Ah, my parents
by V.E. on May 10th, 2006
filed under favorite, ladyamedeus, lgbt, personal, thoughts
Mom and dad showed me today the cover of USC Trojan Family Magazine, which my dad recieves in the mail quarterly since he got his Masters there in the early 90s. The issue isn’t up on the website yet, but eventually you’ll be able to find it here. It’s the cover photo of Vol.38 No.2, Summer 2006 and shows two women, not so beautiful… and masculine enough that my parents couldn’t figure out whether or not they were actually women.
Our conversation
[Mother shows me the cover]
MOM: Are these two [indicating the women] women or not?
ME: …
DAD: Well, we were thinking maybe they are trans…[searches for the right word]…gendered.
ME: Well, what do they look like?
MOM: Erm… well…
DAD: Why do you think we’re asking you?
ME: Okay, what do they look like they’re TRYING to be?
MOM: Women. [Dad nods in agreement]
ME: Then they’re women.
My dad didn’t really care either way (he never reads the magazine anyway); but Mom was impressed with my response. She said it helped her see her transgendered friends in a new light; that is, as the sex they FELT they were rather than the sex they were born as or just as “transgendered”. I had to explain to my parents that transgendered people tend to CONFORM to the gender stereotypes, not break them, because they associate wearing skirts and having their nails done with women and mountain biking and watching football with men, etc etc.
