Looking for some input
Feb. 11th, 2005 10:19 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
alicefanclub.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
transI just finished reading the book Trans-Sister Radio by Chris Bohjalian, and it left me kinda peeved and with a few questions. For those of you planning to read it, there are spoilers behind the cut.
OK, so the premise of the book is that Allison meets and falls in love with Dana, who is a pre-op transsexual MTF. Only in the beginning, Dana doesn't tell Allison. It is not until after they are in love that she shares her secret. So, though she is angry and hurt, Allison decides to stand by Dana and see her through transition. OK so far. After the surgery, they stay together and Allison does her best to make it work. She struggles with the fact that she is now with a woman, though she has never identified as a lesbian. Ultimately, she decides that she just misses the man she fell in love with too much and that she can't stay with Dana anymore, and they split up. Dana, who has identified as a lesbian through the entire book, suddenly develops desires for the men near the end. She begins to have "penetration" fantasies and think sexually about men. Despite the fact that for the first 75% of the book she was desperately in love with Allison, she ends up falling in love with a man (who just happens to be the closest one handy) and they go off happily to a new town together. The book does a lot of good in addressing stereotypes and the bigoted reactions of the locals in the small town where Allison and Dana live. Here's what bothered me, and what I was hoping you all could help me with:
#1. I know there are women out there who stay with transgendered women through and after transition. I know this. But in every book I've ever read, or program I've watched, fiction or true, they always struggle and ultimately leave, unable to reconcile themeselves to loving a woman. I am sure that is true plenty of times. But there are women out there (or men in the reverse situation I suppose), who fall in love with someone and do not turn it off simply because of gender. You fall in love with someone and they remain the same person after surgery. It seems to me this is just an easy way out of exploring different relationships. Does anyone else find this troubling, or am I just looking through rose-colored glasses?
#2. And this one bothers me more. There is very little work out there that I have found that explores the transsexual lesbian. But I know they exist. There are MTFs out there who remain attracted to women and do not have "penetration" fantasies once they have a vagina. This book seemed poised to explore that kind of relationship, but in the end it pushes Allison away and has Dana dreaming about being "filled" as she puts it. It could have been a beautiful love story but ended up being about two women who couldn't live without dick in their lives.
So...I'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, arguments, agreements, and certainly reccomendations of books or films that delve into these other relationships, if they're out there.
OK, so the premise of the book is that Allison meets and falls in love with Dana, who is a pre-op transsexual MTF. Only in the beginning, Dana doesn't tell Allison. It is not until after they are in love that she shares her secret. So, though she is angry and hurt, Allison decides to stand by Dana and see her through transition. OK so far. After the surgery, they stay together and Allison does her best to make it work. She struggles with the fact that she is now with a woman, though she has never identified as a lesbian. Ultimately, she decides that she just misses the man she fell in love with too much and that she can't stay with Dana anymore, and they split up. Dana, who has identified as a lesbian through the entire book, suddenly develops desires for the men near the end. She begins to have "penetration" fantasies and think sexually about men. Despite the fact that for the first 75% of the book she was desperately in love with Allison, she ends up falling in love with a man (who just happens to be the closest one handy) and they go off happily to a new town together. The book does a lot of good in addressing stereotypes and the bigoted reactions of the locals in the small town where Allison and Dana live. Here's what bothered me, and what I was hoping you all could help me with:
#1. I know there are women out there who stay with transgendered women through and after transition. I know this. But in every book I've ever read, or program I've watched, fiction or true, they always struggle and ultimately leave, unable to reconcile themeselves to loving a woman. I am sure that is true plenty of times. But there are women out there (or men in the reverse situation I suppose), who fall in love with someone and do not turn it off simply because of gender. You fall in love with someone and they remain the same person after surgery. It seems to me this is just an easy way out of exploring different relationships. Does anyone else find this troubling, or am I just looking through rose-colored glasses?
#2. And this one bothers me more. There is very little work out there that I have found that explores the transsexual lesbian. But I know they exist. There are MTFs out there who remain attracted to women and do not have "penetration" fantasies once they have a vagina. This book seemed poised to explore that kind of relationship, but in the end it pushes Allison away and has Dana dreaming about being "filled" as she puts it. It could have been a beautiful love story but ended up being about two women who couldn't live without dick in their lives.
So...I'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, arguments, agreements, and certainly reccomendations of books or films that delve into these other relationships, if they're out there.
