. Between education, raising the standard of living, and the fact that businesses want your money, trans acceptance is becoming more normal.

If I go into a store, and I'm en femme, and the clerk decides to refuse me service, or to give me substandard service, or call me the T word, I can choose to walk out or file a complaint to management. The reality is the clerk needs his or her job, since he/she is dependent on it for money. Nobody wants to get fired. Big businesses also don't want to be sued. Individuals don't want to be sued. So being accepting towards trans people, or minorities, is very much in the best interest of anyone trying to make money and pay the bills. It is in the best interest of a sales associate to treat me with respect, give me the same service he/she would give any other customer, and gender me correctly. Or many clerks, at least in California, may not sir nor ma'am anyone just to be fair and non-discriminatory.

Also, with all the prejudices out there towards trans people, gays, minorities, handicapped people, and women, there is also prejudice towards being prejudice. Being openly a transphobe, homophobe, racist, or sexist is just as stigmatized if not more so than being trans. In fact, I might think that at least on the public level, there's more acceptance today of transgender people than there is of transphobes or racists.

I'm also glad that the owner of the Clippers got fired and publicly embarassed as being a racist. As much as I think it was sneaky and underhanded of his girlfriend to tape record his conversation, and as much as I think anyone should be able to vent their feelings in private, I think this sends a big message that racism is not to be tolerated, and that a rich business tycoon was brought down by racism. One day, a transphobe will suffer the same fate.

In the past, sex brought down a president.

In the present, racism brought down an NBA owner.

In the future, transphobia will bring down some rich dude.

[ReineD]

Here are two well written reviews:

Rex Reed, New York Observer

Ben Brantley, New York Times

The play doesn't only touch on the plight of hetero crossdressers during the 1960s and the difficulties with coming out, it considers the effect of the crossdressing on a supportive wife. See the third paragraph in the NY Observer and last two paragraphs in the NY Times.

I don't know if this play will help to sway people into greater understanding and acceptance.

[PaulaQ]

I really hope the world can come to accept cross dressers, and their spouses. I'd like to see the play, although it would probably make me sad.

I hope it's sympathetic - it sounds like it is.

I'm glad the play talks about the plight of a supportive spouse - the genetic women who stick with their CD spouses have it tough.

[carolyn todd]

Hello IMkrystal
chevalier d`eon was a french diplomat.spy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevalier_d%27Eon
carolyn xx

[IMkrystal]

Hello IMkrystal
chevalier d`eon was a french diplomat.spy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevalier_d%27Eon
carolyn xx

Thanks I correct my post

[Katey888]

I'm sure more exposure of this type can only help with acceptance and understanding of all aspects of CD/TG/TS and what it means to us and potentially our loved ones - so is acceptance and perception important? Big time, yes - in the same way as the discussion has highlighted the importance for other minorities...

Our difficulty, as I see it, is that we are such a small, fragmented and diverse minority, we struggle to find a common platform... to pick up on a thread subscribed to by many here recently: how much political clout would a minority espousing CDing as a 'hobby' have... and given the strong sexual themes amongst many discussions here too, are we ignoring the difficulties of educating the muggles in something that to us appears so diverse and complicated in it's motivations, that we also struggle to understand it?

I don't honestly know the answer, but I do hope that more awareness can lead to more acceptance for all of us, regardless of persuasion and where our motivations lie...

Thanks Krystal - a thought provoking post...

Katey x

[DonnaT]

A number of celebrities were interviewed after watching opening night, and many said they had no idea that there were men like that. They were also sympathetic to the plight of the men.

So, yes, it can affect change, but it's a big world and comparatively, not many will see the play.

[unclejoann]

This will be an important play because a few people will learn something. Harvey is the right person to put this on because he has a following and if he learned something then others will too. Some of those people will be influential too and someday we may see more media where CD and TS characters are treated as silly and shallow. I cringe whenever I see a CD character in film because I know my wife is identifying me with that degrading cartoon instead of who I am.

This play won't be perfect and won't reflect the realities of most of us here. But one step at a time is the best we can expect.

[Sarah Doepner]

If you go back and read posts over the years complaining that no one understands us you will find there is almost always a second part. They don't understand us because there are some very easy to use stereotypes common in the media and the energy of the conversation is taken up based on what we are NOT rather than what we are and what our needs may be. From Harvey's comments and the reviews, this seems to be a chance to reset the conversation and jump right over comic relief, serial killer, transexual and drag queen. It will take some follow up to make sure this becomes the baseline, allowing others to recognize the mistaken stereotypes of crossdressers as just that, mistaken stereotypes.

[Jackie7]

Casa Valentina is a terrific play - we saw it on Broadway last night - but I was surprised by the reviews and press coverage describing "us" as a little-known, hidden world. The characters and situations in the play are re-enacted every day in real life right here on these boards. Public acceptance? I dunno. But I did go to the play en femme, we took the subway, we went for pizza afterward and took a stroll through Times Square. As usual in Manhattan, I felt comfortable everywhere, as usual for a man in a dress easily "read" by anyone who actually noticed me, but most people aren't really aware of much of anything outside their own concerns, otherwise blending into the crowd as just another homely middle-aged lady. Fifteen years ago, when I first started going out, a walk in Manhattan was not so easy, I could expect insults and sneers. Not so any more.

Here's our selfie at the elevator in our building as we stepped out for the evening. Except my new blue heels are in my purse - I put them on a block from the theater and took them off within a block of leaving. As one of the characters in the play suggests, heels must have been invented by someone who didn't plan on living beyond age 40.