29 min listen
Strange Fruit #79: Trans Women's Wisdom in "Letters for My Sisters"
FromStrange Fruit
ratings:
Length:
29 minutes
Released:
Aug 11, 2014
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
"If you could write just one letter to someone beginning transition or your younger pre-transition self, what would you say?" That's the question at the heart of a new book called "Letters for My Sisters: Transitional Wisdom in Retrospect." This week we spoke with the book's editors, Andrea James and Deanne Thornton, about the wisdom assembled in the book—and asked them to share their own advice for their pre-transition sisters. Andrea, who created the groundbreaking website Transsexual Roadmap in 1996, said we all go through transitions all the time. "Every day we're on a journey," she said. "We're always in transition and we're always traveling. It's important to take a moment each day and really appreciate all the wonderful things that are going on around you." Deanne Thornton said the honesty in some of the letters is in line with some of the trans women who have guided her along her own path. "Every trans woman I've met on my journey was perfectly willing to be open and share about it," she said. "They didn't feel that it was s secret they needed to keep. It was something they were happy to share with others." In our Juicy Fruit segment this week, Jaison shared some Louisville trivia (did you know the composer of the Seinfeld theme song is from here?). We also tackled a subject that's been a little heated over the summer: the ways white gay men appropriate black women's culture. Celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton famously tweeted that "Inside every gay man is a fierce black woman," and it seems many gay men agree. In July, Sierra Mannie wrote a piece for TIME Magazine called, "Dear White Gays: Stop Stealing Black Female Culture." (http://time.com/2969951/dear-white-gays-stop-stealing-black-female-culture/). In it, she acknowledged that both groups experience marginalization, so it feel like there would be a natural kinship. "The difference is that the black women with whom you think you align so well, whose language you use and stereotypical mannerisms you adopt, cannot hide their blackness and womanhood to protect themselves the way that you can hide your homosexuality," she wrote. "We have no place to hide, or means to do it even if we desired them." Later in the summer, our own Dr. Story appeared on a segment of HuffPost Live with Sierra and other guests to talk about it: http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/archive/segment/53c57db1fe3444d4c5000172 We're glad to be back, Fruitcakes, and hope you had a great summer!
Released:
Aug 11, 2014
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Strange Fruit #60: Keith McGill Directs Comedy on Sex in Middle Age; Trans Leaders on Katie Couric: Louisville comedian Keith McGill has been one of our favorite people since he was first on the show last year to talk about his work in a local production of TopDog/Underdog. That play explored themes of black masculinity through the fractured relationship of two brothers struggling with instability and poverty. Now McGill is working on another local production, this time as the director, vastly different in tone.[Sex Again](http://wfpl.org/post/louisville-writers-new-play-debunks-myths-about-womens-sexuality) is a comedy by Louisville playwright Heidi Saunders that looks at sexuality during middle age. We spoke to Keith this week, in part, because we wondered how a gay black man approaches work about the waning marriages of straight white folks, and what made him want to direct the piece. "I really think it has a lot to say to _everyone_," he explains. "There's a lot of truth in the pla by Strange Fruit