[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFOMik_oiCU]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ9–L6R8jE]
Follow up to this post:
http://gendertrender.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/nikki-araguz-jerry-springer-show-appearance/
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFOMik_oiCU]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ9–L6R8jE]
Follow up to this post:
http://gendertrender.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/nikki-araguz-jerry-springer-show-appearance/
The Jerry Springer Show is unconscionable. Absolutely no political context, ever. This was all staged to rile up the male audience into aggressive hostility. This contributes nothing to the dialogue about “transgenderism” and only reenforces violence against transsexuals.
Agreed. Well, mainly agree. Did the Springer show dehumanize people by making a freak-show out of them and by doing so tangentially encourage violence? Possibly. I doubt Nikki conceived of his participation as contributing to that in any way. Did these shows contribute to a dialogue about transgenderism? Debatable. I post these as a historical record for those of my readers- MANY of whom are transgender or transsexual- who follow this case and are interested in the historical record. And I will continue to do so.
To be clear, I am only criticizing the producers etc of the Springer show for setting it up so that transphobic audience members would be riled up–and then not trying to deconstruct that–just ending the segment with much of the audience applauding to show their camaraderie with the man on the stage who said he was angry. I am not intending in any way to suggest that Nikki is responsible for the hostility of those audience members. I also do not criticize your posting of this video. I am not sure whether you construed it that way, but I just wanted to clarify 🙂
Totally! It was ill. And this was years before the bodyguards and beatings with floral bouquets. The precursors to today’s “reality” (freak) shows and octagon beat-downs.
Nikki cares about Nikki and doesn’t care how her actions effect others. At one time, during her first battle to get her ex-husband’s money, she told people to not call her transgender. Since the first battle was lost, she now embraces that term and she is exploiting it for monetary reasons. There is a huge difference between transgender-identified and transsexual/post-transsexual identified.
The Jerry Springer show didn’t do much more for my faith in humanity. Everything about it – Jerry and the producers, for the way they set it up and riled up the audience – the audience, for the way they let themselves be led up- the guys, for supporting the show and willingly being a part of it, and Nikki.
I understand the need for privacy – I really do. I don’t believe in being a walking billboard, nor that every person in one’s life has the right to know everything one has ever done, or had done to you. I do, however, believe that we have a certain responsibility to those who we are physically intimate with, and a duty not to withhold information that they would find necessary, and have a right to know. For me, current STD status is one of those things. I wouldn’t care what someone had, but what they _have_ is relevant and important to me. Likewise, while I personally am bi and wouldn’t care about trans status, there are those who would feel hurt, or betrayed. My right to privacy does not take away their right to choose who they are physically intimate with, nor do I have the right to place their relationships at risk without their consent.
Had I been either of those individuals on the stage, I would have felt shame and embarrassment that not only had I been the victim of sex by deception, but that I had also been set up on national television by the perpetrator, for 15 minutes of fame and a bit of cash. It would have potentially threatened relationships with friends and family, and would have taken me some time to recover from being blindsighted like that. Simple human dignity should have told Nikki that this was not the right way. Everything’s not about you; other people have feelings, needs, and relationships too.
“Simple human dignity should have told Nikki that this was not the right way.”
I agree. I also agree with your comment about risk and consent. Indeed, as I go back and look at this video (so many subtle things are happening in it that get overshadowed on first viewing), I observe this:
Nikki may appear to be female, quintessentially so, but some of her transsexualism revealed here is quintessentially male. Her dating/clubbing practices are rife with risk taking. Risk taking is characteristic of male sexuality–not wanting to use condoms, the predominance of SM in gay communities, multiple sexual partners, recreational sex, and so on. “Male” sex in many ways is an adventure.
Females (and subordinate males), on the other hand, have never benefitted from risky sex. The results of risky sex for women include unwanted pregnancies, abortions, rape, being members of the most prostituted class, and on and on. A woman is the least likely to engage in sexual behavior that would predictably bring on male aggression. She also very, very unlikely to egg on a group of aggressive men, as Nikki did at the end of this video, by insulting their “manly insecurities” right at the moment of the most hostility.
Nikki may look like a woman, but she hasn’t had the experiences of being a woman that frame a woman’s responses in a patriarchal world. She is very much male. She uses deception rather than consent. Risk taking is part of her sexual practice.
So, with that, I will say that this show does, indeed, contribute to the dialogue on transgenderism.
I also found this video where Nikki went on the Houston PBS claiming to have an intersex condition and claiming to be intersex.
Notice how he is sitting in the still of the first video. For all of his “feminine” mannerisms, he is sitting like a man, with relaxed arms and shoulders (not terrorised/cowed). The women are sitting so as to take up as little space as possible, with hunched shoulders and folded arms.
That’s a dead give away for twanz. They know they sit like a man, but try and act like a woman. You know women would not sit like that but men would
Well, I’ve known my share of wbw/fab (esp. younger) who have been brave enough to break the mold and sit however they please. But for a general rule you are right Nicky.
You are so right. So many giveaways with body language. I’ve seen that with the local man who goes to as many of the “women-only” events as possible. Just splays his legs wide and way in front. Sense of entitlement. How different to not grow up being preyed upon.
That’s why M2T gives so many giveaways that it’s not even funny. They like to say they are acting laydee like, but when you see them, or read what they post. The act more Manly like than laydee like. It just goes to show that M2T’s can’t hide or even try and pass because people will always know that they are not laydee like.
Good calls on the body language… dead giveaway when you know what to look for. I’d say another giveaway is that MtTrans are unusually mean and sarcastic, and have not developed the female capacities of conversation that doesn’t go into attack mode just because you say something.
I came across these Mt Trans taking over lesbian bars in Los Angeles, and it made some places no longer safe for lesbians at all. No one seems to care about this. Even gay and lesbian centers don’t care that young lesbians coming out might not want leering perving “lesbian pretenders” in those spaces, but again, gay men run the organizations and don’t care about women’s safety.
Agreed about the risky sex be a true male thing… it killed thousands of gay men in the AIDS epidemic, and believe me, they just wiped each other out in San Francisco in the 80s… more like concentual mass murder. Yet, to this day, the survivors never own up to the sexually out of control Castro, the hook up culture, the lack of condoms… gay men killed each other because they just couldn’t control their unsafe sex practices. Then this risky sex spreads into lesbian worlds because MtTrans are now coming into lesbian communities, and S/M practices have now taken over too. The sick and degrading lives of gay men spilled over to lesbians who foolishly followed suit. In large urban areas, this is deadly for lesbian integrity and love.
What an incredible asshole:
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Transgender-widow-to-plead-guilty-to-theft-2345614.php