Same As A Wildcat

I swear I had no idea there was a big controversy about Chaz Bono when I wrote my earlier post, mainly because I live under a rock.  (I come out to sun myself occasionally).  Also because if someone had told me Chaz Bono was going on Dancing With the Stars, my first thought would have been, "He can dance?"

So I saw this clip of someone representing some "concerned parents" group who was blathering on about how children were going to find it CONFUSING and therefore a trans person should not be on TV.

Firstly, no ma'am.  It's not confusing. I explained the concept of transgender to my then-ten-year-old son in about five minutes.  It goes like this:  "Most people are born male or female and stay that way.  Some people are born intersexed, which means they're in between, and some people decide at some point that they are really meant to be a gender other than how they look and then they go to a doctor and take medicine and sometimes have surgery.  It's a long hard process so it's not something they just up and decide on a whim."  Actually the only tricky part was explaining the difference between "transgender" and someone who may look more masculine or feminine than other women or men but isn't actually transgendered.  My son said, "Oh" and went on with his life.  The next time he ran into someone who didn't seem clearly male or female to him, he asked. The response was, "Well, what do you think?"  He responded, "I think you are androgynous."  And then asked if they liked video games.

Secondly, if you are going to start campaigning against things that are confusing to children being on television, I suggest that it might be more productive and useful to start elsewhere. I have a list of things that make no sense that you should work on.  Such as:

• Fox News.  Particularly that blonde woman on Fox and Friends; I keep waiting for her head to explode but it never does.
• Jersey Shore
• Reality tv in general, really.  Including C-Span.
• Golf.  The only thing more boring than playing golf is watching someone else play golf.  Why is that shit on TV?
• War.  Since I think that news should actually depict reality, you should really get on the fact that there IS war, especially the we-invade-other-countries kind..  It makes no sense, and is very confusing to children.  Also to me.  Why are we still in Afghanistan, again?
• I'm sorry, soap operas have NEVER made sense.  Even the Spanish-language ones. Especially the Spanish-language ones.
• The History Channel

That should keep you busy for a while. By then, your children will have grown up enough to turn out to be gay or transgendered themselves, or will have gotten pregnant, and you will have other things to think about.