Violence in the Borderlands: An Analysis of 90s Talk Shows & the Media

The tendency to place constructed definitions of self-expression onto an echelon of social hierarchy is nothing new; the hull of the American academy of Women’s Studies is dedicated to seeking out implications of the term “woman” and “man” in both an American and Global sense. This labeling does more than provide an accessible definition of social groups for the society that it surrounds itself with; it is “entrapment” to the persons whose values seem to be faded out by the defined social group they are placed in. I am not only talking about the personality, the biology that is assumed to explain who a person is; I am talking about a lifestyle, the fact that there are people who exist on the borders of these definitions that struggle to find their place in residences, in careers when we map these people based on their occupation and define them when presented with representations of their bodies in the media. Never is there a group of people that are more captivated by public fascination than those that are found outside all of our definitions; and the need to label them becomes a hope to resolve inner conflict when “the other’s” existence challenges the advantages that were supposed to be intrinsic and essential to the people that affirm the gender system.

Gender Outlaw brings insight into the oppression of the border-dwellers of gender when Bornstein refers to the gender defenders, the gender terrorists who hold the borderless hostage in upholding the social construction of gender (Bornstein 71-72). The terrorists fight, willingly or unwillingly, for the maintenance of roles based on sex and defined by gender; naturally fluid personalities become more rigid in adherence to the societal attributions placed onto the terms “man” or “woman”. It is not enough to say that these people only influence those who consider themselves transgendered because they influence people who are residing comfortably in a defined gender construction to be their ally; to trust in and inhabit invisible privilege with the promise of perceived advantage that is intrinsic to themselves and disconnected from the oppressed. The reason why the gender defenders tend to classify these people, Bornstein argues, is to silence them; to make them isolated and then invisible by rationalizing psychological as well as situational pseudo-theories about them. These theories stem from the gender terrorists as pilots in the media, encouraging observation rather than direct contact with the gender-ambiguous or the gender-less. These border-dwellers are not given the benefit of the first impression because deep down there is insecurity by these same gender defenders that the gender system might be figured out; there is a fear that it would only take direct contact with the border-dweller to spark the flash of knowledge that degrades hierarchies. As Bornstein writes “something happens, some final bit that lights up the injustice of the gender system, and in that flash, we see that the emperor is wearing no clothes”, the flash enables the normative group to question the essence of themselves when the only thing that has been consistent in their lives is the precedent to act in their prescribed gender (Bornstein 85). If the injustice and inconsistencies of the gender system are revealed to us, the oppression that we see culminating in the transgendered finally becomes real to us; it is something that has been stuck in the bones of the oppressed so long it is real enough to feel and transform them. The gender defenders choose not to engage with the transgendered not so much because of this fear in their existence, but it is moreover a fear of the wounds they will turn up when they lend a hand to help the oppressed out of their hole of existence.

In researching the labels that transgendered people are placed into, I came across the common theme of sex work occupations being associated with the bodies of male-to-female transsexuals. The intense fetishism with which society associates the concept of ambiguous women manifests itself in the talk show, where therein can be found a supplication for the general public’s beliefs to be re-affirmed rather than answered from well-intentioned curiosity. In these talk shows I realize there is no consideration given to the transsexual subject; frankly it does not matter what the transsexual’s dialogue concerns because the panel of transsexuals has been constructed to reflect more of this certain lifestyle than the distinct personalities of the subjects themselves. Their image is everything they are to the audience; it is why they are made to wear “street clothes” and picked based on their irreconcilable similarities to the gender they are assumed by the audience to inhibit. The members of the panel are embarrassed endlessly when talk show hosts such as Jenny Jones reminds the audience time and time again, “I feel like I’m talking to real women,” the comments of the interviewer and the audience expose just how strongly gender is taken for granted. The funny thing is that the façade of titles such as “Anti-Trans Violence” provide a source of justification for the audience; the gender defenders are seen as helping these people overcome statistically correlated problems by the public when really these shows are just re-defining them to Americans whose curiosity with the borderless hasn’t been stymied. A Donahue show that aired in 1991 juxtaposed the recent event of Danny Bonaduce assaulting a transgendered prostitute with a panel of New York City transsexual call girls, the transgendered prostitute who was assaulted taking abuse from the transsexual call girls for reporting the crime. To them as well as the audience there was an underlying belief in deception as the accelerant for the event; that transgendered people are held to the harsher standard of guilty until proven innocent even when they are victims of the crime. What Kate Bornstein want us to take home with us, what I think she holds as her purpose in the creation of Gender Outlaw is centered in the fact that displayed notions of the borderless are not necessarily true for the character of the individual. Media representations delude our view by being so inaccurate, and the only reason they are allowed to carry on is simply because their message is one that has been for so long part of the status quo. Male-to-female transsexuals are not by definition prostitutes or call girls; they are real persons who deserve the privilege of being met as who they are. Media bias is violent and the culture it perpetrates is in every respect undeserved by the borderless it affects. In order to truly expel violence and negative implications of the borderless we must actively fight the gender terrorists and the gender defenders; we must let them know that their actions are not only unacceptable, but destructive in creating a safe environment for all of us to exist.

These are the Links to the Talk Shows I viewed!

Donahue -- "Anti-Trans Violence"

Jenny Jones -- "Transsexual Call Girls" Part One, "Transsexual Call Girls" Part Two

Works Cited

1.      1. "Anti-Trans Violence." The Phil Donahue Show. CBS. WLWD, New York City, New York, May 1991. YouTube. YouTube, 04 Feb. 2013. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.

2.       2. Bornstein, Kate. "Gender Terror, Gender Rage." Gender Outlaw. S.l.: Vintage, 1994. 71-85. Print.

3.       3. "Transsexual Call Girls." The Jenny Jones Show. CBS. New York City, New York, n.d. YouTube. YouTube, 25 Nov. 2012. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.